When
 |
Where
|
Articles/Reviews
|
| April 5, 2002 | The Cincinnati Post | "Manilow dazzles with both old, new songs" by Jan Perry, review of concert at Aronoff Center in Cincinnati, OH (April 4, 2002) |
|---|
| It was clearly a rejuvenated Barry Manilow who took the stage Thursday evening for the first of an unprecedented three-night stay at the Aronoff Center. The man dubbed the "ultimate showman" has been turning in crowd-pleasing performances for 27 years, but he was better than that last night - he was fresh, he was charming, he was sexy, he was spectacular. It wasn't the set... It wasn't flashy costumes either (Barry wore immaculately tailored suits). The orchestra is missing as well. Manilow's core band of six with a balcony of horns and winds produced faithful renditions of old favorites and a crisp, more muscular sound for some of his new material. Believe it or not, it's the new stuff that really makes the show sizzle. Barry welcomed the nearly full hall with "I'm Coming Back" before breaking into abbreviated renditions of "Daybreak", "Somewhere in the Night" and "This Ones for You". There were longer versions of "Looks Like We Made It", "Mandy", Even Now", and "Could It Be Magic", after which he wheeled out an old reel-to-reel multi-track recorder and demonstrated how he used to lay down his own background vocals. There was the typical Barry banter - recalling bad weather and big bugs during previous concerts at Riverbend and an apt description of MTV's "TRL" show: "It's like American Bandstand, except with more belly buttons and cursing." Then the performer pulled out a couple of songs from "Harmony", his (hopefully) Broadway-bound musical. They were given the same kind of standing ovation (maybe even a little bit more) than greeted his hits list. The events of Sept. 11th were dealt with throughout the two-hour concert. Manilow, a Brooklyn native included the up-tempo "New York City Rhythm" as a kind of tribute to what he called "the city of survivors" and followed it up with "I Made it Through the Rain" with its obvious healing message. After the intermission, it was time for a set from his new concept CD, "Here at the Mayflower". Songs included the release's first single "Turn the Radio Up", a cute be-bop number called "Freddie Said", the poignant "Not What You See", and the new single "They Dance" (which absolutely brought down the house). Manilow's voice was the best it's been in at least his last three visits. Both the power and the whisper came through during "Weekend In New England", a good judge for how the vocals are holding up on any given night. The evening wrapped with an affirmation of American pride, which included Barry's version of "My Country 'Tis of Thee" and his own "Let Freedom Ring", for which he was joined by more than two-dozen singers from various University of Cincinnati performance groups. The ever energetic Manilow showed a renewed spirit on the stage, making this show a stand out in a career filled with outstanding shows. |
| April 5, 2002 | The Washington Post | "Here at the Mayflower (Concord), Ultimate Manilow (Arista)" - Richard Harrington, album reviews promoting Barry's show at the MCI Center in Washington, DC (April 7, 2002) |
|---|
| "Here at the Mayflower" is an obvious progression for Barry Manilow. He's done albums of show tunes, big-band and torch songs, as well as "Copacabana," a revue built on his impressive hit list. All those elements come together on a conceptual album in the tradition of "Grand Hotel": these are intertwined tales of the residents of Manilow's imaginary apartment building, with an underlying theme expressed in the opening track by the elevator operator/Greek chorus: "Do You Know Who's Livin' Next Door?" The answers come in 16 finely crafted, piano-driven songs that are a meld of the Brill Building and Broadway, with occasional forays into jumpin' jive ("Freddie Said"), salsa lite ("The Night That Tito Played"), disco ("They Dance!") and bubblegum pop (the bouncy "Turn the Radio Up," where Manilow is joined on backing vocals by Ron Dante, former lead singer of the Archies!). But the album's chief pleasures are its quiet, reflective tracks. Of course Manilow's a sentimentalist, which only enriches such wistful ballads of solitude as "Border Train," "Say Goodbye" and "She Should'a Been Mine," as well as romantic plaints like "Talk to Me." Even more poignant is a pair of songs reflecting the emotions of elders, the widower's plaint "I Miss You" and an aging couple's warning in "Not What You See" that "no one is what they look like / Everyone's so much more." Released in November, the "Mayflower" album has yet to find the larger audience it deserves, which has not been a problem with "Ultimate Manilow," a 20-hit compilation that may seem redundant, given three volumes of Greatest Hits and the four-CD box set, "The Complete Collection and Then Some..." Taking its cue from the Beatles' "1," "Ultimate Manilow" brings under one cover his biggest chart successes between 1973 and 1984. You may be surprised how instantly familiar, comfortable and, dare we say likable, songs like "Mandy," "It's a Miracle," "Weekend in New England" and "Could It Be Magic" remain. Could it be Manilow? Could it be anyone else? |
