Barry Manilow Has Sold 75 Million Albums
I got an email from the Barry Manilow fan club yesterday saying Barry is celebrating selling his 75 millionth album. That's a lot of albums. I'm a huge Barry fan. There are many different subspecies of Barry fans. I think he's a wonderful songwriter and as a singer can really sell a song. Barry, a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn, sings an absolutely pitch perfect, totally without 'noodling' Schubert Ave Maria with guitar accompaniment on his Boxed Set album. It is the best I've ever heard this song sung.
He writes the most gorgeous love songs ever -- I defy anyone to top Let Me Be Your Wings (from Thumbelina, for which he wrote the score) or Who Needs to Dream (from the TV movie Copacabana -- which is a wonderful, suberbly produced little gem in itself, for which he also wrote the score).
He's also written and performed some pretty thoughtful and introspective songs. One, Sandra (on the Boxed Set) is about a housewife who accidentally (?) slits her wrist. Another is a beautiful but sad song called 'I Haven't Changed the Room' (If I Should Love Again) about someone who has left 'the room' just as it was when his lover left so it will be recognizable should the lover return. It is a hauntingly beautiful song-great piano arrangement on it.
Barry's written several Broadway style musicals -- one, the stage version of Copa, is performed with some regularity around the USA. Another, Harmony, is based on a European singing group, the Comedian Harmonists, who get caught up in Hitler's
Germany. (Believe one of the original Harmonists lives or recently lived in San Francisco, a cantor.) Harmony contains some beautiful songs. Stars in the Night, I cannot hear without crying. A woman in prison in Nazi Germany gets a note out to her lover -- Look at the Stars -- they shine most brightly on the darkest night. Another song, a Song of Ruth, "Where You Go" would be a wonderful wedding song, but is probably not easy to sing. All the Harmony songs and the Copa songs are available sung by Barry on an album called Scores.
Of all the talents Barry posesses however, he is probably most gifted as a performer. He has videos/DVDs of many of his shows from over the years. My favorite is probably the concert at Blenheim Palace from the early 80's. Another favorite is his Live on Broadway. He starts the concert with a 'Sweet Life' 'It's a Long Way Up' combo that is so emotionally gripping you want to stand and yell Bravo the way they do at the opera.
Barry, much maligned over the years, is a fine musician. The only person in my lifetime I can compare him to is Leonard Bernstein. Maestro Bernstein of course was a much more classically trained musician, but both men excel in performing and composing, albeit in different genres. Both have/had megadoses of charisma, perhaps their greatest gift.
Click Here For All Things Barry
He writes the most gorgeous love songs ever -- I defy anyone to top Let Me Be Your Wings (from Thumbelina, for which he wrote the score) or Who Needs to Dream (from the TV movie Copacabana -- which is a wonderful, suberbly produced little gem in itself, for which he also wrote the score).
He's also written and performed some pretty thoughtful and introspective songs. One, Sandra (on the Boxed Set) is about a housewife who accidentally (?) slits her wrist. Another is a beautiful but sad song called 'I Haven't Changed the Room' (If I Should Love Again) about someone who has left 'the room' just as it was when his lover left so it will be recognizable should the lover return. It is a hauntingly beautiful song-great piano arrangement on it.
Barry's written several Broadway style musicals -- one, the stage version of Copa, is performed with some regularity around the USA. Another, Harmony, is based on a European singing group, the Comedian Harmonists, who get caught up in Hitler's
Germany. (Believe one of the original Harmonists lives or recently lived in San Francisco, a cantor.) Harmony contains some beautiful songs. Stars in the Night, I cannot hear without crying. A woman in prison in Nazi Germany gets a note out to her lover -- Look at the Stars -- they shine most brightly on the darkest night. Another song, a Song of Ruth, "Where You Go" would be a wonderful wedding song, but is probably not easy to sing. All the Harmony songs and the Copa songs are available sung by Barry on an album called Scores.
Of all the talents Barry posesses however, he is probably most gifted as a performer. He has videos/DVDs of many of his shows from over the years. My favorite is probably the concert at Blenheim Palace from the early 80's. Another favorite is his Live on Broadway. He starts the concert with a 'Sweet Life' 'It's a Long Way Up' combo that is so emotionally gripping you want to stand and yell Bravo the way they do at the opera.
Barry, much maligned over the years, is a fine musician. The only person in my lifetime I can compare him to is Leonard Bernstein. Maestro Bernstein of course was a much more classically trained musician, but both men excel in performing and composing, albeit in different genres. Both have/had megadoses of charisma, perhaps their greatest gift.
Click Here For All Things Barry
posted by Annilow | 7:06 AM
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