When Barry Manilow thinks of having a residence on Radio City Music Hall, the boy born in Brooklyn in him is singing, “it seems that we succeed.”
“Well, after having lived and raised in the leg in New York, Radio City was the epitome of glamor and importance when it came to films and programs,” said Manilow, 81, exclusive to the post. “I remember that my family took me to Radio City Christmas program, and I was sitting in a balcony seat.”
“And now I stop at the center of the stage, and I can see the seats in which I was sitting with my family. It is really a very deep experience for me,” he continued. “Real I entered there once we were there and we sat down in the seats I sat down [as a kid] And looked towards the stage. “
Manilow will play with fans in those same duration, five shows in the historic New York Theater began on Wednesday night and continuous until Sunday.
And now, after having established the record of the actions more of a lifetime on Radio City in April 2024 with 42 programs, the singer behind the classics of the 70s as “Mandy”, “I Write the Songs” and “Can’t Smile with You” is connected to those in the Hird Mehanine and Inezzanine section.
“It is surprising that a New York boy can play Radio City again and again,” he said. “You know, that stage, there is nothing like that.”
It is a long way for Manilow to his recurring residence in Radio City, starting when he grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and discovered his love for music.
“Williamsburg was a real landfill when I grew up there,” he recalled. “Now, Williamsburg Is Fancy Schmancy, But When I Grew Up There, It Was Not Fancy Schmancy. And My Family Always KNew That I Was Musical. But they had no money. They A piano, so they go a piano, so my go drop me piano, “
But Manilow this to a spineta piano who obtained from his stepfather for his 13th birthday. “As soon as I hit the keys to that spineta piano, I knew where I was going,” he said. “I knew that it was definitely going to be music of that moment.”
Manilow became the great piano man on the now disappeared high school of the Eastern District of Williamsburg. And he has never looked back.
The singer-pianist became a player in demand at the New York music scene.
“I was the reference companion in Manhattan,” said Manilow. “You needed someone to play for you, you called Barry, because I can play anything. I can play for anyone.”
That would include stars like Bette Midler, with whom Manilow played in the infamous gay bathroom house the continental bathrooms in the Upper West Side.
“I was its director and arranger for three years,” he said. “And she was the most talented human being I had, in my life.”
Manilow also perfected his skills in the world of advertising as a Tintineo writer and singer.
“I did many jingles,” he said. “And those jingles were very, very important, because I learned to write pop songs writing the Jingles. And I could work with some of the best musicians in New York, because they play in those jingles. And I learned.” “
“Those who remember are the state farm,” as a good neighbor, State Farm is there. “And ‘I am stuck in the band help brand, because Band-Aid is stuck in me'”.
But even if I didn’t know, Manilow was intended for solo stardom.
“I thought it was a ridiculous idea,” he told the post. “And then I started writing songs. I could pay a singer, so I sang my own demonstration and obtained a sacrifice to make an album on my own as a singer.”
After launching his homonymous debut album in 1973, Manilow scored his first number 1 with “Mandy” in 1974. But it is the second list, “I Write The Songs”, which became his exclusive song after he launched 50 years ago as the first single of his third album of 1975 “Tryin” to get the feeling. “
But Manilow was reduced to make everyone sing at the beginning, despite the pressure of Arista Records, Clive Davis.
“I went down ‘I write the songs’ about and again,’ he thought that Clive thought it was a great success,” he recalled. “I said:” They will think that I am singing about me. “I said:” Clive, it’s not about me, it’s about the spirit of music. “
“But I knew that the song was strong. And so I sat with her, and I thought:” Ok, how do I do this for me? “And I made that album in a hymn to the spirit of music.”
And to this day, Manilow closes his concerts with “I Write the Songs”, even if he and the public are not synchronized with the meaning of the melody.
“I am singing and thinking about one thing, and they are thinking about that in another way,” he said. “People love, and I love doing it. It is a wonderful way to finish our program.”
As Manilow, who now lives in Palm Springs, California, with her husband manager Garry Kief, takes him home to Radio City, he still feels like that same New York boy in his heart.
“While we drive from the airport to the city, I always tell my friends in the car:” I have a story for every corner of Manhattan, “he said.” I know exactly what was happening in that corner. “
And after more than five decades along the way, Manilow is hugging his last sand tour “The Last Concerts” this summer.
“It reaches the point where there are too many hotels and too many airplanes,” he said. “We say goodbye to the places I have played. And you know, thesis audiences … They have always left me wonderful. It will be emotional, but it will also be fun.”
But that does not mean that Manilow is closing the “Copacabana” party.
“I don’t understand why I can still do it,” he said. “But until I can’t hit that natural F [note] At the end of “even now”, I’m going to move on. “
