Articles and Reviews - Archives 8

When Where Articles/Reviews February 23, 2002 New Haven Register "Barry Manilow dazzles Oakdale crowd" by Fran Fried, review of Barry's concert at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT (February 21, 2002) The big surprise at his Thursday night show at Oakdale Theatre - the first of two consecutive nights at the venue - was that he didn't just play the Manilow jukebox of hits. He took a chance and played several tunes most of the audience had never heard before, and much to his delight (and the crowd's), they went over extremely well. During the course of the two sets and two hours-plus, he played the tunes everyone wanted to hear, but by going beyond that, as Tony Bennett has done so well in recent years, Manilow firmly re-established himself in the public eye as an artist as opposed to another guy going through the motions - and reaffirmed that he still has plenty of life left. [I] got there at 7:45 p.m. and missed the first couple songs because my tire blew out on 91 ... I missed most of "Daybreak." But we stragglers didn't miss much, it turns out, because Manilow, backed by a 15-piece band, kept up a high level of energy throughout the concert and had plenty in store. Most of the first set was a combination lovefest and perfunctory recitation of the hits. As many of the women reacted with joy, Manilow played to them - a little bit of old-school nightclub showmanship with some Catskills-flavored humorous patter and shtick between songs. He was in strong voice as he worked his way through "Looks Like We Made It" and "Mandy" and "Even Now" and "Could It Be Magic" and "It's a Miracle." Late in the first set, backed by a tape of vocalists, he performed two numbers from "Harmony," the Broadway-bound musical he created in 1998 with Bruce Sussman. The title tune to the musical - which is about the Comedian Harmonists (a 1930s German singing group) was equal parts rousing beer hall and cabaret camp, while "Every Single Day," a love song, seemed sincere, steering clear of the bombastic cliche sound of so many contemporary Broadway love ballads. The second set was where we saw Manilow truly shine. He played several songs from "Here at the Mayflower." The disc, chronicling the lives of residents of an apartment in Manilow's native Brooklyn, is essentially a collection of short stories brought to life as songs, and one could tell how close these songs were to his heart even without looking at the passion on his face. He could have fun with the album, as he did dancing his way through the sing-songy "Turn the Radio Up"; the disco-driven "They Dance!"; and the title tune, whose Latin rhythms, combined with the industrial scaffold-styled stage setting, conjured "West Side Story." But his heart was firmly on sleeve for "Talk to Me," a stirring street opera about a couple not communicating; and "Not What You See," as he donned a scarf and cap to play an octogenarian pushing his wife in a wheelchair. The latter tune is an extremely vivid and to-the-point number about growing old, and you could feel how personal it was to the writer. Manilow finished the set with the expected numbers - "Copacabana" and "I Write the Songs" - then went patriotic in the encore with a medley of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and "Let Freedom Ring," backed by a local gospel choir. While he talked seriously about the effect of Sept. 11 as a New Yorker, Manilow was a little over the top in his presentation in a George M. Cohan "Yankee-Doodle Dandy" way with his unfurling of a large flag and the bursts of red/white/blue streamers. Still, it didn't take away too much from what turned out to be an insightful as well as entertaining evening. February 23, 2002 Billboard Magazine "Manilow's Arista Hits Soar Again" by Chuck Taylor and Ray Waddell Barry Manilow, who last held residence in the top 40 some 19 years ago, has blasted onto the Billboard 200 this issue at No. 3 and at No. 1 on the Top Internet album chart with Ultimate Manilow, a collection of 20 greatest hits - of which not one is fewer than two decades old. Ironically, the set was released by Arista Records, which is no longer Manilow's home label: He signed with Concord in May 2001 and issued Here At The Mayflower last November ... Ultimate Manilow is the artist's highest-debuting album ever, scanning 113,000 copies in its first week, according to SoundScan, a tally that also represents a career high for one-week sales in the SoundScan era (since 1991). "I'm stunned; this is just an amazing experience," says Manilow, 55. "There have been greatest-hits albums on Arista before, and none have ever behaved like this. I have to believe that there is a whole other generation that has discovered my catalog. I'd think I was making this up, but I see the audiences at my shows, and half of them are young, the age that regularly goes to record stores." Manilow is in the midst of a 40-date tour to support Here At The Mayflower, where he is consistently selling out theaters and arenas, including five nights earlier this month at Radio City Music Hall in New York. "Barry Manilow is so hot - again," says John Meglen, co-president of L.A.