| April 5, 2002 | South Florida Sun-Sentinel | "Manilow's Ultimate thrill" by Roger Catlin, promoting Barry's appearances at the Sunrise Musical Theatre in Sunrise, FL (April 11-13, 2002) (Also, See February 21, 2002, article on Barry for The Hartford Courant, "Barry's Back" by Roger Catlin) |
|---|
| April 4, 2002 | Washington Jewish Week | "He wants musical set in Shoah to be his legacy: Barry Manilow to perform at MCI Center Sunday" by Marvin Glassman, promoting Barry's appearance at the MCI Center in Washington, DC (April 7, 2002) |
|---|
| Barry Manilow wants to be remembered as more than the man who wrote the songs that make the whole world sing. He wants to be known as the composer who wrote a great musical set during the Holocaust. Manilow has written the music for Harmony. The play is based on the true story of the Comedian Harmonists, a group of young German performers, both Jewish and gentile, who gained fame in Germany in the 1920s. The group, which added a comedic flair to its performances, included music varying from a capella singing to classics to klezmer. The Nazis eventually banned the group. Harmony, with book and lyrics by Bruce Sussman, debuted in 1997 at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. Manilow expects it to open on Broadway next January. "Without a doubt, this is the one piece of work that I want to be remembered for," says Manilow, 55, in a telephone interview from his home in Palm Springs, Calif. "What inspired Bruce Sussman and me is to tell a story of a unique and talented group of individuals who touched the lives of millions in their time. They set out on a quest to find harmony in what turned out to be the most discordant chapter in history. The harmony they set out to find was so much more than musical harmony." He calls writing the music for the show the most challenging and creative journey of his career. "I immersed myself in the musical style of the 1920s and '30s, including listening to klezmer and cantorial songs. The style was different than what is popular today," he says, noting the opening song ran 15 minutes. "You will not hear a song of that length on the radio today." As a Jew who had relatives who survived the Holocaust, Manilow says the Harmonists' story moved him. "There are moments in the script that we refer to traditional Jewish rituals, such as the wedding scene when the groom breaks the wine glass, that I was moved to tears." In addition to the tried and true, Sunday's concert will include two songs from Harmony, "Every Single Day" and the title song, as well as songs from Manilow's CD Here At The Mayflower released in November. The song, "Not What You See," about his maternal grandparents, Russian Jewish immigrants Esther and Joe Manilow, focuses on growing old with dignity. The singer/songwriter, who's won a Grammy for "Copacabana," an Emmy for his televised special in 1977, a Tony for his Broadway concert in 1977 and an Oscar nomination for his song "Ready To Take A Chance Again" from the movie Foul Play, will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June. Despite having worldwide fame, Manilow's roots are humble. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native was born Barry Alan Pincus to a Jewish mother, Edna Manilow, and an Irish Catholic father, Harold Kelliher. His parents gave him the surname Pincus, his paternal grandmother's maiden name. His parents divorced when he was 2. Manilow was raised by his mother and her parents; he has no siblings. Barry started singing in public for the first time while preparing for his bar mitzvah ceremony. Years later, after his grandfather's death, he changed his name to Manilow. For a time, Manilow's life was difficult, both financially and emotionally. He nearly went bankrupt twice and had married and divorced his high school sweetheart by the age of 25... "For a guy who writes romantic songs, I am not known for having a great love life," he says, noting he had seen a lot of unhappiness in both his parents' and his own marriages. "Why would I want to put myself through this pain?" In the end, he says, "my career and fans mean everything to me. Music is my passion and that is what I will be remembered for." |
