[music]

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in Soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. A couple quick housekeeping notes. We are sad to report that we have to reschedule Judd Hirsch today, but we'll get him on the show. iMordecai. It's a pretty good movie. We're going to talk to him about it as well as The Fabelmans.

Also, I want to remind you, this Wednesday at 6:00 PM is our Get Lit with All Of It Book Club event at the New York Public Library. We have been reading Mona Simpson's novel, Commencement. Plus we have a special musical guest, singer-songwriter and frontman of the beloved New York City Indie Rock Band, the Walkman Hamilton Leithauser will be there. Now, tickets are free, but you do have to reserve them, and they have been selling out month after month. To secure your spot at the New York Public Library, head to wnyc.org/get-lit, New Yorker you can also borrow an e-copy if you can read really fast. This is all happening on Wednesday.

There's also a live stream as well. Go to wnyc.org/get-lit to find out more information. That is in your future, but right now, we're going to get things started with Barry Manilow.

MUSIC - Barry-Manilow: It's a Miracle

You wouldn't believe where I've been

The cities and towns I've been in

From Boston to Denver

And every town in between

(Everyone looks the same)

The people, they all look the same

(Yes, the same)

Oh, only the names have been changed

(Just the names)

But now that I'm home again

I'll tell you what I believe

It's a miracle (miracle)

A true blue spectacle

A miracle come true

(Whoa ohh ohh ohh)

We're together, baby

I was going crazy

Alison Stewart: If you ain't sure dancing, I don't know what's wrong with you. Born and raised in Brooklyn, educated at City College in Juilliard. New York's own Barry Manilow is going to be honored in his hometown by the New York Pops. It is a double celebration. The event is called This One's For You: The Music of Barry Manilow. The Grammy Tony and Emmy award-winning singer, his catalog of hits with your formed in celebration with the New York Pops' 40th-anniversary. Performers include Dionne Warwick, Norm Lewis, Jim Caruso, and many more stars of stage and screen. Then, after that, Barry Manilow will perform a run of shows at Radio City Music Hall from May 31 to June 4.

When those of you who follow us on social media, learn that Barry was going to be a guest today, you sent along a few messages. Lynn said, "I've been a fan for over 40 years. One of my most memorable moments was Midnight with Manilow in Vegas when he brought all of his collaborators and friends together in one room and shared so many great stories with the fans, heart emoji." "Blenheim Palace is the heart of the English countryside, 1983, Glorious sunny day, best night ever." That's from Lisa.

Dory Burke wrote, "Way back to Barry at the wing for Four Nights in Boston. Not only did I see all four shows, but as a local fan club member, we decorated his dressing room, left goodies, et cetera. Ah, youth, those were the days. Still a Fanlow almost 40-plus years later. Melby told us, "My mom took me to see Barry for my first concert on November 2, 1982, in Binghamton, New York. I was 14 years old, started a lifelong love of his music. I've seen him in concerts 55 to 60 times over the years, seeing him for the second time this year in June at Radio City Music Hall." Joining me now to preview his upcoming shows and talk about his very distinguished career, is Barry Manilow. Hi, Barry.

Barry Manilow: Hi. Wow, what an intro, Gees. That was great, Alison. Great.

Alison Stewart: Good. I'm glad. You deserve it. You deserve it. How does it feel to be honored by the New York Pops? You perform with them over the years, how does it feel to be honored with them as opposed to collaborating?

Barry Manilow: Yes. I've never been honored. I've never had anything like that happen. I may have gotten awards periodically, but I've never had a whole evening of people singing songs that have meant so much to me. This is the first time anyone has ever done that for me, so I'm thrilled. I can't wait.

Alison Stewart: When you perform with an organization like the New York Pops, what's unique about that experience?

Barry Manilow: Well, I've got some spectacular orchestrations that I've used for albums, but 78 musicians playing this music that has meant so much to me. I just don't know whether I'll make it through the night because this music has meant so much to me that hearing these wonderful singers, backed by 78 great New York musicians, it's going to just be wild and just a great, great experience.

Alison Stewart: Are you a crier when you get emotional?

