Mandy is Barry Manilow’s first #1 pop hit
Barry Manilows scores his first 1 single with Mandy on January 18 1975.He would go on to sell more than 75 millions records over the course of his career.At the height of Barry Manilows popularity none other than Frank Sinatra himself said of Manilow Hes next.Yet even in his heyday the more youthful arbiters of cool were not kind to him.
They called Manilows music bombastic and schmaltzy even as Americans devoured his every release.But critics may have missed the point.Barry Manilow never fancied himself hip or coolfar from it.
I have purposely tried not to stay in sync with the times he has said.I just do what feels good.Even as a teenager in the 1950s Barry preferred pop standards and Broadway show tunes to Elvis Presley records and it was his love of this style of music that led to his big break.While working as a commercial jingle writerperformer and pursuing a recording career with limited success Manilow met a kindred spirit named Bette Midler.
He first became her piano player then graduated to musical director lending his arranging and orchestration talents to her Divine Miss M album and tour (think Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy) on the condition that he be allowed to perform a short set of his own songs during her intermission.It was this experience that landed Manilow a gig as Dionne Warwicks opening act which in turn led Clive Davis to take him under his wing at the newly formed Arista Records.Then came Mandy Its a Miracle I Write the Songs Looks Like We Made It and a string of 21 more top-40 hits between 1975 and 1983hits that helped earn Barry Manilow recognition by Billboard and Radio & Records as the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time.
His days as a chart artist may now be behind him but Barry Manilow continues to fill concert venues around the world with fans whose enjoyment of his music seems undiminished by the jokey barbs of the pop-critical establishment.