-based tour producer Concerts West. "The numbers he's putting up just show what a great artist he is. It's wonderful to see somebody who has such ongoing talent year after year return to the top of the charts." Arista backed the release of the album with an extensive TV advertising campaign that featured 60-, 90-, and 120-second ads, as well as aggressive retail in-store promotion. "The point was to not only showcase the diversity of his repertoire, but to remind people of Barry Manilow's star power," Arista senior VP Steve Bartels says. "He's hip again, everybody loves those songs when they hear them, he's touring, and this collection is a perfect Valentine's gift. I think we pretty much nailed it." At the CD World retail chain in South Plainfield, N.J., VP of purchasing Eric Keil says, "We weren't all that surprised by the turnout for this record. First, with Barry touring, there was a lot of pent-up demand, and there's the sizeable TV campaign, which leaves a significant impression. I suppose it's fasionable to say that Barry Manilow is corny and out of date, but the guy's got tons of fans, and he's sold tens of millions of records. He has an uncanny knack for writing great hooks, and his songs really go right to basic human emotions and touch people in a way that a lot of music these days can't possibly." [Barry] gained immediate fame by scoring [Arista's] first No. 1 Hot 100 and AC hit in 1975 with "Mandy." Through the years, he accumulated 25 top 40 hits, including the No. 1's "I Write The Songs" and "Looks Like We Made It," as well as such pop classics as "Copacabana" and "I Made It Through The Rain," all of which are included on the new collection. He is the top male AC artist of all time, with total worldwide sales of 58 million albums, according to Arista. "It's really kind of poetic," Manilow muses. "I started at Arista with its first No. 1 record, and now I'm saying goodbye to my relationship with Arista with a beautiful exit. It certainly makes everything nice and tidy." February 23, 2002 Billboard Magazine "Chart Beat: Manilow High" by Fred Bronson: Jimmy Carter was President of the United States. No one had ever filmed a movie based on Star Trek. And the No. 1 single on The Billboard Hot 100 was "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. All of those statements were true the last time BARRY MANILOW was in the top three of the Billboard album chart. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born, Julliard-trained musician returns to the top three of The Billboard 200 with Ultimate Manilow, the album that launches the BMG Herigate imprint. Manilow - who is certainly an important part of BMG's heritage, being one of the first artists on Arista to experience success on the charts - has his highest debut of all time at No. 3. That peak position makes it one of the top three most successful albums of Manilow's career. In 1977, Barry Manilow Live spent one week at No. 1, and a year later, Even Now peaked at No. 3. Like the Beatles' 1, the Ultimate Manilow collection is completely made up of songs that haven't charted in... well, a long time. The Beatles album featured songs that were at least 30 years old; this single-disc Manilow collection runs from 1974's "Mandy" to 1984's "When October Goes." ... Proving that the 25-plus age group shops online, Ultimate Manilow debuts at No. 1 on the Top Internet Albums chart. February 23, 2002 Billboard Magazine "Between The Bullets / Over The Counter: VERY BARRY" by Geoff Mayfield: Compare two adult-skewed singers: Prior to this week, BARRY MANILOW had not placed an album in the top 10 since 1979, while Barbra Streisand has had four top 10s in the past 10 years ... Who would imagine a set of Manilow hits would sell more in one week than The Essential Barbra Streisand would sell in two? Yet that is the case, as Ultimate Manilow starts at No. 3 with 113,000 units ... More than 32,000 units of Manilow's take come via a direct-TV campaign - almost 28% of his first-week sales ... One final odd fact: 15 of the 20 songs on Ultimate were among the 20 songs on 1985's The Manilow Collection, yet that earlier anthology stalled at No. 100. Go figure. February 22, 2002 The Miami Herald "Sunrise curtain may fall with Barry Manilow show" by Howard Cohen: Barry Manilow plays Sunrise Musical Theater April 11-13 in what may very well be the venue's final show. The property [has] officially been sold to a church group and has no post-Manilow concerts booked ... Sunrise is going out with a big show. Manilow might not get respect from critics but he's ever popular. His new best-of set, Ultimate Manilow, is No. 3 on the Billboard charts this week.  