Barry Manilow

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At the Copa, Copacabana...

Barry Manilow (b. 1943 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American singer/songwriter best known for hits such as "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", "I Write The Songs" and "Copacabana".

Is the Trope Maker for Stuck on Band-Aid Brand (he wrote the jingle).

He is set to retire in 2025 after completing one final tour and album.

Discography:

• Barry Manilow (1973)
• Barry Manilow (1974)
• Tryin' To Get The Feeling (1975)
• This One's For You (1976)
• Even Now (1978)
• One Voice (1979)
• Barry (1980)
• If I Should Love Again (1981)
• Here Comes The Night (1981)
• 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe (1984)
• Manilow (1985)
• Swing Street (1987)
• Barry Manilow (1989)
• Because It's Christmas (1990)
• Showstoppers (1991)
• Singin' With The Big Bands (1994)
• Summer of '78 (1996)
• Manilow Sings Sinatra (1998)
• Here At The Mayflower (2001)
• A Christmas Gift of Love (2002)
• Scores (2004)
• The Greatest Songs of The Fifties (2006)
• The Greatest Songs of The Sixties (2006)
• The Greatest Songs of The Seventies (2007)
• In The Swing Of Christmas (2007)
• The Greatest Songs of The Eighties (2008)
• The Greatest Love Songs of All Time (2010)
• 15 Minutes (2011)

Singles:

• "I Write the Songs"
• "Mandy"

Barry Manilow's Work Shows Examples of the Following Tropes:

• Anti-Love Song: "The Last Duet" (duet with Lily Tomlin) is of the Comedy/Parody variety:

Lily: You creep Into my heart, And make my heart burn. Barry: You sneak Into my mind, And make my head ache. Both: There are things I long to tell you Lily: You're much too blond. Barry: You snore. Both: Look, It's time to face the music. Barry: Bye bye! Lily: Don't slam the door! And I don't want, Barry: I don't want, Lily: I don't want. Barry: I don't want, Both: No, I don't want your flowers anymore!

• Audience Participation Song: Manilow picks a girl out of the audience to sing "Can't Smile Without You" with him.
  • That same song became a crowd sing-along later, at least on his 2025 farewell tour.
• Big Applesauce: "New York City Rhythm", "Copacabana (At The Copa)", "Avenue C", "Brooklyn Blues", and of course the Concept Album Here At The Mayflower, which is about life in a New York apartment building.
• Break Up Song: "Lay Me Down", "I Was A Fool (To Let You Go)", and many, many others.
• Broken Record: "Sweet Heaven (I'm In Love Again)" is quite repetitive.
• Christmas Album: Three of 'em.
• Concept Album: Here At The Mayflower, and 15 Minutes, which is about the perils of fame.
• Cover Version: The Greatest Songs Of... albums. And Manilow Sings Sinatra. And all those Christmas albums. He also had Top 40 success with remakes of The Four Seasons' "Let's Hang On," Shakin' Stevens' "Oh Julie," and "Memory" from Cats.
  • Covered Up: "Mandy" was originally titled "Brandy" and a big international hit for Scott English in 1972. "Somewhere in the Night" easily outcharted all of the previous versions, including Helen Reddy's (1976). "Could It Be Magic" was based on a Chopin piece. Other big hits of his, including "Can't Smile Without You" and "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again," were previously recorded by others, notably The Carpenters (although the Carpenters and Manilow versions of the latter have quite different lyrics).
• Cowboy Bebop at His Computer: Despite endless claims to the contrary by journalists who Did Not Do the Research, Manilow did not write the famous "You Deserve A Break Today" McDonald's commercial, but he did sing the vocal on it.
  • "I Write The Songs" is not Manilow going on an ego trip about what a fantastic songwriter he is (and he was initially reluctant to release it for fear that audiences would think exactly that). The "I" in the title actually refers to the spirt of Music, and in fact the very last line of the song is, "I am Music, and I write the songs". As Manilow himself is constantly at great pains to point out, he didn't even write that song; Bruce Johnston did, and even the Captain and Tennille recorded it before Manilow did.
• Darker and Edgier: 15 Minutes.
• Everyone Is Christian At Christmas: Three Christmas albums, Barry? Really??
• He Also Did: A jazz album, two swing albums, and two Concept Albums.
  • In the early Seventies, he worked as a jingle writer for commercials, and wrote several famous ones such as the "Like A Good Neighbor" jingle for State Farm Insurance. As noted above, he also sang the vocal on the famous "You Deserve A Break Today" McDonald's commercial, but he didn't write one bit of it.
    • VSM (Very Strange Medley) with the commercials is here.
  • He's produced other artists as well, notably Dionne Warwick ("I'll Never Love This Way Again").
  • In The Eighties, Copacabana was made into a musical Made for TV Movie starring Manilow as Tony Starr and Annette O'Toole as Lola Lamar. See it here.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: "Somewhere Down the Road."
• Intercourse with You: Many, many times. "I Wanna Do It With You", "I'm Your Man", and lots of others.
• Large Ham: Have you seen the page pic?
• Let's Duet: Hasn't happened as many times as you might think, but he recorded a cover of The Bee Gees' "Run to Me" as a duet with Dionne Warwick. And the aforementioned Lily Tomlin song.
• Lonely Together: "Lonely Together". Fits this trope so well that it should possibly be the Trope Namer.