| April 4, 2002 | The Washington Times | "Manilow Taking A Fresh Approach" by Jacquie Kubin, interview with Barry to promote his appearance at the MCI Center in Washington, DC (April 7, 2002) |
|---|
| "When performing these days, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude," says Mr. Manilow on tour in the Midwest. "To be able to continue to make the music I love so dearly for audiences of enthusiastic thousands moves me deeply. I can only hope that I give these beautiful people as much joy as they have given me over the years." [His latest international tour] "Live 2002" will combine music from a vast library that dates to 1972, as well as his latest concept album, "Here At The Mayflower" (Concord Records) -- his first recording of all original material in more than 15 years. "Here At The Mayflower" marks a new road in Mr. Manilow's travels. He has left the comfortable enclave of his longtime label, Arista Records, to record on the smaller Concord Records, where he says he found new artistic freedom. "The biggest difference about this album and every other album I ever recorded is that I recorded every single thing by myself, playing every instrument on my computer and engineering my own vocals. There were many talented people who helped me, including guitarist Ken Berry and drummer Vinnie Colaiuta and a small vocal trio that augmented my vocal backgrounds. But overall, this album is all me." Half of the album's songs are the result of Mr. Manilow reuniting with collaborators from past hits -- such as Bruce Sussman ("Copacabana") and Enoch Anderson ("I Want To Be Somebody's Baby"). "It took many years to complete, as I took my time with each song and each arrangement, never giving myself any kind of deadline. Recording songs in this manner enabled me to change the actual composition of the songs, the lyrics, the interpretations and the actual structure of each song in ways I have never been able to do." The album presents vignettes of life in a Brooklyn apartment house, the Mayflower, relating a collection of stories based on its inhabitants. The song styles are as varied as the building's occupants -- a bit of Broadway, jazz, disco and pop that have all been a part of Mr. Manilow's career. Song titles correlate with apartment numbers, such as "Apartment 6C: Not What You See," the story of the "oldest couple at the Mayflower, Esther and me." Mr. Manilow wrote the song, and it is a soaring Broadway-inspired memory of youth gone but not forgotten. The voice of the elevator operator leads listeners on a tour of the old building in four numbers. The work opens with the introspective "Do You Know Who's Livin' Next Door" (a look at the building know-it-all) and goes on to "Freddie Said," "She Should'a Been Mine" and "They Dance," a disco-paced tale of working folks who find the time to celebrate and dance. "The fun of making 'Here At The Mayflower' was being able to create so many varied styles of music. It made sense to me. You would find varied personalities in an apartment building, and this CD enabled me to create as many musical styles as I am capable of." This [31st] album of his career joins a musical library that includes 10 releases that hit the platinum mark, which designates 1 million units sold. Mr. Manilow's latest Arista Records offering, the compilation "Ultimate Manilow," reached gold (or 500,000 units sold) within a month of hitting shelves. "Ultimate Manilow" features all 20 of the songs that reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Adult Contemporary and Hot 100 charts from 1974 to '84 - including "Mandy," "It's a Miracle," "Tryin' To Get the Feeling Again" and "I Write the Songs." "Out of all my music, my favorite would have to be 'Could It Be Magic.' It is based on the beautiful Prelude in C minor by Chopin. It doesn't get much better than that." While Mr. Manilow will probably never earn the title of "cool" from music critics, he has earned the respect of a music industry that has seen him succeed with amazing regularity ... "I marvel at how my career has continued, despite the worst reviews in show business," Mr. Manilow says, "If I could change anything at all it would be to toss out that stupid Copacabana shirt." |
| April 4, 2002 | The
Cincinnati Post | "Three nights of Barry Manilow" by Jan Perry, interview with Barry promoting his shows at the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati, OH (April 4-6, 2002) |
|---|
