LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS THE GREAT...
Barry Manilow
With worldwide sales of more than 75 million records, Barry Manilow’s success is a benchmark in popular music. His concerts and night-club performances sell out instantly. He is ranked as the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time, according to R&R (Radio&Records) and Billboard magazines. http://www.manilowuk.com/
.
Rolling Stone crowned him “a giant among entertainers… the showman of our generation,” and Frank Sinatra summed up Manilow best when Ol’ Blue Eyes told the British press, “He’s next.”
.
Manilow calls Las Vegas his home away from home where he performs to sell-out crowds at the Las Vegas Hilton, which he has done for three years now. He opened in 2005 with huge success with Manilow: Music and Passion and recently, changed things up and has taken the show to next level.
Barry Manilow
ResponderEliminarBIOGRAPHIES * MUSIC * USA
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THIS IS THE GREAT...
Barry Manilow
With worldwide sales of more than 75 million records, Barry Manilow’s success is a benchmark in popular music. His concerts and night-club performances sell out instantly. He is ranked as the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time, according to R&R (Radio&Records) and Billboard magazines.
http://www.manilowuk.com/
.
Rolling Stone crowned him “a giant among entertainers… the showman of our generation,” and Frank Sinatra summed up Manilow best when Ol’ Blue Eyes told the British press, “He’s next.”
.
Manilow calls Las Vegas his home away from home where he performs to sell-out crowds at the Las Vegas Hilton, which he has done for three years now. He opened in 2005 with huge success with Manilow: Music and Passion and recently, changed things up and has taken the show to next level.
.
ULTIMATE MANILOW: The Hits opened in September of 2008 to rave reviews, calling it ‘the perfect mix of Manilow’s hits’ (Vegas.com) where Manilow opens up his expansive catalog of hits and expertly takes us on a journey that lets us know that ‘This One’s for You.’
.
Manilow has given the gift of collections in the best-selling series of tributes to popular music. RIAA platinum The Greatest Songs Of The Fifties released January 31, 2006, which incidentally became his first #1 debut on the Billboard 200 album chart and first #1 album since the 1977 triple-platinum double-LP Barry Manilow/Live; RIAA platinum
The Greatest Songs Of The Sixties released October 31, 2006, entering the chart at #2 and was the all-time highest first sales week debut chart entry of Manilow’s career. With those two albums, Manilow became the first artist since 1981 to have two albums in the top two positions in one calendar year on the Billboard chart. Next came The Greatest Songs Of The Seventies, released September 18, 2007, entering the Billboard charts at #4, making The Greatest Songs of the Seventies Manilow’s 33rd charting album, his 11th Top 10 and his 10th Top 10 debut and the only artist to have three Top four debuts on the Billboard 200 chart in two years.
The The Greatest Songs Of The Eighties marks the fourth collaboration between Manilow and Clive Davis, BMG U.S. Chairman & CEO, since the singer’s return to the Arista label after a five-year absence (which was distinguished by new albums on Concord and Columbia.) As the founder and president of Arista Records for its first 25 years, Davis was a perennial collaborator with Manilow on virtually all his recordings. They first worked together on “Mandy,” Manilow’s debut #1 single, after he became the first performer signed by Clive Davis to Arista in 1974, the first year of the label’s existence.
The Greatest Songs Of The Eighties is the latest example of Barry Manilow’s timeless appeal to every cross-section of society, to bridge generations and positively influence the world over with both music and lyric. As the charter member of the Arista artist roster, Manilow has won a unique place in the pantheon of American performers.
.
“No one can reinvent the great classics better than Barry Manilow,” comments Davis. “He breathes new life and vitality into these truly wonderful songs and they sound fresh and timeless. We continue on the mission to bring to a new generation the great songs of a different era.”
That goal has been the creative spark for several Manilow concept albums that have interpreted music of earlier decades. Among the titles are 1984’s groundbreaking 2:00 AM Paradise Café featuring jazz legends Sarah Vaughan, Mel Tormé and Gerry Mulligan. Swing Street (1987) featured guest appearances by Stan Getz, Phyllis Hyman, Kid Creole, and Diane Schuur. Later came Showstoppers (1991), spanning nearly a century of Broadway show tunes.
.
On 1994’s Singin’ With the Big Bands, Barry was paired with the orchestras of Les Brown, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Harry James, and Glenn Miller on a glorious set of Swing Era standards. Most recently, there was 1998’s Manilow Sings Sinatra, which paired Barry with Grammy-winning producer Phil Ramone, paying homage to the great songs made famous by the legendary Frank Sinatra. Clive Davis called it “an enriching, exciting and fulfilling album” that complemented the earlier Manilow concept recordings.
