Barry Manilow (born June 17, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, entertainer, and performer, best known for such recordings as "I Write the Songs", "Mandy", "Weekend in New England" and "Copacabana". In 1978, five of his albums were on the best-selling charts simultaneously, a feat equaled only by Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson and Johnny Mathis. He has recorded a string of Billboard hit singles and multi-platinum albums that have resulted in his being named Radio & Records number one Adult Contemporary artist and winning three straight American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. Several well-known entertainers have given Manilow their "stamp of approval," including Sinatra, who was quoted in the 1970s regarding Manilow, "He's next." In 1988, Bob Dylan stopped Manilow at a party, hugged him and said, "Don't stop what you're doing, man. We're all inspired by you." Arsenio Hall cited Manilow as a favorite guest on The Arsenio Hall Show and admonished his audience to respect him for his work..
As well as producing and arranging albums for other artists, such as Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick and Rosemary Clooney, Manilow has written songs for musicals, films, and commercials.
Since February 2005, he has been the headliner at the Las Vegas Hilton, and has performed hundreds of shows.
Biography
Barry was born Barry Alan Pincus in a Jewish family of Russian immigrants, and raised in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, attending Brooklyn's Eastern District High School. After his high school graduation, Manilow enrolled at The Juilliard School, while working at CBS to pay his expenses. At CBS in 1964 Manilow met Bro Herrod, a director, who asked him to arrange some public domain songs for a musical adaptation of the melodrama, The Drunkard . Instead, Manilow wrote an entire original score. The musical became a success and ran Off-Broadway for eight years at the 13th Street Theatre in New York.
Manilow then earned money by working as a pianist, producer, and arranger. He has said of that time that he played piano for anybody: "If the check cleared, I was there."
Manilow also worked as a commercial jingle writer/singer, an activity that continued well into the 1970s. He penned many of the jingles that he performed, including those for Bowlene Toilet Cleaner, State Farm Insurance ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there..."), Stridex acne cleanser, and Band-Aid ("I am stuck on Band-Aid, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me!" sang a jubilant struggling actor named John Travolta), among others. His singing-only credits include Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepsi, Jack in the Box, Dr Pepper, and the famed McDonald's "You Deserve a Break Today" campaign. Manilow won two Clio Awards in 1976 for his work for Tab and Band-Aid.
By 1967, Manilow was the musical director for the WCBS-TV series Callback . He next conducted and arranged for Ed Sullivan's production company, arranging a new theme for The Late Show , while still writing, producing, and singing his radio and television jingles. At the same time, he and Jeanne Lucas performed as a duo for a two-season run at New York's Upstairs at the Downstairs club.
Career
1970s: Success
Manilow's well-known association with Bette Midler began at the Continental Baths in New York City. He accompanied her and other artists on the piano from 1970 to 1971, and Midler chose Manilow to assist with the production of her first two albums, The Divine Miss M (1972) and Bette Midler (1973), and act as her musical director on the The Divine Miss M tour. Manilow worked with Midler for four years, from 1971 to 1975. In 1974, Bell Records released Manilow's first album, Barry Manilow , which offered an eclectic mix of piano-driven pop and guitar-driven rock music, including a song that Manilow had composed for the 1972 war drama Parades . Among other songs on the album were "Friends," "Cloudburst," and "Could It Be Magic" (the latter's music was based on Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in C Minor, Opus 28, Number 20., and provided Donna Summer with one of her major hits. It was also covered by Take That in the 1990s, as an up-beat disco version of the song. Take That have since performed Manilow's original version in their Beautiful World Tour). Bette Midler permitted Manilow to sing three of the songs from the album during the intermissions in her show.
As a result of a corporate takeover, Bell Records, along with other labels, was merged into a new entity named Arista Records, under the leadership of Clive Davis, who seized the opportunity to drop many artists. However, after seeing Manilow perform as the opening act at a Dionne Warwick concert, he was convinced that he had a winner on his hands; a relationship lasting decades ensued.