| Touring has been a way of life throughout Barry's nearly three-decade career, but after the events of Sept. 11, this trip became a mission of sorts. "That day did to me what it did to everybody else - it stopped me in my tracks," said the New York native. "I had to turn the television off and just look at the ocean for a while. I felt so grateful for my life. And then, what I did was to go to work. It sounded trivial when I started asking, 'Can I help? What can I do to help'? but after a while I realized that I might be able to make people feel better or give people some comfort just by doing what I do. So, I undertook this huge tour. Of course, I needed to do it for the new 'Mayflower' album, but I wouldn't have sustained it as long or included as many venues as I am going to if I wasn't seeing such an amazing audience response." This time around, Barry is a healer, using his songs to help fans back in the Big Apple and around the country to remember a better, more innocent time. "A thing happens that lets the audience let go of some of that horror and that helpless feeling. This tour is important. These rooms are very important to be in. To play a room, close the doors, reach out to people with my songs and leave people feeling good after something that horrible - it's something I have to do - something all entertainers need to do." As expected, the show features some of the artist's biggest hits, including several from "Ultimate Manilow," which debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's albums chart. "It was stunning," said Manilow. "It was stunning to everyone. No one can figure out where that happened. They called me and said 'Wow! We think it's going to enter in the Top 20.' Then they called back and said 'it looks like it may enter in the Top 10.' Then the next hour I got a call and they said, 'This thing might enter in the Top 5.' They even thought for a moment that it might enter higher than it did - but hey, No. 3 is just fine with me. It's amazing. Truly amazing." When asked how he explains the phenomenal sales, Manilow attributes much of the credit to a new generation of fans that don't necessarily have a complete collection of his early works. "Those are the people who go to the record stores to pick up something like the 'Ultimate Manilow.' That's my take on it anyway,'' said the performer. "There's a new generation listening. I look out into the audience and I see a lot of younger people who are there having a ball with this kind of music. People who weren't there the first time around. I think that they're enjoying it because you just can't get this kind of music anywhere else. I listen to pop radio and what I hear is nothing like this stuff. I think the craft of songwriting has taken a nosedive. You can be the biggest talent - but you can't sustain a career without great songs. It's hard. If you haven't got the craft of songwriting under your belt, if all you have is one lucky batch of notes and a groove and some good production - you can have that one big hit but then how do you follow it? You can't if you don't have good songwriting." "The songs from 'Mayflower' were made to be shared among friends," said Manilow. "They play better in a smaller room. They connect better with the audience. I took away the violins because the album is edgier in a way. So I've gone a little funkier this year. I've got a nine-piece horn section up there with me (six travel with the show and local artists are added in each location) so the show is really kind of muscular these days. All of the material sounds strong ... Sometimes I don't believe I'm getting to do this. I've sung other people's songs for so many years. Getting to sing my own is just such a treat. It is a gift. I hear the intros playing and I honestly can't believe I'm getting to do this live every night. And what's so beautiful is that the audiences are just flipping out over it. They are loving it and that is amazing. When the tour started a lot of people hadn't even heard these songs and they still loved them. There's a bigger portion responding every night when I mention that I have a new CD out called 'Here at the Mayflower' so people are going out and buying it. Still, it's not the entire audience, and by the time I'm done with the little 'Mayflower' chunk in the show they all seem to really 'get' it. That's the most gratifying because the hardest thing for an artist to do is introduce new material. We all know that audiences want to hear the songs they came to hear and I'm asking them to sit through a chunk of stuff that they've never heard. But everyone seems to be eating this up and that's certainly wonderful for me." Some of Manilow's newly found success must be credited to his move from long-time label, Arista, to Concord, which backed "Mayflower." "You make all the best decisions with your gut. I did not use my brains on this one. I met these people at Concord and said, 'That's where I want to be.' That's it. You have to use your heart," said Manilow. "Whether it's the songs