Barry Manilow

Like Cliff Richard, Barry Manilow did not publicly discuss his sexuality for a long, long time, despite persistent rumors that his is gay that have been circulating for decades. Unlike Cliff Richard, Barry Manilow came out publicly a couple of months ago, also revealing that in 2014 he and his manager Garry Keif, who have been together in a relationship since 1978, exchanged vows of marriage. This is his story.

Manilow was born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Edna Manilow and Harold Pincus (who went by his own stepfather's surname, "Keliher"). His father was born to a Jewish father and an Irish-American Catholic mother, while his maternal grandparents were of Russian Jewish background. Barry adopted his mother's maiden name, Manilow, at the time of his bar mitzvah.

Manilow grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn and attended Eastern District High School, graduating in 1961. That same year, he enrolled in the City College of New York where he briefly studied before entering the New York College of Music. He also worked at CBS while he was a student in order to pay his expenses. He later studied Musical Theater at the Juilliard performing arts school.

In 1964, Manilow met Bro Herrod, a CBS director, who asked him to arrange some songs for a musical adaptation of the melodrama The Drunkard. Instead, Manilow wrote an entire original score, which Herrod used in the Off Broadway musical, which enjoyed an eight-year run at New York's 13th Street Theatre. Manilow then earned money by working as a pianist, producer and arranger.

During this time, he began to work as a commercial jingle writer, continuing well into the 1970s. A 1965 Polaroid Swinger commercial featuring Manilow's Meet The Swinger jingle starred a young Ali MacGraw.

Before Manilow's well-known association with Bette Midler began at the Continental Baths in New York City in 1971, he recorded four tracks as Featherbed, leading a group of session musicians produced by Tony Orlando. Three of the tracks - Morning, a ballad; Amy, a psychedelic-influenced pop song; and an early version of his own composition Could It Be Magic - all flopped on the charts, a fact for which Manilow himself is fond of saying he is eternally grateful, especially in the case of the last. That was because the arrangement of Could It Be Magic was an uptempo pop tune. Manilow had arranged the tune as a classical piece that slowly built. This is the early version of Could It Be Magic:

Here's Amy:

... And here's Morning:

As Manilow accompanied artists on the piano for auditions and performances in the first two years of the 1970s, Midler caught his act in 1971 and chose the young arranger to assist her with the production of both her debut and sophomore releases The Divine Miss M (1972) and Bette Midler (1973), as well as act as her musical director on the eventual tour mounted for the former. Manilow worked with Midler from 1971 to 1975. Here they are, in the Continental Baths in NYC in 1971, performing Chapel Of Love:

Here they are, 27 years later, with a favorite of mine, Friends:

After the Featherbed singles went nowhere, in July 1973, Bell Records released his debut album, Barry Manilow, which offered an eclectic mix of piano-driven pop and guitar-driven rock music, including a song called I Am Your Child, which Manilow had composed for the 1972 Vietnam War drama Parades, written by Manilow with Marty Panzer. This is I Am Your Child:

The album also contained Barry's own arrangement for Could It Be Magic:

The song provided Donna Summer with one of her first hits:

It was also covered by Take That in the 1990s, as an up-beat disco version of the song:

When Bell Records was taken over by Clive Davis, the former head of Columbia Records, he created Arista Records out of all the labels under the Columbia Pictures banner including Colgems, Colpix and Bell. Under the auspices of its head, many artists were dropped; however Davis was reassured by the Manilow acquisition after seeing him perform as the opening act at a Dionne Warwick concert, on June 26, 1974.

The partnership began to gain traction in 1974, with the release of his second album, Barry Manilow II, on Bell Records and reissued on Arista, which contained the breakthrough number-one hit, Mandy. Manilow had not wanted to record the song, which had originally been titled Brandy, originally recorded by its co-writer Scott English, but the song was included at the insistence of his new label chief. The name was changed to Mandy during the actual recording session on August 20, 1974, due to the fact that there had already been a song called Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) performed by Looking Glass and released in 1972 on Clive Davis' Epic label. Here is the original, by Scott English:

Here's Barry's #1 hit version:

His follow-up single, a Motown-flavored tune also from this album, was called It's a Miracle and made #12 in the US, as well as being his 2nd #1 in Canada:

The re-released version of Could It Be Magic was a Top 10 hit for him, and it was followed by the lead single off his third album, Tryin' to Get the Feeling (1975). The single was I Write the Songs and it was his 2nd #1 in the US.

