Editor's Note:
This was actually the first time I had heard and seen "Barry Manilow" on TV... although I didn't know I had at the time!
I was a real music fanatic back in the Seventies, so much so that I had audio taped any new music I could find on the radio, that I hadn't already bought on record. Occasionally I'd even get the cassette recorder out, hold the microphone up to the television speaker and record music programs on TV!
American Bandstand used to be one of my favorite shows back in 1973 and I just happen to tape the Rate-A-Record segment during the Bandstand's Action '73 series. I probably listened to the tape a couple of times before putting it in a box of cassettes that ended up sitting in my closet for years.
It wasn't until the early '90s that I decided to re-listen to these old cassettes, thinking that if I waited too much longer they would be too oxidized to play back. By that time I was also very familiar with all of Barry's music catalog, so it was a complete surprise when I heard this Rate-A-Record segment featuring an all-too-familiar Barry Manilow song. Too vintage not to share!
I had no idea who Barry Manilow back in the Summer of '73 -- and from the sound of Dick Clark's reaction to this new record called "Sweet Water Jones," I don't think he even knew who Barry was either. But American Bandstand's host, along with the rest of the world, would become VERY familiar with BARRY MANILOW about a year and a half later!
Thanks for spotlighting this classic moment on Throwback Thursday! - Gary Oye |