or deciding to change my record company, I always know that if I say, 'Now here's the sensible thing' - it never works. If I just trust my instinct, I can't go wrong." His instincts are also telling him that after years of delay, his musical "Harmony" may finally be headed to Broadway. "Yeah, I'm looking at the poster right now," Manilow said from his California residence. "We're that far along. We have our fingers crossed that it will finally happen in the fall." The tour includes a couple of songs from the play as well. "It's more new material, but some people seem to think it's the highlight of the show. They're good songs," he said. As for his extended three-night stay in Cincinnati, Manilow is pleased to be playing indoors this time around. "I prefer playing the smaller indoor venues than those crazy outdoor places," admitted the singer. "They are exciting, but I like the intimacy of smaller venues. I've always told the guys who book me, if it was up to me, I'd rather play theaters than arenas." Still, Manilow has fond memories of a night at Riverbend Music Center that could only have happened outdoors. "One night there was the worst storm, a terrible storm, but everybody stayed. It was really wild because that show was suppose to start at 7 or something and it didn't start until what, it was after 9:30 I know - and when we finally got on stage - everybody was still out there. Nobody went home. I'll always be grateful for that evening. That's the kind of evening a performer remembers." |
| April 1, 2002 | Lighting Dimensions | "He Lights the Songs: Seth Jackson Gives Barry Manilow a New Look" by Sharon Stancavage |
|---|
| Manilow's current tour is a balm to our collective psyche, taking us away from the occasionally unpleasant realities of the 21st century. Helping us along that journey is the show's lighting and set designer, Seth Jackson. Jackson began working with Manilow towards the end of 1998 and has been with him ever since. Last July, while Jackson was working on [Barry's musical] Could It Be Magic, Manilow approached him with a demo tape of his new material. "After he gave me the demo, Barry asked me to just let it sink in, and then we'd develop what the new tour was going to be about," he says. About four weeks later, Manilow brought together his creative team: Jackson, Ken and Mitzi Welch, his directors, and Kye Brackett, his choreographer, for the start of pre-production. "Everybody has an equal voice," Jackson notes. "Barry is very much about collaboration; it's the way he likes to work." While Manilow and his band began informal music rehearsals, Jackson began his preliminary work on the lighting. "I like to allow my lighting designer to create his individual look for the show during my music rehearsals," Manilow explains. "Then, on two consecutive evenings, we order pizzas and sit in the back of the house and go through each look for each song while a stand-in does my staging. If I have any lighting ideas, I suggest them and the additions are made right then," Manilow adds. These meetings can last late into the evening, as Manilow attests. "We usually wind up staying until 1am and it's always a fun and creative experience, especially with Seth," he concludes. The starting point for the set was Manilow's current CD, Here at the Mayflower. "Since it was about people's lives in an apartment building, I asked Seth if he could create a design around scaffolding," says Manilow. "I wanted it to be able to go from looking like a concert setting to looking like an abstract apartment building when he added specific lighting gobos of windows." Jackson had his work cut out for him: create a scaffolding-based set that, for the most part, was very abstract, but at the same time could transform into something much more concrete. "We took a city and we ripped off all the mortar, all the plaster, and shined up the frame," he explains. "The hope is that when you look at it, you'll get the urban feel, but until we get to the moment where we start adding the windows, you don't really connect it to the Mayflower." In the end, Manilow was more than pleased. "What Seth created went way beyond what I could have imagined," the singer says. "It's the most inventive set I've ever had. Plus it's easy to move and very economical." The show has several different moods, from the decidedly theatrical feel of the Mayflower section to the frenetic pace of the fondly remembered hits to the surprisingly techno feel of the opening. "The opening is my salute to all of those young bands that have in-your-face lighting," remarks Jackson. "We've never done anything like this, and nothing about the way the show opens fits most people's idea of Barry Manilow." The first part of the show