The album's title track was yet another US Top 10 for Manilow:

His fourth studio album, This One's For You (1976) was one of his best. The title song, which was also the lead single, began with the line: "This one will never sell, they'll never understand", which was somehow prophetic, since this was his smallest hit in the 70s (US #29, Canada #28):

Not to worry though, his next one, Weekend in New England, returned him to the Top 10:

... and the third single off this album, Looks Like We Made It, returned him to #1, for the third time in less than three years:

There was a song in this album that felt like it was made for his gay fans. Without being specific, All The Time seemed to be reaching out to all those who felt they didn't belong. The lyrics went:

All the time I thought
There's only me
Crazy in a way
That no one else could be
I would have given everything I own
If someone would have said you're not alone

All the time I thought
That I was wrong
Wanting to be me, but needing to belong
If I had just believed in all I had
If someone would have said you're not so bad

All the time, all the wasted time
All the years, waiting for a sign
To think I had it all
All the time

The next album, in 1977, was a live one. Daybreak was the hit single; a song that I liked a lot, at the time:

His next album, Even Now (1978), was Manilow's breakthrough in Britain. It also contained some of his most enduring hits, one of which was Can't Smile Without You, a Top 3 hit and gold record:

The title track was a Top 20 hit, as well as his ninth #1 on the US Adult Contemporary chart, out of thirteen in total. He is ranked as the top Adult Contemporary chart artist of all time.

One of his most famous songs, perhaps his most popular international hit, came from this album: Copacabana (At the Copa) was certified gold and although it "only" made #8 in the US, this tropical melodrama is still being played today. It's beautifully camp, and, naturally, has always been a gay favorite.

His follow-up single, Ready to Take a Chance Again, appeared on the film Foul Play, starring Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn. It was a big hit (#11 US, #4 Canada), as well as being nominated for the Best Song Oscar in 1978.

His final hit from Even Now was Somewhere in the Night, a Top 10 in the US and Canada:

A Greatest Hits collection followed, then in 1979 One Voice was released. The first single from it was Ships, an Ian Hunter (of Mott The Hoople [link]) composition. This meditation on father-son relationships was yet another Top 10 hit for Barry:

Another hit single off this album was When I Wanted You:

Bermuda Triangle was only released as a single in the UK - and it was a hit: only his second Top 20 hit (the first since Mandy):

Manilow's only big hit from his 1980 album called Barry was I Made It Through the Rain:

If I Should Love Again, his album for 1981, contained two big US hits and one big hit in the UK. The first was The Old Songs:

Then came Somewhere Down the Road:

The UK hit was a cover version of the old Four Seasons smash, Let's Hang On:

In 1982, Oh Julie, a hit for Shakin' Stevens in the UK, was a single-only release in the US. It managed to enter the US Top 40, even if only just.

Here Comes the Night (1982) was Barry's least successful album until then. He had a minor hit in the US with Memory (from the show Cats):

I Wanna Do It with You was a UK #8 hit:

Some Kind of Friend had better luck in the US charts (#26 Hot 100, #4 AC):

Jim Steinman was the songwriter/producer with Wagnerian tendencies that made a superstar out of Meat Loaf and briefly resurrected the careers of Bonnie Tyler and Air Supply. He would do the same for Manilow; in 1983 he gave him his last major hit, Read 'Em and Weep (US Hot 100 #18, US AC #1 - his last - UK #17, Canada #22):

The 80s brought on MTV, and, as the Bugles rightly said, video killed the radio star; Manilow was now a man in his forties, not handsome enough, not "manly" enough and not cool enough to appeal to the new generation. He was left with his niche audience - his most devoted fans all along; women of a certain age. He stopped having big hits, but his concerts did just fine: In the UK, Manilow had five sold-out performances at Royal Albert Hall. In the United States, at Radio City Music Hall (1984) his 10-night run set a box-office sales record of nearly $2 million, making him the top draw in the then 52-year history of the venue.