Barry Manilow: Yes, maybe. This might do it for me. I better bring the Kleenex.

Alison Stewart: Yes, make sure you get Kleenex on hand. When you see just a group of people come together like this, your duet partners like Dionne Warwick and Melissa Manchester, love her, what do you hear in your music when you hear these people who have been longtime collaborators that maybe you don't think about on a normal day? When you hear someone with whom you've worked a long time singing your songs, what do you hear in your songs?

Barry Manilow: What I'm hoping to, these are great singers, is that they find the truth in each song. Melissa is doing I Am Your Child, which I wrote for my very first album. It's a sweet little song, and it means a lot. It means a lot to the audience, and it means a lot to me, and I can't think of a better person. Melissa called me and said, "I want to do this, and I want to do I Am Your Child. That means she's going to kill.

What I'm really looking forward to because I couldn't find anybody that I wanted to do a Copacabana. I called Steven, who is the head of the New York Pops, Steven Reineke. I said, "Could you see whether you could get Charo to do Copacabana?" [chuckles] She called and she said, "I'd love to do it." I'm looking forward to that moment.

Alison Stewart: The world may stop for those four minutes, it may stop turning, it may need to.

Barry Manilow: You're right.

Alison Stewart: Charo doing Copacabana? The best thing I've heard all day.

Barry Manilow: It was just a fantasy. I never thought that she'd say yes, but I'm so happy that she did.

Alison Stewart: There's a good life lesson in that, Barry. You should just ask for what you want sometimes, you never know.

Barry Manilow: Yes, and you never know. You're absolutely right.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Barry Manilow. This One's for You: The Music of Barry Manilow will be the New York Pops 40th Anniversary Gala on May 1. You produce Dionne Warwick's 1979 album Dionne co-wrote two of the songs on it, including, All the Time. Let's listen to a little bit of that.

MUSIC - Barry-Manilow: All The Time

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

I had just believed in all I had

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

Alison Stewart: You don't feel right interrupting Dionne Warwick and that interpretation. Oh my goodness. When you think about what makes someone a good interpreter of a Barry Manilow song, what does that singer need to have? What brings on a good interpretation of your music?

Barry Manilow: Well, I've been lucky. I've worked with some of the finest lyricists over my career. For me, yes, I'm the melody guy, but when somebody sings the songs that I've introduced, it really is about crawling into the lyric of the song that is the most important for me. What you just heard was Dionne crawling into this wonderful song called All the Time. She's going to do that at Carnegie Hall in a week.

Alison Stewart: That's spectacular. You put out an album called My Dream Duets featuring songs with singers who are no longer with us, Cass Elliot, Whitney Houston, Louis Armstrong, what was the inspiration for that duets record?

Barry Manilow: Everybody was doing duets during those months. I made a list of the people that I was always want to sing with. When I looked at the list, they were all dead. [chuckles] Technology has come so far, that we were able to take their voices off of their old records. I was able to put a new orchestration and sing with them, and that's my dream duets. It sounds like I'm standing next to John Denver, or next to Whitney, or next to Andy Williams, and all these people that I've always wanted to sing with on my dream duets. It was a dream.

Alison Stewart: What's a memorable duet from your career of someone who is not in the beyond?

[chuckles]

Barry Manilow: I'd say a great version of Islands in the Stream with Reba McEntire. Oh, boy, that was a fun afternoon.

Alison Stewart: Ah, are you someone who listens to country music regularly?

Barry Manilow: I do not. I stopped listening to pop music too. Like I say, I'm a melody guy. When the melody finally comes back, I will turn the radio back on, but the melody seems to have gone away. It's still making great records, but it's all about rhythm right now. As much as I love rhythm, looking for a great melody and a great lyric. The Times change, and I think it will come back.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Barry Manilow. This One's for You: The Music of Barry Manilow, the New York Pops 40th Birthday Gala on May 1st. We're going to go to break with one of those duets that's got great melody from someone that Barry mentioned earlier. This is Barry Manilow and Melissa Manchester, You've Got a Friend. More with Barry after a quick break.