is all about color - from the saturated and upbeat orange cyc in "Daybreak" to the blues featured in "Even Now" to the congo blue opening of the suddenly quite meaningful "I Made It Through the Rain," Jackson uses the stage as his canvas. "Harmony" is taken from Manilow's musical, about the 1930s musical sextette the Comedian Harmonists; in this number, Jackson brings six unseen performers onstage with Manilow. "We used choreographed lighting," Jackson explains. "Barry said, 'I want six spotlights that can become six people.'" And voil� - through the magic of cuing, six spotlights on nonexistent talent become people in the minds of the audience. "We probably spent two days of our production rehearsal just working on the timing and cues for this song," Jackson says. In the second act of the show, the Mayflower songs come to the forefront, creating a more theatrical mood. "We built the base look of where each of these windows is on the stage, and then, for each one of these songs, each apartment dweller gets a window. It's kind of subtle, and I didn't think anybody would get it, but they do." As the show moves towards its conclusion, Jackson gets to reveal one of the most astonishing aspects of the program: a behemoth of a mirror ball nicknamed the Dingleberry. "I thought, if I'm going to do a mirror ball, I'm going to do it big. With my tongue firmly in cheek, I ordered a 3'-diameter ball and encased it in a diamond of truss that then lowers down with strobe lights on it." This gargantuan mirror ball descends out of the trussing during "Copacabana," proving that both Jackson and Manilow have a sense of humor. "It's a great effect, and in the context of the show it's absolutely the perfect thing to do," Jackson asserts. Early on in production, Manilow wondered if he should go out on tour. As he stands in front of the audience, leading them in "My Country 'Tis of Thee," there is no doubt that he should be there. At the words "let freedom ring," complete with a large, Kabuki-rigged American flag, Manilow gives the audience a much-needed feeling of catharsis. "When we saw the reaction of the audience, we knew we had to do this every night," Jackson says. "It really summarized the whole reason we did the tour in the first place." |
| March 30, 2002 | The Desert Sun | "Select crowds hear music of desert's best" by Bruce Fessier |
|---|
| Barry [Manilow], who lives in Palm Springs, was the surprise guest at the Kraft Nabisco corporate party associated with that little LPGA event going on this week. He followed in the footsteps of past surprise performers Celine Dion and Michael Bolton. Dion, who golfed in the pro-am, sang five songs to recorded tracks, and Bolton, another golfer, did basically the same. But Barry performed a full show -- no doubt similar to the one he just did at Radio City Music Hall. Only 754 people watched him in the PS Convention Center, and the corporate crowd was more reserved than a room full of New Yorkers, whom Barry likened to "energy bunnies." But Barry worked his tail off. His voice was a bit hoarse, but he's a veteran technician who knows how to work through a cold and still sound evocative. He entered onto a dark stage and spread his arms when the lights went up as if to say, "It's me!" Then he launched into an exhaustive medley of big production numbers with his five-piece rhythm and 10-piece horn section, starting with "Ready to Take A Chance Again" and "Daybreak." After pausing to catch his breath, he got back into it with his inspirational anthem, "Looks Like We Made It" and his theme song that anticipated the neo-swing movement, "Bandstand [Boogie]." He didn't slow down until his seventh song, when he went to his grand piano to sing, "Mandy," concluding it movingly with a sweet falsetto. The concert was full of his trademark modulations to build songs to big finishes, but he revealed his own pain honestly and intimately in personal songs like "Even Now" and in tunes with post-Sept. 11 significance, such as "[I] Made It Through the Rain." He has two albums on the Billboard charts, including "Here At the Mayflower" with new material, but he didn't use his show to hype his latest product. He only sang "Turn the Radio Up" from "Mayflower" and it sounded as classic as his hits from the '70s. That's Barry's genius: He is such a talented arranger he can make even 25-year-old pop songs sound vital in an era of quickly disposable pop culture. |
| March 29, 2002 | GoMemphis.com | "Young fans fall under Manilow spell" by Donnie Snow, interview with Barry promoting his show at the Orpheum in Memphis, TN |
|---|
