Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow (born June 17, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer and conductor, best known for such recordings as “I Write the Songs“, “Mandy“, “Weekend in New England” and “Copacabana“.

Manilow’s achievements include sales of more than 76 million records worldwide. In 1978, five of his albums were on the best-selling charts simultaneously, a feat equaled only by Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mathis. He has recorded a string of Billboard hit singles and multi-platinum albums that have resulted in his being named Radio & Records number one Adult Contemporary artist and winning three straight American Music Awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist. Several well-known entertainers have given Manilow their “stamp of approval,” including Sinatra, who was quoted in the 1970s regarding Manilow, “He’s next.” In 1988, Bob Dylan stopped Manilow at a party, hugged him and said, “Don’t stop what you’re doing, man. We’re all inspired by you.” Arsenio Hall cited Manilow as a favorite guest on The Arsenio Hall Show and admonished his audience to respect him for his work.

As well as producing and arranging albums for other artists, such as Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick and Rosemary Clooney, Manilow has written songs for musicals, films, and commercials.

Since February 2005, he has been the headliner at the Las Vegas Hilton, and has performed hundreds of shows since.

Biography

Born Barry Alan Pincus in Brooklyn, New York to Harold and Edna Pincus (who died in 1993 and 1994), Manilow is of Russian, Jewish, and Irish ancestry. His parents divorced when he was two years old. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandparents, Joseph and Esther Manilow, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Manilow’s grandparents, who died in 1973 and 1975, had a strong influence on his life. It was they who encouraged him to take up his first musical instrument, the accordion, which was popular in his Jewish and Italian neighborhood.

In 1948, as a five-year old, Manilow recorded “Happy Birthday” with his grandfather in a coin-operated recording booth as a present for his cousin Dennis. Twenty five years later, a sample of this recording served as the opening track on his first album.

When his mother remarried, Manilow’s stepfather, Willie Murphy, brought an extensive collection of jazz and swing records into the house. As a teenager, he listened to these records constantly, coming to idolize such conductors and composers as Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter and Nelson Riddle. It was Murphy who gave him a piano in 1956 for his 13th birthday, at the time of his Bar Mitzvah. Manilow then dropped the accordion and began practicing on his new piano.

At this point, Edna Pincus legally changed her surname, as well as her son’s, to her maiden name, “Manilow.” Over the next few years, Manilow performed locally for small businesses and parties. He graduated from Eastern District High School in New York in 1961.

After his high school graduation, Manilow enrolled at the New York College of Music and The Juilliard School, while working in the mailroom at CBS to pay his expenses. At CBS in 1964 Manilow met Bro Herrod, a director, who asked him to arrange some public domain songs for a musical adaptation of the melodrama, The Drunkard. Instead, Manilow wrote an entire original score.[5] The musical became a success and ran Off-Broadway for eight years at the 13th Street Theatre in New York.

Also in 1964, Manilow married his high school sweetheart, Susan Deixler. However, his devotion to his musical interests caused tension in the marriage. When he was 22, he sought advice about whether to pursue music full-time from a columnist in Playboy magazine, which published his letter in its December 1965 issue and recommended that he go “so
w your notes”. On January 6, 1966, Manilow and Deixler signed the annulment decree for which she filed after he asked for a divorce.

Manilow then earned money by working as a pianist, producer, and arranger. He has said of that time that he played piano for anybody: “If the check cleared, I was there.”

Manilow also worked as a commercial jingle writer/singer, an activity that continued well into the 1970s. He penned many of the jingles that he performed, including those for Bowlene Toilet Cleaner, State Farm Insurance, Stridex acne cleanser, and Band-Aid, amongst others. His singing-only credits included Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepsi, Jack in the Box, Dr Pepper, and the famed McDonald’s “You Deserve a Break Today” campaign.[11] Manilow won two Clio Awards in 1976 for his work for Tab and Band-Aid.

By 1967, Manilow was the musical director for the WCBS-TV series Callback. He next conducted and arranged for Ed Sullivan‘s production company, arranging a new theme for The Late Show, while still writing, producing, and singing his radio and television jingles. At the same time, he and Jeanne Lucas performed as a duo for a two-season run at New York’s Upstairs at the Downstairs club.