His recent concept album, Here at the Mayflower, arguably his finest, has unleashed a Top 30 Adult Contemporary hit in the feel-good Turn the Radio Up and, recently, he was the featured guest on a Musicians episode on cable's Bravo network. February 22, 2002 The Hartford Courant at ctnow.com "Manilow Wrings The Jingles At Oakdale Show" by Thomas Kintner, review of Barry's concert at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT (February 21, 2002) Barry Manilow remains the unlikeliest of musical icons nearly 30 years after he first hit the charts, a pop tunesmith who turned a bottomless well of good tidings and thick sentiment into a string of juiced-up jingles that have, rather than fading away, become almost unthinkably pervasive. Thursday night the singer/composer brought a big helping of those tunes and several more to a nearly sold-out ctnow.com Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, opening a two-night stand by making the things he does well look easy in a program long on solidly crafted light pop. Strolling out onto the stage, Manilow slipped into the bright pop of his recent "I'm Comin' Back" before his six-piece band and the nine-member horn section that augmented its sound all evening. Many of his biggest hits soon followed, his oft-urgent crooning in "Ready to Take a Chance Again" as familiar as the airy arrangement in which it was nestled. He popped out relentlessly positive lyrics with energy and clear effort, selling the light and optimistic "Daybreak" and the bouncy "Bandstand Boogie." His fluffy debut hit "Mandy" still overflowed with melodic hook as he pushed it along from behind his piano, an electric guitar midway through the sole visible concession to current sensibilities. The 55-year-old Manilow's affinity for Broadway style was apparent in both his delivery and his material, particularly when he opened the second half of his show with a string of seven tunes from his recent concept album "Here at the Mayflower." He adopted theatrical affectations amid the lyrics of the slightly funky construct "Come Monday," and slipped further into character to play the part of an elderly Mayflower resident in "Not What You See." To Manilow's credit, he made the tunes accessible enough that they didn't register as an unwanted detour to those who came in loving his 25-year-old hits. One would be hard-pressed to find a more enthusiastic throng than was assembled Thursday, as it offered roars of approval for everything from the singer's shuffling dancing to the blustery melodrama of his 1976 hit "Weekend in New England." The reaction to his high-energy "Copacabana (At the Copa)" was so effusive as to be noticeably out of line with its artistic achievement. Manilow closed at his piano with a big and booming rendition of "I Write the Songs," then returned for an encore loaded with patriotism, unfurling a giant flag when he was joined by a choir for "Let Freedom Ring." There was nothing subtle about his act then or when he pressed on to offer "It's a Miracle" for the second time in the show, but it was all undeniably well-staged and well-executed. February 21, 2002 The Hartford Courant at ctnow.com "Barry's Back: With Two Albums On The Charts, Barry Manilow Comes To Connecticut Riding A New Wave Of Popularity" by Roger Catlin, interview with Barry promoting his appearances at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT, and at Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, CT. Something strange is happening in this old world. The new album from Barry Manilow, a greatest-hits collection put out by the pop singer's former label, sold nearly 115,000 copies the first week out this month. That was good enough to put him at No. 3 on the Billboard charts, Manilow's highest showing in two dozen years. And the man behind "Mandy" is a little dazed. "It's terribly exciting," Manilow says from his home in California. "It's great." But it's also a reflection of something he's seen happening at his concerts ... Besides his loyal fans, there have been more and more young people coming to see the 55-year-old entertainer. "Maybe I'm just nuts, but the average age has just dropped drastically at the shows. I think that's why Ultimate Manilow entered the charts this high. It's the young people who go to record stores, and they are just discovering what I've done over the last 25-30 years. I don't know why it's just happening right now. But there are rows and rows of young guys at my shows with their fists in air. Unless I'm delusional." It's not just the oldies - from "Looks Like We Made It" to "Can't Smile Without You" - that have enraptured young people, either. They're also responding to songs from Manilow's latest work, a concept album called Here at the