| The once ubiquitous Barry Manilow, talented musician, feel-good god and grand purveyor of '70s pop schmaltz, is getting comfortable in his own skin. "(Performing) is much easier now," said the resurgent pop star, calling from his Palm Springs home. "The more comfortable and real I get, the more it seems the audience responds." And they're responding more (agreeably) than ever. The magical Manilow is streaking down nostalgia's kitsch trail blazed by classic crooners Tony Bennett and Tom Jones, and even the not-so classic David Cassidy. While touring with material from his current album "Here At The Mayflower," a pop-stunted record featuring Manilow's jazz chops, "Ultimate Manilow" debuted at No. 3 in February, marking the best entry of his career. Though Manilow never stopped working, recording and touring every few years, fervor over his recent greatest-hits CD has the industry calling his "Live2002!" tour a comeback. "I really don't know if it's a comeback. I've been working steadily for 30 years," he said, "I've been releasing albums, going on huge tours - it doesn't feel like I went anywhere. But it was stunning for Arista to release the 'Ultimate Manilow,' a rehash of greatest hits, and for it to enter so high (on Billboard charts). That might be taken as a comeback." The No. 1 ballad "Mandy" began a decade long run of hits that included "I Write the Songs," "Looks Like We Made It," "Could It Be Magic," "Copacabana" and "I Made It Through the Rain." During his run at the top, [fans] have helped his career outlive most of them. "I look at the audience these days and see young people, more than ever before. I got a feeling it's another generation discovering songs like 'Mandy' and 'Copa.'" With "Ultimate Manilow" falling into the ranks, now that everyone who had the songs on vinyl now has them on CD, who's next for the retrograde spin? "I think Rod Stewart's ready for this. Lionel Richie is ready for this... Five years ago you mention my name and (people) would throw up. Now it's, 'Oh yeah, I've always liked that stuff.'" |
| March 29, 2002 | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | "Manilow" by Dawn Fallik, interview with Barry in promotion of his concerts at the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis, MO (March 29-30, 2002) (Also: "Best Bets: Barry Manilow") |
|---|
| After years of making self-deprecating jokes at concerts -- "I was listening to an oldies station on the radio this morning, and I heard me!" -- [Barry Manilow] with a classical bent suddenly looks like he made it through the rain to daybreak so he can make the whole world sing, even now. "Ultimate Manilow," his latest -- and fourth -- greatest hits collection, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart and went gold earlier this month. His latest release, "Here at the Mayflower," made it to No. 22 on the adult contemporary chart. He recently was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he played at the Super Bowl. Manilow isn't taking any of this for granted -- even though he worries that the good times will be short-lived. "I've always been cool!" he said. "But it's nice to have at least a month where they're not saying nasty things. But there's only one place to go from being No. 1, so I'm ready for it." The comeback shouldn't be such a surprise. The warning signs appeared several years ago, when Rachel sang "Copacabana" at her former fiance's wedding on "Friends." Then Ally McBeal joined Manilow in the unisex bathroom for a little "Mandy." But before Generation X and Y agreed that yes, Barry Manilow music could be magic, Manilow, 55, found himself waiting for the tide of popularity to flow his way again ... Now, with a new single, "Turn the Radio Up," making the radio rounds, Manilow said he's finally come full circle. "It's even more than full circle," he said. "The Mayflower represents all of the styles I've loved all of my life. It doesn't sound like earlier albums, it doesn't have a 'Ready to take a Chance Again' or a 'Somewhere Down the Road.' It is a pop album, but it's got jazz and Broadway and swing. It's an amalgamation of many years." Each song on the album represents a different story found behind an apartment door at the Mayflower, which Manilow says could be an apartment building in any city. And even though it's a pop album, the Brooklyn native said there's a depth to the songwriting that he was not capable of 25 years ago. "I get my inspiration from life, from people. As I grow older, I see different things about different people," he said. "It's not only about 'Come back to me baby oh baby oh baby,' anymore, which is what pop music is for me. I can't do that anymore." Stalwart fans, never fear. Manilow is still performing his hits at his shows. "When I look out in the audience these days, it's a younger audience than I've ever had before," he said, attributing