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Date Posted: 23:02:41 02/25/06 Sat
Big blast from the past
Spin City
First posted 11:34pm (Mla time) Feb 25, 2006
Inquirer
Editor's Note: Published on page A4-1 of the February 26, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
NEW YORK—THE FIRST TIME BARRY Manilow immersed himself in pop radio, he was an unknown singer-songwriter looking for his first hit with a song called “Mandy”— a tune he wasn’t too thrilled about.
So he decided to check out what the competition had to offer.
“I turned the radio on and heard ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ and ‘Disco Duck,”’ said Manilow, laughing. “I said, ‘These people need me!’ And that was my first entrance into pop music.”
Now, some three decades later, Manilow, still disenchanted with pop radio, finds himself needed again. But instead of coming to the rescue of listeners with the sentimental, semi-schmaltzy ballads that made him famous, he has returned with “The Greatest Songs of the Fifties”—an Arista Records collection of classic romantic tunes, including revered songs like Elvis Presley’s “Are You Lonesome Tonight” and the album’s first single, “Unchained Melody.”
Frustration
“I think if ‘Unchained Melody’ does what I think it can do, I think there is an audience out there that would heave a sigh of relief— that finally, there is a melody, and orchestration, production, and a vocalist that is giving them a song that they can just listen to... and not be annoyed by the vocal acrobatics that vocalists seem to think is impressive,” said Manilow, with a hint of frustration in his voice.
So far, fans are demonstrating their relief not by sighing, but by racing to buy up his album. It debuted at the top of the charts after its Jan. 31 release and has hovered near the top spot since, outselling albums from the likes of Jamie Foxx, Carrie Underwood and Mary J. Blige.
“For him to do the great songs of the ’50s and for the public to respond in that way, it’s just phenomenal,” said record mogul Clive Davis, Manilow’s former mentor and a producer of his latest album. “The stores have just been running out of it.”
“I hadn’t really thought about the ’50s; The ’50s kind of passed me by when I was growing up,” said the 59-year-old Manilow. “When I began to get into music and actually find myself connecting to music, it wasn’t those songs. It wasn’t the ’50s. It was the generation before the ’50s, the Ella Fitzgeralds and the Sinatras and the writers like Johnny Mercer.”
But he decided to give the idea consideration simply because Davis suggested it. After all, it was Davis who first made Manilow a star, signing him to his new Arista label 31 years ago and pushing him to record the No. 1 hit song “Mandy.”
“It is difficult for an artist of my age to do an original album,” Manilo conceded. “And then Clive came with this interesting idea.”
So he took Davis’ suggestion—and his list of about 80 songs —and started researching the music of the era that passed him by. And he found himself enchanted.
“What I found was that they were good,” he said. “They were well written, they were innocent.”
And they remain timeless, resonating with listeners some 50 years after they were originally recorded.
Manilow has been so inspired by the success of this latest project, he is open to exploring the music of other eras as well.
“I wonder if people would enjoy a tribute to the songs of the ’60s, in this style. And if that works, maybe there’s a ‘Songs of the ’70s and ’80s.”’
AP
http://news.inq7.net/entertainment/index.php?index=1&story_id=67494
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