Mayflower, in which every song corresponds to a fictional resident. After a series of albums that concentrated on swing, Sinatra and show tunes, it's the first album of new pop songs from Manilow in a decade. Ironically, it's his first for his new label, Concord, better known for its jazz. It's currently being eclipsed by Ultimate Manilow, the greatest-hits package that was agreed to as part of the deal that allowed him to leave Arista after more than a quarter century. What's surprising about the collection is that it's doing so well even without the one song he issued on Arista that's been getting the most airplay the last five months ... "Let Freedom Ring" was actually written for the 200th anniversary of the Constitution ... "I sang it at President Clinton's inauguration," Manilow says of the song, which was an outtake from his 1991 album Showstoppers. "But it went on a boxed set, and that's where it laid for years until somebody found it and played it on the radio." Co-written with Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman, the song begins with the strains of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and ends with a plea that "people all over the world Let Freedom Ring." "Bruce and Jack's lyrics land even harder now than it did then," Manilow says. "There are so many great lines that are so appropriate now." It was deemed fitting by the NFL, who wanted it to kick off the pre-game show that ended with another superstar, Paul McCartney, singing his own "Freedom." "I don't remember a pre-game so full of music," Manilow says. And though he sang the national anthem at the 1986 Super Bowl, this was a little more unnerving. "I was the first guy in the Superdome," he says. "They rolled the stage out and said, 'OK, go.' I walked to the middle of the Superdome and began with the 'My Country 'Tis of Thee,' my heart beating a little faster before the music started. That was daunting." Manilow has made "Let Freedom Ring" part of his live show since then - at least where he could. He has to acquire a local choir in each stop to make it right. "It's complicated to do one huge number in every city, but I'm going to try," he says. "I did it last week at Radio City for five nights. It was fantastic." Response is good, too, to the new songs on Mayflower, a concept he said "kept rolling around in my head for 20 years. Every song would be about a different life behind an apartment door. I jotted down titles and ideas and just stuck it away for five years." He eventually got together to complete it with a number of his longtime co-writers, including Adrienne Anderson, who co-wrote "Daybreak" and "Could It Be Magic" and Marty Panzer, co-writer of "Even Now" and "This One's for You." But he also completed a number of its songs himself for an album on which he also handled a lot of its instrumentation. After the decade of other projects for Arista Records and its chief, Clive Davis, it was as if the songs had been pent up in him. "Over the years I completed 25 to 30 songs" for the Mayflower project, Manilow says. "But Clive kept encouraging me not to release an album of pop songs. Because the climate had changed so much, he thought that if I released an album of pop songs it would go down the tubes. He kept coming up with the idea of these 'event' albums, and a Christmas album. I just kept writing it anyway." When Davis was dismissed from Arista two years ago and many of its artists fled, Manilow landed with Concord, the jazz label that issued Mayflower in November. So far, it's proved wrong those who thought his pop days were over. Its single "Turn the Radio Up" is his 29th hit on adult contemporary charts, where he scored 11 consecutive No. 1 hits from 1974 to 1983. Here at the Mayflower is the greatest gainer on Billboard's independent albums chart, where it was No. 15 and poised to go up, benefiting from the surprise success of Ultimate Manilow. [ Variation of article appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (February 27, 2002) ] [ Another variation of article appeared in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel (April 5, 2002) ] February 19, 2002 New Haven Register "Barry Manilow chats about the art of crafting the tunes" by Howard Reich and Fran Fried, article spotlighting Barry's appearance at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT (February 21-22, 2002) and induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (ceremony on June 13, 2002) How do they do it? How do musicians like these go about picking the right notes in the right order and with the right chords? With a remarkably long greatest-hits list, Barry Manilow knows a few things about writing a hit tune. It's a craft that, last Tuesday, earned him a spot in the Class of 2002 of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. And though Manilow's techniques, naturally, are unique