MUSIC - Barry-Manilow: You've Got a Friend

Close your eyes and think of me

And soon I will be there

To brighten up even your darkest night

Sweet Melissa, you just call out my name

And you know wherever I am

I'll come running to see you again.

Winter, spring, summer, or fall

All you got to do is call

And I'll be there

You've got a friend

[music]

Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Barry Manilow. This One's for You: The Music of Barry Manilow will be in celebration with the New York Pops 40th Birthday Gala on May 1st, and then Barry will be at Radio City Music Hall May 31st through June 4th. I think really big fans of yours Barry now and maybe they can hear it in your accent so a little bit that you are a New Yorker, born and raised in Brooklyn. Got your start in New York City. What is something that remains Brooklyn about you? We're WNYC, we're New Yorkers. We want to hear.

Barry Manilow: I talk fast. [chuckles] We all know, New Yorkers, we talk fast and maybe it was because we had to struggle to get a seat on the subway but I always have to remind myself when I go out into the middle of the country in concert, I gotta slow down. You see, people are not going to understand what I'm talking about, but when I get to New York, please, I can do whatever I want.

Alison Stewart: What was some of the music you were exposed to as a kid in Williamsburg that really shaped you as a musician?

Barry Manilow: Well, in the beginning, they knew I was musical, but they had no money, and they didn't know what to do with me, but my mother remarried and she brought home William Murphy, who was a truck driver. He was the brightest guy I've ever met, and he loves music. He brought with him a little stereo system that I thought was "Oh, my God, it was heaven." He brought with him a stack of albums, that may as well have been a stack of gold for me because I'd never heard stuff like this.

It was classical music. It was jazz. It was Broadway. It was even pop stuff. I memorized everything on those albums. Then when they threw out my accordion, please, and got me a little piano. As soon as I hit the keys on the piano, I knew that music was going to be my life.

Alison Stewart: Do you remember the moment or the era when you thought, "Oh, this is going to work? I'm going to be able to do this for a living."

Barry Manilow: Yes. As soon as I hit the keys on the piano, I knew it. That was it. The first thing I did we form a band and from forming my band on, it was nothing but music.

Alison Stewart: For folks who don't know this, you were a jingle writer for a while, correct?

Barry Manilow: I was, and it was great. I did go to college for music, but really, I learned more about pop music and studio work during those few years doing jingles than anything, because those musicians, these wonderful musicians in New York, really taught me how to orchestrate and making commercials. I've learned how to be in the recording studio with the engineers. I learned so much during those years writing jingles. Then jingles, you've got to write the catchiest melody in 15 seconds. If you don't write the catchiest melodies, another guy is going to get that commercial.

That was really important when I got to the pop music because pop music is exactly the same. You've got to write a catchy melody for a pop song. That was a very very important couple of years for me.

Alison Stewart: Well, the proof is in the pudding. For people who don't know, Barry Manilow wrote the State Farm Jingle. Take a listen.

MUSIC - Barry-Manilow: State Farm Jingle

Like a good neighbor.

State farm is there

Alison Stewart: Also Band-Aid

MUSIC - Barry-Manilow: Band-Aid Jingle

I am stuck on a Band-Aid

And a Band Aid's stuck on me

I am stuck on a Band-Aid

As Band-Aids stuck on me

Alison Stewart: To your point, in 10 seconds, you got us. Where there any jingle [crosstalk] Oh go ahead

Barry Manilow: They've been playing that State Farm Insurance commercial for over 40 years. It's my greatest hit.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Never thought about it that way. Is there a jingle that you often heard that you didn't write that you think, that's a good jingle? That person nailed it?

Barry Manilow: Oh, yes, "You deserve a break today, so get up and get away to McDonald's." That one started the whole thing off about big, catchy commercials, that McDonald's commercial started the whole thing off.

Alison Stewart: There you go. We were talking about Copacabana a little bit earlier. I read somewhere that you and your partner, Bruce Sussman, you really thought it would just be a novelty cut.

