"Somewhere Down the Road"... his duet with Sheena Easton, "Now and Forever." The good ones go on and on.I have met Barry Manilow, and interviewed him nearly a half-dozen times for Billboard. He is delightful—more serious than you might expect—but charming, with absolute self-awareness of how critics have massacred him through the ages, while persevering nonetheless, most recently with a five-year sell-out stint at the Las Vegas Hilton (which I saw, in addition to gigs at Lincoln Center and Radio City). He has just signed another long-term contract at the Paris resort in Vegas. There's no stopping Mr. Manilow—and believe me, he sings with the same precision at age 63 as he did at 23.
My point is, I would never malign Barry Manilow. I couldn't. So I will just offer this, his latest album cover, with a simple question mark. "?" There. What happened? Didn't he learn anything from Kenny Rogers' surgeon? Shh, I'll stop now.
With Perry Payne, circa 1998.
I love Barry too. He was a hoot on the Kathy Griffin show.
ReplyDeleteI am not a Fanilow, let me be very clear on this point. Those people are scary. That having been said I have loved (and studied) his music for years. "All The Time" got me through high school alive and oft-overlooked Paradise Cafe is his best work. I'm disappointed the creative well seems to have run dry for him as we get album after album of decade rehash. I didn't even purchase his last 2 albums, to the shock of all who know me. As for the "?" I've been lamenting this for years. It's painful to watch. When I saw your headline, I was bracing for a Barry-bash (why not, everyone else does?) but glad to hear you respect his work, and to hear he's just as nice in person as he seems to be on stage. :-)
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