to him, they shed light on the mysterious ways in which a hit song is created. "I have to say that my songwriting tends to come quickly," he said last summer in Chicago ... "I remember once I was sitting at the piano playing a Chopin Prelude," he said, referring to the massive block chords that drive the famous prelude in C Minor. "Then I went away from the piano and had a glass of wine, and then I went back to the piano and wrote 'Could It Be Magic?'" a plangent ballad with lyrics by Adrienne Anderson. "I put the tape recorder on and just played my tune. Then I called my neighbor in," added Manilow, who was living in a small Manhattan apartment at the time, "and said, 'What do you think of this?' "When she cried, I knew I was on to something." "Same with 'One Voice,'" he said, pointing to one of his most optimistic, anthemlike melodies. "In fact, I wasn't even at the piano. "The thing woke me up, I ran to the piano, croaked 'One Voice' into the cassette machine - lyric and music, and that was the song. "When I can't get a song down like that, in basically one pass, I know that I'm in trouble. And the longer it takes for me to write the tune to some lyric, the more I know that the song won't be a hit." "A long time ago I noticed that I was getting a lot of letters from people who said they felt so alone, from people who felt they were misfits," said Manilow, in recalling how he wrote "All the Time," with its soaring melody and confessional tone. "So I called Marty (Panzer, a longtime Manilow collaborator) and told him about the letters and said, 'Is there something we can do?' He goes off to do his thing, and I don't hear from him for a week. Then he gives me a lyric called 'All the Time,' and I put it on the piano, and I play it. But even if I write a tune like that in one sitting, you still can see what went into it. More than anything else, my songs are about 'build.' I've always loved a song that builds." By this, Manilow meant a piece that typically starts low in pitch and reaches ever higher, swelling to an unmistakable climax. The technique is essential to "All the Time," but it also drives other Manilow's pop tunes. "Look at 'Even Now' - it starts down in the basement," said Manilow, "and winds up all the way up here. "When it comes down to it, it's very difficult for me not to write a catchy tune. I just can't not write a catchy melody," he says. "I would love to write one of those twisty Stephen Sondheim kinds of songs that you can't sing fast and has all this dissonant stuff going on underneath it, but I just can't get discordant. For some reason, I just like melody. "I guess it comes from my training from writing jingles and singles; it's just so ingrained." Maybe. Or maybe it's just that Manilow thinks in pitches and rhythms and chords the way the rest of us do in words and sentences and paragraphs. If, as Frank Sinatra once said, a great song is "a perfect marriage of a lyric and melody," the most gifted songwriters intuitively know how to make these elements merge. How else to explain the timelessness of songs such [as] Manilow's "When October Goes" (to a lyric by Johnny Mercer)? Even Manilow is a bit mystified by this one, in which he wrote a haunting melody line to an unpublished Mercer lyric. The tune quickly became a standard, embraced by both pop and jazz musicians. "That one really amazed me," says Manilow. "I played it right through as though it was already written. I still have the cassette. I picked out that lyric, said to myself, 'Wow, that looks good,' and just played it. It was like taking dictation. It happened so quickly, it was like writing somebody else's song." February 19, 2002 New York Daily News "Sonic Boom: Barry Manilow" by Bruno Blumenfeld: It's comforting when old friends return for a visit, with their half-remembered voices resonating in our ears, their slightly embarrassing reminiscences reddening our cheeks. Perhaps a widespread need for such comfort is fueling the amazing success of "Ultimate Manilow," a collection of greatest hits by one of Brooklyn's schmaltziest sons that made its debut at No. 3 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart last week. It's not the only material to come from Barry Manilow recently. His first album of new songs in 18 years, "Here at the Mayflower," was released in November by Concord. A passel of articles about it, Manilow's current tour and the "Ultimate Manilow" phenomenon can be read on The Barrynet (www.barrynethomepage.com), official site of the Barry Manilow International Fan Club. There's also a tour schedule, a photo gallery and a glowing summary of Manilow's career. (a little self-promoting, but hey! - The BarryNet) February 15, 2002 Grand Rapids Press "How lucky! I swooned over Barry on Valentine's night" In front of an enthusiastic crowd at Van Andel Arena, the King of Adult Contemporary wooed and