I live my life with strangers

March 19, 2018 5:49 AM

Just five years years after his debut effort, Barry Manilow was able to release a double album of Greatest Hits, and if you're of a certain age, you know all these songs already. Side A: Mandy, New York City Rhythm, Ready To Take A Chance Again, Looks Like We Made It, Daybreak

Side B: Can't Smile Without You, It's A Miracle, Even Now, Bandstand Boogie, Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again

Side C: Could It Be Magic, Somewhere In The Night, Jump Shout Boogie, Weekend In New England, All The Time [crappy fan video]

Side D: This One's For You, Copacabana (At The Copa), Beautiful Music, I Write The Songs

posted by hippybear (37 comments total)

How many people out there have a cousin born around 1974 named Mandy?
posted by lagomorphius at 6:00 AM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

if you're of a certain age

the day after the Barry Manilow concert, when the high school assistant principal showed up in the concert shirt......Van Halen rulez dude!
posted by thelonius at 6:00 AM on March 19, 2018

Side E: McDonald's, Stridex, Pepsi, KFC, Band-Aid?
posted by delfin at 6:03 AM on March 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

I had this album on 8-track cassette back in the day.
posted by briank at 6:05 AM on March 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

I don't remember owning this record, but I wore the grooves off Barry Manilow Live, which covered most of these same songs, plus the commercial jingles.
posted by COD at 6:06 AM on March 19, 2018 [5 favorites]

I've got this picture disc.
posted by Jessica Savitch's Coke Spoon at 6:19 AM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Truly the master of the Truck Driver Gear Change. (Mandy alone has like, three? How many do the others have?)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 6:57 AM on March 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

Oh boy do I know these songs. Great stuff.
posted by JanetLand at 7:00 AM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

This was the soundtrack to my early childhood and thus I know all of the words to all of the songs. A few years ago I took Mom to see him live and although I was ready to roll my eyes the whole way though it was a kick-ass show.
posted by kimberussell at 7:01 AM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

This came out right around the time my parents started letting me use the record player on my own, and while I probably put a lot of scratches in the grooves before Bandstand Boogie and Copacabana, yes, they're all indelibly burned in.
posted by mubba at 7:07 AM on March 19, 2018

I went with my mom and her girlfriends to see him live, one of my very first concerts. I'm going to maintain to this day that it was one of the best. Hell of a showman. (And my grandma had the 8-track and we'd all sing along in the kitchen, growing up. I know EVERY SINGLE WORD.)
posted by librarianamy at 7:39 AM on March 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

One of my tv production colleagues was a Fanilow.. She took me to a concert, and forbade me to sing along, applaud or cheer, because she was recording the show on her Walkman. Afterwards we got to go backstage and meet him. She was so inspired that she quit TV, studied music and today, she’s a working songwriter.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:58 AM on March 19, 2018 [12 favorites]

I shan't repeat my Barry Manilow story, except to reiterate that no matter how far along the noise/punk/*tronica route I go, Mr. Manilow demonstrated to me what showmanship is - on stage and off.

And frankly, there's a few Greatest Hits albums out there that are not all Hits, nor are they all Greatest. The list of songs given here meets both of those criteria.
posted by prismatic7 at 8:11 AM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

My mom and my older sister loved him so much, that he ended up being my first concert. I mean, technically, I had tickets to Piwer Statuon the following week, and I just said I’d go to Barry Mannilow so I could scope out my seats for that.

But I did like a couple of his songs.
posted by greermahoney at 8:16 AM on March 19, 2018

Oh Jesus. I said “a couple”- but I just read that track listing and yeah, I bet I could sing them all by heart. Sheesh. Thanks, mom.
posted by greermahoney at 8:19 AM on March 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

There was a time Barry Manilow and Air Supply comprised a solid third of my cassette case.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 8:39 AM on March 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

Somehow, as a pre-teen, I went from being a Kiss fan to listening to a lot of Barry Manilow, this album in particular. For those who know me, this probably explains a lot about my present-day musical proclivities...
posted by Bartonius at 9:22 AM on March 19, 2018

That's a lot of key changes.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:23 AM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

I grew up despising Mandy, and by extension Manilow, because it was to my ear nothing more than a blander and less interesting rendition of Brandy, which I'd quite enjoyed a few years earlier and wouldn't have minded hearing again; but instead of the song I liked coming back on the radio, all I got was the insipid and schmaltzy yet overwrought Manilow version, over and over and over again.

None of you young whippersnappers have any idea what it was like to rely completely on radio station presenters to curate the music available to you. Get off my lawn.
posted by flabdablet at 9:27 AM on March 19, 2018 [9 favorites]

There was a time Barry Manilow and Air Supply comprised a solid third of my cassette case.

I remember completely failing to understand the appeal of Air Supply. Soppy, drippy, blancmange music. Nice to see the Aussie boys doing well in the US, but I knew for sure we were ripping you off blind.
posted by flabdablet at 9:29 AM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

Another old person here, I'm with flabdablet, never could stand Barry Manilow, still can't.
posted by mermayd at 9:49 AM on March 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

it was to my ear nothing more than a blander and less interesting rendition of Brandy,
One Barry Manilow anecdote that I heard from many sources (including multiple times on Casey Kasem's Top 40) was that "Brandy" was the song's original title (and, as flabdablet showed, was recorded under that title), but the success of the song by that name by Looking Glass prompted Barry to ask the songwriters to let him change it.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:23 AM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

None of you young whippersnappers have any idea what it was like to rely completely on radio station presenters to curate the music available to you. Get off my lawn.

