Maybe you read this, you think "Andy, ha ha! He is making a joke!" No!

Barry Manilow has been around a long time! Maybe he is seen as joke, but not by me! He writes great songs, and boy he makes a good show! Maybe big fag but I don't care!

Some people say "He didn't write song about writing songs!" Does not matter! A great showman! And performer! And songwriter! His songs make people happy!

In October, on 18th Iron Maiden come to town! And on 21st Barry Manilow! How to decide!?!?!

I always thought the chorus of "Mandy" had a decent melody.

Crap.

more than any other musician/group i can think of, his success escapes and appals me. complete CRAP.

I'd stick to his hits, but his hits are just huge sounding.

"Copacabana" is really quite a dark and ambiguous song, lyrically, despite the cheesy foley.

Not Crap.

Jonathan Ross: "So you write a lot of love songs..."
Barry Manilow, dreamily: "All songs are love songs, really - what song isn't a love song?"
Jonathan Ross: "Well, the Dead Kennedys had a few..."

Chapter Two wrote:Jonathan Ross: "So you write a lot of love songs..."
Barry Manilow, dreamily: "All songs are love songs, really - what song isn't a love song?"
Jonathan Ross: "Well, the Dead Kennedys had a few..."

Brilliant.

This poll brings me back to my cruise ship working days last year. On my second ship sailing from Seattle to Alaska and back every week, the production show was entitled Piano Man. It was made up of medleys of various piano playing singer/wongwriters, but of course with a title like that, we began with a Billy Joel. Then it was onto Neil Sedaka whose music I had been completely unfamiliar with. Smack dab in the middle was... yes Barry Manilow. I'd heard some of the songs, but playing them over and over again was rather excrutiating. CRAP I say. After that it was Liberace time, before it finally ended with a big Elton John bang. Thank god I'm not doing that anymore...

Not crap. Manilow's hits from the mid-70s are about as great as easy listening gets - these are beautifully written, well-aranged songs that totally deliver the goods (exhibit A: "Weekend In New England"). Having said that, he has also sung some shockers. It's been received wisdom for a long time that Barry Manilow is a figure of fun and a byword for all that's lame about piano balladry, so it's hard to disassociate that from the actual music.

Andy wrote:In October, on 18th Iron Maiden come to town! And on 21st Barry Manilow! How to decide!?!?!

I check with TicketMaster, see how much for tickets for these two shows of great entertainment! The driving metal anthems of Iron Maiden, $45 each ticket, I think, Not so bad a deal! But then I look at Barry. Nice to see him close to home, instead of trip to Vegas! Barry's tickets, $210! Pair of tickets could pay for REAL weekend in New England, no?

So, now I call brother-in-law, brother-in-metal, see if he wants to see Iron Maiden. Not run to the hills, run to the Allstate Arena!

I once saw a really great documentary (or it mighta just been a TV special or something, dunno) about a group of elderly British women who had formed a Barry Manilow fan club. They called themselves the "Maniloonies."

The doc, or TV special, shows them having a meeting in preparation for a London gig, and ends with them all attending the gig and freaking out. I don't remember whether Barry Manilow ever meets them or anything.

At one point the filmmaker goes to each biddy and asks why they love the guy. One woman, who couldn't have been a day under 80, looks right into the camera and says: "He's sex on legs."