cooed until we were all like butter ... After opening with the infectious "I'm Comin' Back," a newbie from "Here at the Mayflower," and his old favorite "Ready to Take a Chance Again," Manilow was ready to roll. He actually addressed the reluctant attendees, a savvy move on his part. "For you guys who were dragged along here tonight, you're gonna thank me in the morning." Of course, he was referring to the plethora of lovey dovey songs in his repertoire, and their supposed effect on listeners. The husbands and boyfriends who were slouched in their seats perked up a bit at the news, and Barry had an even more captive audience. Sentimental big guns -- "Mandy," "Even Now," "The Best of Me," "Weekend in New England" -- made the ladies sigh and the men ... hmmm ... what do men do when their wives and girlfriends are sighing at a sweet love song? Sure, even the most mawkish among us weren't surprised by the liberal use of suspended chords, dramatic key shifts and huge finishes in these songs. But who cares? Certainly not Paul and Patty, a couple who became engaged right there in front of Barry and thousands of witnesses. See, Paul wrote the singer a letter, asking if he'd be so kind to let him pop the question to his girlfriend at the concert. Of course Manilow obliged -- he's a swell guy after all -- and people loved every minute of the public declaration of devotion. "We're making a video of this for you two," Barry said, causing every woman in the crowd to say, "ahhhh." One of the most amazing parts of the show was how Manilow managed to present at least nine or 10 absolutely new tunes to the crowd -- and they ate it all up. From his forthcoming Broadway musical "Harmony," the singer hammed it up with a fun oom-pah-pah song and an adorable you-know-what (love song) from the production. Most of the newly minted material was from "Here at the Mayflower," which is a collection of songs describing the tenants of a Brooklyn apartment building. No dummy, Manilow broached the set of seven songs with a bonafide hit, currently No. 15 on the Billboard AC chart: "Turn the Radio Up." This "C'mon Get Happy" tune was so ebullient and fun it was hard to resist. "Do You Know Who's Livin' Next Door" featured a slick, jazzy piano, "Come Monday" had Barry busting some moves and "They Dance!" had everyone else doing the same. Speaking of moves, though, is there any song in the universe that says, "Dance you fool!" like "Copacabana"? Seriously, you had to be made of granite not to at least wiggle a few toes, "Copa" was so much fun. Obviously, there's way more to Manilow than just songs that make the young girls -- and more mature ones -- cry. He's got some zing going on. Valentine's Day 2002 proved to be memorable, not only for Paul and Patty, but for everyone who got the chance to swoon and sigh with Barry Thursday night. Looks like he's made it, this far and -- if his new songs are any indication -- as far as he wants to go. February 14, 2002 RollingStone.com Rolling Stone Daily: "...BARRY MANILOW's "Ultimate Manilow" debuted at Number Three with 113,000 copies sold..." February 14, 2002 Billboard.com "Daily Music News for February 14, 2002" by Jonathan Cohen and Todd Martens: "Veteran pop crooner Barry Manilow proves his enduring viability as his BMG Heritage/Arista hits set Ultimate Manilow soars to No. 3 after selling 113,000 units in its first week. This is the first time the singer has been in the top-5 since 1978's Even Now. Last November, Manilow released an album of new songs, Here At The Mayflower, his first for the Concord label. The release debuted at No. 90 and spent three weeks on the chart. February 13, 2002 Press Release ULTIMATE MANILOW Stuns the Music World! 20-Song Collection Wins Highest Album Chart Debut Of Barry Manilow's Career!! Arista Records Scores 3 Albums in the Top 15 With ULTIMATE MANILOW at #3, P!nk's M!SSUNDAZTOOD at # 9 and Usher's 8701 at #14. NEW YORK, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The magic is stronger than ever for the charter founding member of the Arista Records artist roster, as ULTIMATE MANILOW, the most comprehensive single-CD collection of Barry Manilow's career bullets onto the Billboard 200 Album chart at #3 and the Billboard Top Internet chart at #1. Barry Manilow has the distinction of earning Arista's very first #1 pop and AC single, "Mandy," in 1975; and now, 27 years later, he wins the highest album chart debut of his career, setting a personal all-time record Soundscan sales figure of 113,365 units, it was announced today by Antonio "L.A." Reid, President and CEO, Arista Records. "This is truly an astonishing feat, and I'm thrilled to see that Barry Manilow is getting the recognition he deserves," said Mr. Reid. "We have always been able to deal with a broad musical diversity here at Arista Records, and that couldn't be better demonstrated than with