My father was a Volkswagen mechanic in the mid 70's (so hours and hours and hours of radio), and 40+ later it is forbidden to play Boy Named Sue or That Smell in his presence.
posted by sideshow at 10:42 AM on March 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

Soppy, drippy, blancmange music

*swoon* Clearly you were never a soppy, drippy blancmange teenage girl!
posted by JanetLand at 11:35 AM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

I remember completely failing to understand the appeal of Air Supply.

Well, there's their Jim Steinman song...
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:55 AM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

And three years before his debut effort, he played piano for Bette Midler at the Continental Baths. And someone had the presence of mind to film the whole show.

(FWIW he didn't write I Write the Songs. That was Bruce Johnston.)
posted by BWA at 11:58 AM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Speaking of Bette and Barry, has anyone heard their Slow Boat to China duet from her Rosemary Clooney tribute album? It's pretty adorable.
posted by kimberussell at 12:57 PM on March 19, 2018

I shan't repeat my Barry Manilow story,

also, the true story of Mandy ... (my version of it anyway)
posted by philip-random at 2:00 PM on March 19, 2018

He won me over with a Carson appearance sometime, I dunno, late 70s/early 80s. He had an easy banter going with Johnny, and was completely self-effacing. He recognized that he was lucky to be very good at what he does, but didn't express any pretensions to being a great artiste.

I was and still am meh about his music but even my snot-nosed, early-teen, punk self found it impossible not to love the guy.
posted by whuppy at 2:25 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

...master of the Truck Driver Gear Change.
posted by RobotVoodooPower

"The Truck Driver's Gear Change is a modulation near the end of a song, shifting upwards by some relatively small pitch increment — usually by one semitone (half step) or whole tone (whole step), but occasionally by other intervals. It is so widespread in popular music that the term "modulation" is sometimes considered synonymous with it, despite technically having a broader meaning. It typically occurs after a chorus or as part of a bridge, and is followed by a repeat of the chorus and often a Fade Out."
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:04 PM on March 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

I love Barry's music. In the late 70's my mom's stereo was constant Barry Manilow, Abba, and Carpenters. Excellent showman. I have Can't Smile Without You on my ipod shuffle at all times. It's lyrically sappy but also gets to the heart of the thing. It wasn't written by Barry but it's my favorite version.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 7:35 PM on March 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I believe Daybreak has at least 4 gear shifts, including one that goes back down because you can't get the crowd TOO worked up.

BREAKING NEWS: ENTIRELY JOYOUS RIOT KILLS 5 AT BARRY MANILOW SHOW, PEOPLE ARE ELATED THAT THEY FEEL SO TERRIBLE, DAMAGE DONE COUNTS INTO MILLIONS.
posted by hippybear at 8:15 PM on March 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

My Manilow albums were among my most precious possessions in the mid-70s. I know all those songs by heart.
posted by Altomentis at 8:35 PM on March 19, 2018

I love all you people and you are all my tribe.

I have only seen Manilow once, on his Paradise Cafe tour in 1984. He (oddly) came to my hometown and I camped out for tickets (as one did at the time, get off my lawn) and it was ABSOLUTELY THE BEST SHOW I HAVE EVER SEEN EVER AND I'VE BEEN TOO A THOUSAND CONCERTS (MAYBE LITERALLY).

He did a performance of Read 'Em And Weep that was so completely overwhelming that he got (I timed it because I was a middle school nerd) 10 minute standing ovation. He was weeping, his band was weeping, everyone in the stadium was weeping, it was just this incredible emotional connection with such a large group of people... The entire night was like that, but that one song... Holy Jeebus Wow!
posted by hippybear at 8:43 PM on March 19, 2018 [7 favorites]

(Barry's studio version of Read 'Em And Weep isn't even that good. That's the true crime here.)
posted by hippybear at 8:44 PM on March 19, 2018

So my wife and I were watching, on YouTube, this top 10 list of 70s jingles, and I kept saying "Barry Manilow wrote that." And she just did not believe me.

So I had to a) admit that when I was much younger, I was a fan of his and 2) one of those things was the VSM (Very Strange Medley). Which she had never heard of. So of course I had to finish the top ten list, and then go find a video of it. And my wife was enlightened.

Basically, the guy's a sharp-as-hell songwriter, knows the psychology of hooks like few others have, and it'll be a sad day for music when he finally passes.
posted by mephron at 5:58 AM on March 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I just remembered, I started college at a campus that didn't have a radio station and I was part of the group that organized it. One of my tasks was informing record labels that we existed in order to get promotional copies of records... the first label to respond was the then-brand-new Arista Records and the first LP they sent us... yep, Barry Manilow's first album. The 'progressive rockers' in the group were so disappointed, but I said "hey, it's something - and it's a hit!"
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:01 AM on March 20, 2018