The partnership began to gain traction in 1974, with the release of Manilow's second album, Barry Manilow II , on both Bell and Arista, which contained the breakthrough number-one hit, "Mandy". Manilow had not wanted to record "Mandy," — but the song was included at the insistence of Clive Davis. Following the success of Barry Manilow II , the first Bell Records album release was re-mixed and re-issued on Arista Records as Barry Manilow I . When Manilow went on his first tour, he included in his show "A Very Strange Medley," a sampling of some of the commercial jingles that he had written or sung. Beginning with Manilow's March 22, 1975, appearance on American Bandstand to promote Barry Manilow II (where he sang "Mandy" and "It's A Miracle"), a productive friendship with Dick Clark started. Numerous appearances by Manilow on Clark's productions of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve , singing his original seasonal favorite "It's Just Another New Year's Eve", American Bandstand anniversary shows, American Music Awards performances and his 1985 television movie Copacabana are among their projects together.
"Mandy" was the start of a string of hit singles and albums that lasted through the rest of the 1970s to the early 1980s, coming from the multi-platinum and multi-hit albums Tryin' to Get the Feeling , This One's for You , Even Now and One Voice . Despite being a solid songwriter in his own right, Manilow has had great success with songs by others. Among the hits which he did not write are "Mandy," "Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again", "Weekend in New England," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You" and "Ready to Take a Chance Again." Ironically, one of the songs Manilow did not write was his number one hit "I Write The Songs," written by Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys. According to album liner notes, Manilow did, however, co-produce them with Ron Dante and arrange them.
Manilow's breakthrough in Britain came with the release of Manilow Magic - The Best Of Barry Manilow , also known as Greatest Hits . On its initial release it was accompanied by a large television advertising campaign, but the album was only available by mail order on the "Teledisc" label. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, ABC aired four variety television specials starring and executive produced by Manilow. The Barry Manilow Special with Penny Marshall as his guest premiered on March 2, 1977 to an audience of 37 million. The breakthrough special was nominated for four Emmys and won in the category of "Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Special". The Second Barry Manilow Special in 1978, with Ray Charles as his guest, was also nominated for four Emmys.
Manilow's "Ready To Take a Chance Again" originated in the film Foul Play , while "Copacabana", from his 4th studio album "Even Now", was also featured. "Ready To Take A Chance Again" was nominated that year for the "Best Original Song" Oscar. Copacabana would later take the form of a musical television movie, starring Manilow, and three musical plays. On February 11, 1979, a concert from Manilow's sold-out dates at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California was aired on HBO's series Standing Room Only , which was the first pay-television show to seriously challenge network primetime specials in the ratings. From the same tour in 1978, a one-hour special from Manilow's sold out concert at the Royal Albert Hall aired in the UK.
On May 23, 1979, ABC aired The Third Barry Manilow Special , with John Denver as his guest. This special was nominated for two Emmy awards and won for "Outstanding Achievement in Choreography". Also in 1979, Manilow produced Dionne Warwick's "comeback" album Dionne . The Arista album was her first to go platinum and spawned "I'll Never Love This Way Again" and "Deja Vu". He also scored a top ten hit of his own in the Fall of 1979 with the song "Ships" from the Album "One Voice".
1980s
The 1980s gave Manilow the adult contemporary chart-topping hit songs "The Old Songs," "Somewhere Down The Road," "Read 'Em and Weep," and a remake of the 1941 Jule Styne and Frank Loesser standard "I Don't Want to Walk Without You." Manilow continued having high radio airplay throughout the decade. In the UK, Manilow had five sold-out performances at Royal Albert Hall, for which nearly a half million people vied for the 21,500 available seats. In the United States, he sold out Radio City Music Hall in 1984 for 10 nights and set a box-office sales record of nearly $2 million, making him the top draw in the then 52-year history
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