Wouldn't it be fine bein' lonely together? Wouldn't it be fine havin' a shoulder to share? You could tell me how he broke your heart, And I'll tell you how she broke mine. Then maybe later on I could take you home. Now, wouldn't it be sad bein' lonely all alone?

• Long Runner: "Mandy" was his first hit record in 1974, and he's still making occasional appearances on the adult contemporary charts over 50 years later.
• Money, Dear Boy: Three Christmas albums????
• Old Shame: Have you seen the page pic?
  • One of his last big hits. "Read 'Em and Weep," turned out to be this. Despite its success (six weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary charts and becoming his last Top 40 pop hit), Barry feels empty about it because he didn't write or produce it, and never performs it anymore.
• Playing Against Type: He built his career on lushly orchestrated ballads, but also did disco with "Copacabana" and '80s synth-pop on songs like "Some Kind of Friend." "I'm Your Man" also sounds like something the Miami Sound Machine might have done.
• Rockstar Song: "It's A Miracle".
• Self-Backing Vocalist: "One Voice", among others.
• Self-Demonstrating Article: "I Really Do Write The Songs". Manilow hangs lampshades all over the place with this one. Served with delicious side dishes of Self-Parody and Take That Me, with a Crowning Moment of Funny at the very end for dessert. A little taste:

You start off with the verse That's the part that tells you What the song is gonna be about. You gotta grab 'em first Dope is good, or death is nice But love is still the best way out. And then you pad, and then you fill, Or you complain, or get a chill. But most of all, you move along To the center of the song.

Yes, that's the chorus Sing it for us Never overlook givin' it a hook You see sometimes I really do write the songs!

• The Seventies: And how! Though his success did continue into The Eighties (not to mention songs like "Some Kind of Friend"), and he's placed occasional songs on the Adult Contemporary charts into the current century.
• Signature Songs: "Copacabana", "Can't Smile Without You", "Mandy", and of course "I Write The Songs".
• Silly Love Songs: Too many to name here.
• Stuck on Band-Aid Brand: The Trope Maker.
• Your Cheating Heart: "Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?", "Starting Again", and countless others.

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Barry Manilow Shows Examples of the Following Tropes:

• Adorkable
• Berserk Button: Don't refer to Manilow's fans as "Fanilows". Just... don't.
• Blue Eyes: According to people who have met him in Real Life, they are startlingly blue.
• Break the Cutie: See: Parental Abandonment below.
• Cloudcuckoolander: For reasons known only to himself, Manilow sometimes chooses to present himself as such. Don't be fooled.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As above, see: Parental Abandonment below.
• Deadpan Snarker: As only a native New Yorker can do it!
• Dumb Blond: Averted pretty massively.
• Happily (Un)Married: Manilow and longtime friend/girlfriend Linda Allen were together for decades. She was his girlfriend, except for when she wasn't. They lived together, except for when they didn't. Turned out for most of that time he had a boyfriend, Garry Kief, whom he finally married in 2014.
• Hidden Depths: See: Ivy League for Everyone below.
• Ivy League for Everyone: The Juilliard School.
• Jews Love to Argue: Manilow is on record as saying that his relationship with Bette Midler can basically be summarized thusly.
• Nice Jewish Boy
• Nobody Over 50 is Gay: Averted-he came out as gay in his seventies.
• Noo Yawk Aksent
• Parental Abandonment / Disappeared Dad: Manilow's father left him and his mother when Manilow was two years old. As a result, he officially adopted his mother's maiden name as his own at his Bar Mitzvah (his birth surname is Pincus).
• Self-Deprecation: Constantly.
• Seventies Hair: Oh yeah.