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Born to humble origins in Brooklyn, New York, shortly after his birth his parents Harold Pincus (son of a Russian-Jewish father and Irish mother) and Edna Manilow divorced, Barry was then brought up by his mother and grandparents, Russian-Jewish immigrants who had a strong influence on his life. He began singing shortly before his Bar Mitzvah at the age of 13 when he legally changed his surname to his mother's maiden name Manilow. He at first tried the accordion, but preferred the piano, persevering with it, this became the vital bedrock of his career. Manilow dominated the soft rock scene in the 1970s with a string of top ten hits and multi-platinum albums. Manilow's music was considered by some to be cheesy when it was released, comments were made about the size of his nose, and his appearance was compared to that of a frog. Despite the frequent barbs from critics and lampooning by comedians, Manilow continues to maintain a large fan base, especially among baby-boomer women in his native United States, as evidenced by the No. 3 debut of his 2002 greatest hits album Ultimate Manilow, and being dubbed "showman of our generation" recently by Rolling Stone.Manilow's record label Arista took three years off his announced age when he was really 32 (in 1975) and made him 29 years old so he would appeal to teens; this made him appear to have been born in 1946 instead of his actual birth year, 1943. Manilow reportedly wrote to Playboy in 1965 when he was 22 asking for advice about music.
Early in his career, Manilow worked as a pianist, producer and arranger, accompanying Bette Midler among others. Manilow's major solo hits include "Mandy" (1974), "Copacabana (At The Copa)" (1978) and "I Write The Songs" (1975). Manilow's Copacabana has also been turned into a stage musical that ran for two years in the West End, and toured the US in 2000 and 2003. His greatest UK hit was "I wanna do it with you" (1982) which reached no. 8 in the UK charts, his only top ten hit there.Manilow's recorded work, spanning from 1971 through 2005, has gone through several distinct phases. He first made a series of demo singles, both under his real name (although born Barry Pincus, he had it legally changed to Manilow), and under a pseudo-group name of Featherbed. His first album was released by Bell (later Arista) records in 1973, and contained an eclectic mix of piano-driven pop, big band remixes and guitar-driven rock. His second album, called Barry Manilow II [Bell/Arista, 1974] contained the hit song "Mandy", and began a string of hit singles and albums that lasted through the rest of the 1970s, and into the early 1980's.
After the landmark Concert at Blenheim Palace in August of 1983, Manilow started to venture into a jazz-driven style, starting with the 1984 album 2:00 am Paradise Cafe. The album was recorded with jazz greats Sarah Vaughan, Mel Torme and Gerry Mulligan. Manilow would return to the genre in 1987, with the release of Swing Street. The techno-jazz-inspired album contained performances with Dianne Schuur, Phyllis Hyman, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, and Tom Scott.
From 1985 to 1986, Manilow was involved with the pop album Manilow (RCA, 1985), and began a phase of international music, as he performed songs and duets in French, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese, among other languages. The 1980s saw a number of landmark hits such as Bermuda Triangle 1981, Let's hang on 1981, Stay 1982 and Please don't be scared 1989.
In the 1990s, Manilow recorded a succession of "event" albums, guided by Arista's President, Clive Davis. From 1991's Showstoppers, a collection of Broadway tunes, to a big band album Singin' With the Big Bands (1994), a 1970s collection Summer of '78 (1996), the decade ended with Manilow recording a tribute to Frank Sinatra Manilow Sings Sinatra (1998).Manilow's music connected with a new generation when top British boy band Take That reached no. 3 in the UK charts with "Could it be magic" (1992) and Irish boy band Westlife reached no. 1 with "Mandy" (2003).
After the start of the new millennium, Manilow left Arista records for Concord Records, a jazz-oriented label in California, and started work on the long-anticipated Here at the Mayflower album. The album was another eclectic mix of styles, almost entirely composed and produced by Manilow himself. 2004 saw the release of both a live album 2Nights Live! (BMG Strategic Marketing Group), 2004], and a soundtrack album of his musicals Scores (Songs from Copacabana and Harmony) (Concord, 2004). Two Christmas albums, many live albums and compilations have rounded out a very large body of music.
Manilow appeared as a guest judge and arranged music for American Idol on April 24, 2004, the year in which he also embarked on his "One Night Live! One Last Time!" final tour. Some fans were unhappy that Manilow charged his fans $1000 to meet him after the show, but ticket sales were robust, landing Manilow's tour into the Top Ten club for box office grosses in 2004.
Although not all Manilow's hits were written by him (the most notable instance, ironically, being "I Write The Songs", actually written by lyricist Bruce Johnston), he co-wrote, with lyricist Bruce Sussman, a musical, Harmony, which was originally scheduled to preview in Philadelphia in 2003. After financial difficulties and a legal battle, Manilow and Sussman won back the rights to the musical. It is currently unknown when the musical is slated to reach Broadway.On the heels of his 'Farewell' tour, Manilow opened a standing show in Las Vegas in 2005 at the Las Vegas Hilton, where he will reside in the penthouse where Elvis lived for 8 years (Newsweek/MSNBC).
Manilow has appeared in two movies. He portrayed Tony in a 1985 made-for-television film based on "Copacabana" (Annette O'Toole was Lola and Joseph Bologna was Rico). He also portrayed himself in the 2002 Kathy Bates-Rupert Everett comedy "Unconditional Love", in which Manilow's hit "Can't Smile Without You" plays a key role in the plot. He co-wrote the Broadway-style musical scores for the animated films "The Pebble and the Penguin" (1995) and "Thumbelina (1994)." Manilow hits have figured prominently in several films such as "Foul Play" and "Serial Mom".
Manilow made an appearance (performing Can't Smile Without You, Mandy, I Write The Songs and songs from his latest album) on the Oprah Winfrey show on 7th April 2005.
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