Barry Manilow: Yes, we did. We did. We had no idea that that song would turn out to be what it turned out to be. I produced the record with Ron Dante and we loved it. Just for fun, we took the record to a disco one night and they put it on and everybody ran to the dance floor and pretended they were in the 1940s and they were dipping each other and hoping all, and I looked at Ron I said, "Maybe we're onto something here," but who could have possibly predicted that?

Alison Stewart: Let's take a listen to Copacabana.

MUSIC - Barry-Manilow: Copacabana

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl

With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there

She would merengue and do the cha-cha

And while she tried to be a star

Tony always tended bar

Across the crowded floor, they worked from eight til four

They were young and they had each other

Who could ask for more?

At the copa (copa) Copacabana (Copacabana)

The hottest spot north of Havana (here)

At the copa (co) Copacabana

Music and passion were always the fashion

At the copa they fell in love

(Copa, Copacabana)

Alison Stewart: That took me back to my teen years in New Jersey. It just takes you back to where you were the first time you heard that song.

Barry Manilow: Yes. Copa was really the novelty cut on that album because I used to do novelty cuts on all the albums. Either it was a fast jazz piece or a Bandstand Boogie, the Clark TV show. Every album had one of those, and Copa was going to be that spot in that album, but we really never thought that it would be a hit song.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Barry Manilow. This One's for You: The Music of Barry Manilow, The New York Pops 40th Birthday Gala will be on May 1st. I understand it's going to feature the cast of your musical Harmony, which was about a 1930s German vocal group, which ran last spring at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Now, according to the New York Times, you've been working on that project for 25 years. Where did the idea first begin?

Barry Manilow: Bruce and I started when we were 13 or 14. Kidding. [laughter] It's a great story. [chuckles] It's a great story and it's a great show, and we had a ball down at the Yiddish Museum, and it was deep. The show is funny and wonderful, and very moving, and it all worked down there. Yes, we've been working on it for very many years. We mounted it periodically during those last 25 years. We always got great reviews, but the producers were scared to put something like that on. They would much rather have produced a wicked or something that sounded like a big hit.

This one, I guess, didn't sound like a bigger hit to the producers, so we were always struggling with that. Bruce and I believed in it for all those years, and finally, when we got to New York, we hit it.

Alison Stewart: Why was this a story that you think really needed to be told?

Barry Manilow: Well, for us, it was a musical story as well as a deep story about the Holocaust. It's not a story about the Holocaust, but it just goes nearly to the Holocaust. It's a story about six guys that were called the Comedian Harmonists. They were very, very good. There were a combination of The Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers. They were funny and very, very musical. They were huge. H=I mean huge in Germany and all around Europe. They even played Carnegie Hall, by the way. We thought that their story was really compelling because we don't know them. We never heard of them. They were so huge. How come we never heard of them? Well, our story tells you why we never heard of them.

Alison Stewart: I wanted to ask you about Bruce Sussman. You've worked with him for so long. What do you bring out in each other as collaborators?

Barry Manilow: Gee, that's a good question. What do we bring out in each other? Well, Bruce is a really a smart guy. Bruce should be a Broadway songwriter, and that's what Harmony is. I dragged him into the pop world, and he writes some beautiful, beautiful lyrics that are pop lyrics. He hates doing it, but he does it beautifully.

Alison Stewart: When you say he hates doing it, what do you mean?

Barry Manilow: Well, he'd much rather write lyrics about situations, and you don't really write situations in pop music. You write, I love you, or I miss you, and that's it. That's all you got. I love you or I miss you. You got to figure out a million ways to say I love you or I miss you. In Broadway, you can write about that lamp or you could write about walking down the street. You can't do that in pop music, so that's why it's more difficult for somebody like Bruce to write a pop song and a little easier to write about a situation.

Alison Stewart: Harmony, by the way, is nominated for outstanding musical and for choreography at Lucille Lortel Awards, which are happening on May 7th. Are there any plans for it for the future?

Barry Manilow: Yes. We're just waiting for the theater to open up and we're coming in this year.

