Barry Manilow

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At the Copa, Copacabana...

Barry Manilow is an American singer/songwriter best known for hits such as "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", "I Write The Songs" and "Copacabana".

Is the Trope Maker for Stuck on Band-Aid Brand (he wrote the jingle).

Discography

• Barry Manilow (1973)
• Barry Manilow (1974)
• Tryin' To Get The Feeling (1975)
• This One's For You (1976)
• Even Now (1978)
• One Voice (1979)
• Barry (1980)
• If I Should Love Again (1981)
• Here Comes The Night (1981)
• 2:00 AM Paradise Cafe (1984)
• Manilow (1985)
• Swing Street (1987)
• Barry Manilow (1989)
• Because It's Christmas (1990)
• Showstoppers (1991)
• Singin' With The Big Bands (1994)
• Summer of '78 (1996)
• Manilow Sings Sinatra (1998)
• Here At The Mayflower (2001)
• A Christmas Gift of Love (2002)
• Scores (2004)
• The Greatest Songs of The Fifties (2006)
• The Greatest Songs of The Sixties (2006)
• The Greatest Songs of The Seventies (2007)
• In The Swing Of Christmas (2007)
• The Greatest Songs of The Eighties (2008)
• The Greatest Love Songs of All Time (2010)
• 15 Minutes (2011)

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Barry Manilow provides examples of the following tropes:

• Adorkable
• Anti-Love Song: "The Last Duet" (duet with Lily Tomlin) is of the Comedy/Parody variety:

Lily: You creep Into my heart, And make my heart burn. Barry: You sneak Into my mind, And make my head ache. Both: There are things I long to tell you Lily: You're much too blond. Barry: You snore. Both: Look, It's time to face the music. Barry: Bye bye! Lily: Don't slam the door! And I don't want, Barry: I don't want, Lily: I don't want. Barry: I don't want, Both: No, I don't want your flowers anymore!

• Audience Participation Song: Manilow picks a girl out of the audience to sing "Can't Smile Without You" with him.
• Berserk Button: Don't refer to Manilow's fans as "Fanilows". Just... don't.
• Big Applesauce: "New York City Rhythm", "Copacabana (At The Copa)", "Avenue C", "Brooklyn Blues", and of course the Concept Album Here At The Mayflower, which is about life in a New York apartment building.
• Blue Eyes: According to people who have met him in Real Life, they are startlingly blue.
• Break the Cutie: See: Parental Abandonment below.
• Break Up Song: "Lay Me Down", "I Was A Fool (To Let You Go)", and many, many others.
• Broken Record: "Sweet Heaven (I'm In Love Again)" is quite repetitive.
• Christmas Album: Three of 'em.
• Cloudcuckoolander: For reasons known only to himself, Manilow sometimes chooses to present himself as such. Don't be fooled.
• Concept Album: Here At The Mayflower, and 15 Minutes, which is about the perils of fame.
• Cover Version: The Greatest Songs Of... albums. And Manilow Sings Sinatra. And all those Christmas albums.
• Media Research Failure: Despite endless claims to the contrary by journalists who Did Not Do the Research, Manilow did not write the famous "You Deserve A Break Today" McDonald's commercial, but he did sing the vocal on it.
  • "I Write The Songs" is not Manilow going on an ego trip about what a fantastic songwriter he is. The "I" in the title actually refers to the spirt of Music, and in fact the very last line of the song is, "I am Music, and I write the songs". As Manilow himself is constantly at great pains to point out, he didn't even write that song; Bruce Johnston did.
• Dark and Troubled Past: As above, see: Parental Abandonment below.
• Darker and Edgier: 15 Minutes.
• Deadpan Snarker: As only a native New Yorker can do it!
• Dumb Blond: Averted pretty massively.
• Everyone Is Christian At Christmas: Three Christmas albums, Barry? Really??
• He Also Did: A jazz album, two swing albums, and two Concept Albums.
  • In the early Seventies, he worked as a jingle writer for commercials, and wrote several famous ones such as the "Like A Good Neighbor" jingle for State Farm Insurance. As noted above, he also sang the vocal on the famous "You Deserve A Break Today" McDonald's commercial, but he didn't write one bit of it.
    • VSM (Very Strange Medley) with the commercials is here.
  • In The Eighties, Copacabana was made into a musical Made for TV Movie starring Manilow as Tony Starr and Annette O'Toole as Lola Lamar. See it here.
• Happily (Un)Married: Manilow and longtime friend/girlfriend Break1998-1.jpg Linda Allen have been together since the early seventies. She's his girlfriend, except for when she isn't. They live together, except for when they don't. One assumes that It's Complicated.
• Hidden Depths: See: Ivy League for Everyone below.
• Intercourse with You: Many, many times. "I Wanna Do It With You", "I'm Your Man", and lots of others.
• Ivy League for Everyone: The Juilliard School.
• Jews Love to Argue: Manilow is on record as saying that his relationship with Bette Midler can basically be summarized thusly.
• Large Ham: Have you seen the page pic?
• Lonely Together: "Lonely Together". Fits this trope so well that it should possibly be the Trope Namer.

Wouldn't it be fine bein' lonely together? Wouldn't it be fine havin' a shoulder to share? You could tell me how he broke your heart, And I'll tell you how she broke mine. Then maybe later on I could take you home. Now, wouldn't it be sad bein' lonely all alone?

• Long Runner
• Money, Dear Boy: Three Christmas albums????
• Nice Jewish Boy
• Noo Yawk Aksent
• Old Shame: Have you seen the page pic?
• Parental Abandonment / Disappeared Dad: Manilow's father left him and his mother when Manilow was two years old.
• Rockstar Song: "It's A Miracle".
• Self-Backing Vocalist: "One Voice", among others.
• Self-Demonstrating Article: "I Really Do Write The Songs". Manilow hangs lampshades all over the place with this one. Served with delicious side dishes of Self-Parody and Take That Me, with a Crowning Moment of Funny at the very end for dessert. A little taste:

You start off with the verse That's the part that tells you What the song is gonna be about. You gotta grab 'em first Dope is good, or death is nice But love is still the best way out. And then you pad, and then you fill, Or you complain, or get a chill. But most of all, you move along To the center of the song.

Yes, that's the chorus Sing it for us Never overlook givin' it a hook You see sometimes I really do write the songs!

• Self-Deprecation: Constantly.
• The Seventies: And how!
• Seventies Hair: Oh yeah.
• Signature Songs: "Copacabana", "Can't Smile Without You", "Mandy", and of course "I Write The Songs".
• Silly Love Songs: Too many to name here.
• Stuck on Band-Aid Brand: The Trope Maker.
• Your Cheating Heart: "Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed?", "Starting Again", and countless others.