Barry Manilow’s roots are in his native Brooklyn, where music was an integral part of his life. By the age of seven, Barry was taking accordion lessons and playing on a neighbor’s piano. He chose a career in music while still in his teens, and attended New York College of Music and the Julliard School of Music while working in the mailroom at CBS. He subsequently became musical director for a CBS show named “Callback” which led to a lucrative sideline on New York’s advertising jingle circuit.
.
In 1971, Barry Manilow met Bette Midler and became her music director, arranger and pianist. The following year, Manilow signed with Bell Records to record his debut solo album. In 1974, Clive Davis founded a new label, Arista, along with Columbia Pictures. Davis had the right to choose any artist on the Columbia Pictures-owned Bell Records to bring to Arista. Davis chose Manilow and the rest is history. He famously brought Barry a recent U.K. hit song entitled “Brandy” (by its writer Scott English). Clive changed the title to “Mandy” so it wouldn’t be confused with the Looking Glass U.S. hit “Brandy.” When Barry’s Arista single reached Number One in early 1975, it ignited one of the most incandescent careers in pop.
.
Barry Manilow is ranked as the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time, according to R&R (Radio & Records), with no less than 25 consecutive Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1975 and 1983. The list includes all-time favorites that Barry still sings today: “Mandy,” “It’s A Miracle,” “Could It Be Magic,” “I Write the Songs,” “Tryin’ To Get the Feeling Again,” “This One’s For You,” “Weekend In New England,” “Looks Like We Made It,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” “Even Now,” and the Grammy Award-winning “Copacabana (At the Copa).” All of these songs (and more) were anthologized on the commemorative 1992 four-CD boxed-set, Barry Manilow: The Complete Collection And Then Some.
.
To date, twenty-nine albums by Barry Manilow have been certified platinum, while Barry Manilow/Live (1977), Even Now (1978), and Greatest Hits (1978) are each certified triple platinum.
.
Albums produced by Barry Manilow for other artists – including Bette Midler, Nancy Wilson, and Dionne Warwick – have been nominated for Grammy Awards. A winner of Grammy, Emmy, and Tony Awards, Manilow’s film credits include the Oscar-nominated song “Ready To Take A Chance Again” (from 1978’s Foul Play), production of Bette Midler’s “Perfect Isn’t Easy” (from Walt Disney’s Oliver and Company), and the soundtracks for the animated features Thumbelina and The Pebble and the Penguin. Highlights of Manilow’s theater career range from his Tony Award-winning Broadway debut in 1977 (in the same year that ABC-TV presented “The Barry Manilow Special” to an audience of 37 million) to an SRO eight-week run on the Great White Way in 1989. Beginning in 1997, Barry Manilow’s Copacabana – The Musical, an elaborate two-act spectacular, played to packed houses in London’s West End for 18 months before touring the U.S., Australia and Asia. June 2001 saw the opening of Could It Be Magic? – The Barry Manilow Songbook.
.
The singer has made countless television appearances ranging from Emmy-winning network specials to cable concerts, and released such best-selling long-form home videos as Live On Broadway and Because It's Christmas. His two-hour 1996 A&E special, “Barry Manilow: Live by Request” was the highest rated music show in the network's history. Manilow has also appeared on the highly rated TV series “Murphy Brown,” “Ally McBeal,” and “Will & Grace.” In 2006, Barry received his fifth Emmy nomination and an Emmy win for the PBS special “Manilow: Music and Passion.” The broadcast celebrated Barry Manilow’s 100th performance at the Las Vegas Hilton. Produced by Stiletto Television, the Rhino DVD of the PBS special was soon certified triple platinum.
.
In June 2002, Barry Manilow was inducted into the National Academy of Popular Music’s Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside Ashford & Simpson, Michael Jackson, Randy Newman, and Sting.
.
Barry Manilow is a member of the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Jazz. His autobiography, Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise, was published by McGraw-Hill in 1987. In addition to his own foundation, the Manilow Fund for Health and Hope, other involvements include The Prince's Trust, United Way, the Starlight Foundation, and several leading organizations for AIDS prevention and research. Barry Manilow is the national spokesperson for the Foundation Fighting Blindness and a member of the Music Center of Los Angeles.
.
Manilow recently created the Manilow Music Project as part of his Manilow Fund for Health and Hope (http://www.manilowfund.org/). Answering the call of need at a time when arts and music programs in most schools is the first casualty in budget cuts, MMP provided $500,000 worth of musical instruments, as well as sheet music and music stands to 21 local schools in the Coachella Valley.
.
As Manilow says, “Anyone can make a difference. Just call your local schools and ask them what they need. Get ‘em a new set of drums! Music changes a young person’s life.”