Barry's last US Top 30 album for the 20th century was 1984's 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe. It contains two duets with two legendary jazz artists. Here's Blue, with the incomparable Sarah Vaughan:

... And here's Big City Blues (with Mel Tormé):

1987's Swing Street contained Brooklyn Blues, an autobiographical song for Manilow:

... As well as Hey Mambo, an uptempo Latin style duet with Kid Creole & The Coconuts:

His album from 1989 had his name as the title. It was well reviewed and although it didn't peak high up the charts, it reached gold certification. From it, here's Keep Each Other Warm:

Manilow spent the 90s and the 00s touring and releasing albums that mostly consisted of cover versions of evergreens. They did OK, occasionally selling enough copies to be certified gold. In early 2006, however, he had an amazing reversal of fortune: The Greatest Songs of the Fifties marked Manilow's return to his former label, Arista, with the company's founder, Clive Davis, setting the singer up with 1950s pop classics much in the way that the savvy businessman steered Rod Stewart in the direction of jazzy standards in his successful The Great American Songbook project. The album was an amazing hit in the United States. It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1, giving him the second chart-topping album of his career. From it, here's Unchained Melody:

... and here's Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing:

The recipee was successful, so there was no reason not to continue; The Greatest Songs of the Sixties came out that October, and peaked at #2 US. Here's Can't Take My Eyes Off You:

In 2007, The Greatest Songs of the Seventies peaked at #4 US. Here's It Never Rains In Southern California:

In 2008, The Greatest Songs of the Eighties peaked at #14 US. Here's Never Gonna Give You Up:

In 2010 the concept was The Greatest Love Songs of All Time; it peaked at #5 US. Here's You Made Me Love You:

Barry left Arista again, and in 2011 released 15 Minutes: It was the first independent release of his career, through his Stiletto Entertainment label. It was his first album of original material in many years, and it's a concept album that tells the story of a fictional singer/musician who dreams of fame. It did alright, peaking at #7 US and at #20 UK. Here's the title (and opening) track:

15 Minutes won Manilow a Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy nomination in 2012. The album's final track, Everything's Gonna Be Alright, is an anthem to optimism:

In 2014, Night Songs, another album of evergreen covers was released, while a few months later he released My Dream Duets, which consisted of engineered duets with artists no longer with us. Both 2014 albums made the Top 10 in the US. From the latter, this is I Believe In You and Me, with Whitney Houston:

His final album, so far, came out a couple of months ago. This Is My Town: Songs of New York is just what the title promises; songs about the Big Apple, written by Manilow himself, as well as by other artists. This Is My Town is his own composition:

... and here's the classic Leiber/Stoller composition, On Broadway:

After graduating high school, Manilow married Susan Deixler, but the marriage was short-lived. He walked out after just one year of marriage telling her that he was going on 'this wondrous musical adventure.' "She reacted badly of course," he noted. She told him he could only take his clothes, but he insisted on having his piano too and she relented.

Two months ago, Manilow has spoken about his sexuality for the first time and came out as gay, confirming he is married to manager Garry Kief, his partner since 1978. Why didn't he come out during all these years? “I’m so private,” he said. “I always have been. I thought I would be disappointing them [fans] if they knew I was gay. So I never did anything.”

He said he had been shocked by the reaction after fans discovered he was in a relationship with Kief: “They were so happy. The reaction was beautiful – strangers commenting: ‘Great for you!’ I’m just so grateful for it.”

His former wife was among the well-wishers: "I wish him well. I'm happy for him. I'm glad that he's found love and happiness."

Barry Manilow was never a critics' favorite. The audience was divided; many loved him and as many hated him. During the 21st century, however, the way that the public perceives pop music has changed. Genre hard divisions are a thing of the past, and everybody listens to everything nowadays. That's one of the reasons that the careers of legacy artists such as Barry Manilow, Rod Stewart, Neil Diamond, etc, have experienced a commercial rebirth. Whatever happens in the near future, Manilow is an important part of the pop history of the 20th century. As testament to his musical significance, Manilow was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in June 2002, alongside Sting and Michael Jackson.