the popularity of the "Ultimate" collection to a generation of new fans. What's the attraction? It's a well-written catalog that transcends trends, Manilow said. When Manilow speaks of his songs, it's like he's describing an heirloom. "Oh, that one's a beauty," he says of "Home Again," a song from one of his earliest albums, written by Marty Panzer. He still gets letters about "I Am Your Child," which was on his first album. It wasn't a huge hit, but people write to tell him they played it at a wedding, at a birth, at a funeral. It means something to him, that his words say what people can't. And maybe that's what makes Manilow and his fans click over generations... "I try to elicit emotions from my songs," he said, adding that critics didn't always appreciate the heart-wringing. "That's what got me into trouble. I like to be honest and hit people in the heart. I may not be a soul singer, but I'm a heart singer. I like people to feel my music." |
| March 28, 2002 | Richmond Times-Dispatch | "Guilty pleasures: What's so wrong with 'Can't Smile Without You'?" by Cynthia McMullen: We all have our guilty pleasures, and though I don't often parade mine in public, I don't mind so much when they're shared by someone I like and admire. I love Barry Manilow. There. I've said it. I love "Mandy" and "One Voice" and "Somewhere Down the Road" and "The Old Songs" and "Could It Be Magic" and yes, even "Copacabana." I've been listening to Manilow music forever. I have albums - you know, kids, those big black vinyl circles with pencil-size holes in the center? - and cassette tapes and CDs. I know lots of his songs by heart, and ever since he performed March 10 at the Landmark, I've been tooling around Richmond singing them at the top of my lungs. Melissa [Ruggieri (Times-Dispatch pop-music critic)] said it all in her concert review. He is a remarkable entertainer, and it's great fun to see people who've been bodily dragged to his shows emerge as converts. Barry Manilow is just one of life's guilty pleasures. |
|---|
| March 27, 2002 | Riverfront Times | "Ah, the Power of Cheese: Barry Manilow gets the last laugh" by Byron Kerman, article promoting Barry's return to St. Louis, MO (at the Fabulous Fox - March 29-30, 2002) |
|---|
| ...Folks of all ages are heeding [Barry] Manilow's easy-listening love calls more than ever. His latest greatest-hits compilation, Ultimate Manilow, actually hit the Billboard chart at No. 3, slapping down the likes of Pink and Ludacris. His other newly released product, a concept album titled Here at the Mayflower, ranked high on another chart and demonstrated the singer/songwriter's ability to tweak his style and still keep the success train rolling. A recent profile in the New York Times and a revealing turn on Bravo's Musicians have sealed the deal: to borrow from Neil Simon, suddenly Manilow is Africa-hot. How does it feel to be on top again? "It's certainly better than being called an idiot in print, as I have been over the years," Manilow says. "I guess you hang in there long enough and you believe in what you do and you just keep doing what your gut tells you to do and somehow you rise and survive if you're lucky ... and it's much better and sweeter the second time around, let me tell you. I guess youth is wasted on the young -- they're not kidding. The first time around, in 1978, '79, when this thing really hit, it was overwhelming and it just wasn't as much fun. This time, it's much more fun to share it with my loved ones and for this lightning bolt to strike a second time." The new tunes on Mayflower were inspired by a childhood memory. "I grew up right around the corner from a six-floor apartment building called the Mayflower in Brooklyn," says Manilow, "but the songs are about fictitious people. It had a lot of people in it and a lot of families and a lot of stories, and I just thought, 'Wouldn't that be fun to write an album of original songs based on the stories of people's lives in an apartment building?' Over the last 15 years we piled up a whole batch of songs, and it all came together this last couple of years." Somehow the years of tremendous radio success, the critical disses of Manilow's sentimental oeuvre, a few relatively quiet decades and two new albums have finally added up to the sort of comeback for Manilow that fellow mom-magnets Neil Diamond and Tom Jones have previously enjoyed -- devotion to an icon, with the occasional knowing wink from the under-30 set. Maybe John Waters captured it best in his movie Serial Mom when he had a suburban mom played by Kathleen Turner murder her neighbors to the strains of Manilow's "Daybreak." There's a name for serious Manilow fans, says the singer: "I hear they're called Maniloonies." |
|