our three artists at the top of the charts ... Barry, Pink and Usher." The explosive first-week sales of ULTIMATE MANILOW provide Arista with a grand total of three best-selling albums inside the Top 15. Coming in at #9 is the second album by P!nk, the double-platinum M!SSUNDAZTOOD, source of "Get the Party Started" and the brand new single, "Don't Let Me Get Me" which debuts on February 16th with an MTV special "Making The Video." At #14 is Usher's triple-platinum 8701, celebrating 26 weeks on the album chart on the strength of the back-to-back #1 R&B and #1 pop crossover smashes, "U Got It Bad" and "U Remind Me." The extraordinary first week of sales of ULTIMATE MANILOW was driven by a phenomenally successful television campaign, a massive retail in-store play promotion and the beloved collection of songs appearing on this album. The album compiles 20 tracks and 78 minutes of music, covering the productive 10-year period from 1974 to 1984 that inspired R&R (Radio & Records) to rank him the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time with record sales exceeding 58 million worldwide. ULTIMATE MANILOW is the first release under the newly formed BMG Heritage label in partnership with Arista Records. Included is every signature hit from 1974 to '84 -- "Mandy," "It's a Miracle," "Could It Be Magic," "I Write the Songs," "Tryin' To Get the Feeling Again," "This One's For You," "Looks Like We Made It," "Can't Smile Without You," "Even Now," "Copacabana (At The Copa)" and "Ready To Take A Chance Again" among others, painting a portrait of an artist whose music is an indelible part of the American pop landscape. February 13, 2002 United Press International "People" by Dennis Daily: "The Songwriters Hall of Fame has announced its latest slew of inductees. Among them are BARRY MANILOW, Sting, Michael Jackson, Randy Newman and Ashford & Simpson. It seems ironic that the hall waited this long to induct both MANILOW and Jackson, doesn't it? The Songwriters Hall of Fame dates from the late 1960s. It was organized by legendary songwriter Johnny Mercer and publishers Howie Richmond and Abe Olman. This year's inductions will be the Hall's 33rd. They will be conducted in mid-June in the Big Apple. Additionally, Barry Manilow did not write the song I Write the Songs. It's one of very few of his hits that he did not pen himself. The Grammy Award-winning pop hit was written by songwriter Bruce Johnston." February 13, 2002 TV Guide "The Whole World Sings": "The whole world is singing the praises of Barry Manilow as he has earned a spot in the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, reports The Associated Press. Manilow, who is known for hits like Mandy, Copacabana and I Write the Songs, will be inducted on June 13 with Sting, Michael Jackson, Randy Newman and Ashford & Simpson." February 2002 Calgary Herald "Manilow's the man for songwriting": Barry Manilow writes the songs that make the whole world sing and now those songs have earned him a spot in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Manilow is among this year's inductees along with Sting, Michael Jackson, Randy Newman and Ashford & Simpson, the National Academy of Popular Music/Songwriters Hall of Fame announced. The event takes place June 13. February 11, 2002 United Press International "Songwriters Hall of Fame's new class": The National Academy of Popular Music announced Monday that Sting, Michael Jackson, Randy Newman, BARRY MANILOW, and Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame ... Before he became a pop star in his own rite, Manilow gained a following as musical director and arranger on some of Bette Midler's best known early recording dates, including "The Divine Miss M" and "Bette Midler." He charted with such pop tunes as "I Write the Songs," "Mandy" and "This One's for You." Manilow has won Grammy, Emmy and Tony awards and has been nominated for an Oscar ... After announcing this year's inductees, Songwriters Hall of Fame chairman/CEO Hal David told UPI admission to the hall doesn't come from lobbying or campaigning -- but only from spontaneous acknowledgment of other songwriters. "It's as legitimate as anything can possibly be in a world where sometimes things are not ... Everybody nominated has to be in the business for at least 20 years," he said. "It's people who have longevity of work and a possible great body of work." ... The 33rd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame induction and awards dinner is scheduled for June 13 in New York. February 8, 2002 Gavin.com "A/C & Hot A/C Weekly Memo": Capitol VP Mark Rizzo checks in to give us a report from his good friend and Concord Jazz artist Barry Manilow's five-night, sold-out run at Radio City Music Hall: "On opening night the other evening, Barry sang 'Let Freedom Ring,' the same song he sang Sunday at the Super Bowl. The American flag dropped down behind him and a full choir came out for the chorus. Prior to that he presented Bill Clinton with a check for $100,000 to kickoff the Fund For Families charity put together by Clinton and Senator Bob Dole. This fund insures that all children of the 9-11 victims will be able to go to college as there were many widows who were pregnant. Way to go, Barry!" Manilow also donated and autographed the jacket he wore at the Super Bowl to Rosie O'Donnell for her E-Bay site. The jacket was given to him by New York City firefighters and policeman before his pre-game performance in New Orleans. February 7, 2002 New York Post "Manilow A Second-Set Wonder At Radio City" by Dan Aquilante, Review of Barry's concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York (February 5): It was late in the Barry Manilow concert at Radio City Music Hall Tuesday, and the audience clearly belonged to the showman. Sitting at the piano, Manilow tinkled his way through his rainy-day love song, "Weekend in New England." By the time he reached, "When will our eyes meet? / When will I touch you again?," the pent-up passions exploded... [Barry] smiled his crooked grin and said with a slight Jimmy Durante inflection, "I still got it." ... During the concert's first half, Manilow worked oldies like "Mandy" "It's a Miracle" and "Bandstand Boogie" (the theme to "American Bandstand")... Had people left the house at intermission, they would have missed one of the great comebacks in concert history. Manilow worked most of the material from his "Here at the Mayflower," a concept album that uses an apartment house as a social microcosm. These are the strongest songs Manilow has ever written. There's no schlock-treatment pop here, just jazzy melodies spiced with urban and Latin rhythms hitched to sophisticated, compelling lyrics. While "Copacabana (at the Copa)" was the concert's musical highlight, the show's other great moment came when Manilow announced that he was donating that concert's proceeds to President Bill Clinton's scholarship fund to benefit children of the World Trade Center attacks. With an Elvis-like drawl, Barry's favorite saxman thanked Manilow for the $100,000 check and vowed the fund would have a 21-year lifetime, since so many of those widowed on Sept. 11 were pregnant. February 2002 Amazon.com "Editorial Review: Ultimate Manilow" by Jerry McCulley: "...This album serves up the high points of Manilow's long, successful career, rightly focusing on the long string of '70s hits that built both his legend and record label. They're a body of songs whose solid craftsmanship is undeniable, but it's Manilow's sincerity that crucially sells them -- indeed, he didn't write I Write the Songs, but who could doubt him? It's an odd tribute that much here -- Mandy, Looks Like We Made It, Copacabana, et. al. -- has become the palette for a popular entertainment spectrum that somehow encompasses endless hotel piano bars on one flank and TV sketch-com parody on the other. Good to remember that kitsch, by definition, requires a deep and lasting impact on the culture. Manilow hasn't just embraced the "K" word; he's reveled in it with a smile -- how could one frown through Bandstand Boogie and Copa anyway? -- and elevated it to something approaching the transcendental through his sheer, joyous force of will. And if his latter work has been unabashedly nostalgic, how could anyone be surprised?" February 6, 2002 Billboard.com "Billboard Bits: Brandy, Manilow, Saw Doctors" by Jonathan Cohen and Barry A. Jeckell: "Former U.S. president Bill Clinton joined Barry Manilow onstage last night (Feb. 5) during his encore at New York's Radio City Music Hall. Manilow announced that he was donating the proceeds from the concert, his first of five at the venue, to the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, which Clinton formed with former senator Bob Dole to aid victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. Manilow, who also appeared during Sunday's Super Bowl XXXVI pre-game salute to America, will be on the road in the U.S. through an April 20 show in Tallahassee, Florida. He kicks off a 13-date U.K. tour May 4 in Birmingham, England. His latest album, Here at the Mayflower, was released last November as part of a new deal with Concord. The set debuted at No. 90 on The Billboard 200. A new 20-track career-spanning compilation, Ultimate Manilow, was released yesterday by Arista." February 6, 2002 HITS Daily Double "Music News": Barry Manilow's Ultimate Manilow greatest-hits package (Arista) is enjoying one of the most successful direct TV campaigns in memory. Sources tell us that it may very well debut #1 at K-Mart and could sell just shy of 100k for the week, making it a solid contender for the Top 10, with an outside shot at breaking into the Top Five.

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