Alison Stewart: Barry Manilow is my guest. I want to remind people he'll be at Radio City Music Hall May 31st through June 4th. That's a week run of shows. Do you switch things up when you perform at Radio City Music Hall or do you have your plan, and you stay with it?

Barry Manilow: I've got an idea for a couple of surprises. I don't want to give it away because it may not happen, but I've got a couple of ideas for some surprises for my New York friends.

Alison Stewart: Excellent. You're about to have a birthday, a pretty big birthday. It'll happen shortly after.

Barry Manilow: Oh, stop. Don't remind me of that. Really I'm terrified of this birthday.

Alison Stewart: Oh, Barry, 50 is not that bad. 50, it's not that bad. [laughs]

Barry Manilow: I'm terrified of this. I am. I'm terrified of this birthday.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] Oh, there's no reason to be. It's just another spin around the sun. You've become wiser.

Barry Manilow: Listen, I'm still healthy, I look pretty good, I don't have a big pot belly or a bald head, [laughs] and I still run around like I did 30 years ago, so, no, it doesn't seem like I'm actually getting to that age, but when you say I can-- Don't say the number, please. Don't say the number. It just is terrifying to me because it's a blank slate. My whole family died in their seventies. Well, now what? Well, what am I going to get when that happens?

Alison Stewart: Well, how do you take care of yourself and your voice?

Barry Manilow: Well, myself, I'm not a food person, I just don't like to eat, but I try to eat healthy and I work out every day. I do. I workout five days a week, so my body looks pretty good. We're doing shows in Vegas and that keeps me running around the stage, and up and down stairs on the stage. No, I'm in pretty good shape. I really am. I'm in pretty good shape. Somebody told me that that number that I won't say is today's 60 or 70, so I like that.

Alison Stewart: I'm on board with that. You look sharp as a tack. Please come on. [laughter] Last year you told 1010 WINS your favorite song to perform is Could It Be Magic from your first album. Why is that one special to you?

Barry Manilow: Well, I based it on the [unintelligible 00:27:55] in C Minor. I was very young when I did that. It lasted eight minutes on the record. I didn't know you were supposed to write a 2 1/2-minute record to get it on the radio. Mine lasted for eight minutes, so of course, nobody played it. Then there were some DJs around the country who did love Could It Be Magic in the eight-minute version, and so they kept playing it, and so the record company edited it down to three minutes, and people really turned out to like Could It Be Magic. I'm very happy with Could It Be Magic. What Chopin did was gorgeous and then I took it a little further.

Alison Stewart: Are there any songs that you are happy to retire, shall we say?

Barry Manilow: No. No. Honestly, no, and I've been singing-- No, because I look out at the audience, they're so happy. They're so happy when I'm doing these songs, and I'm doing this for them. I'm not doing this for me.

Alison Stewart: Barry, you're a professional, you've been doing this for a good long time. Is there any question that you haven't been asked that you'd really like to answer within FCC guidelines, please?

Barry Manilow: I can't think of one.

Alison Stewart: Any subject that you've never gotten to talk about?

Barry Manilow: I've been asked everything, Alison, honestly. How many years have I've been doing interviews? I love doing interviews, by the way, but I can't think of an answer to that one.

Alison Stewart: If only I had a little more time. Well, you'll have to come back. It's a challenge for me. The gauntlet has been thrown down to try to figure out a question Barry Manilow has not been asked.

Barry Manilow: All right. If I think of one, I'll text you something, and then we can start there. All right?

Alison Stewart: That's a date, that's a deal. Barry Malow will be at Radio City Music Hall on May 31st through June 4th and on May 1st. This One's for You: The Music of Barry Manilow, The New York Pops 40th Birthday Gala. Barry, it has been a delight speaking with you today.

Alison Stewart: Thanks, Alison. Same here. Thanks a lot.

Barry Manilow: Let's go out on Barry's favorite tune.

MUSIC - Barry-Manilow: Could This Be Magic

Come, come, come into my arms

Let me know the wonder of all of you

And baby, I want you now, now, oh, now, oh now, and hold on fast

Could this be the magic at last?

And could it be magic?

Come, come on, come on, come oh come into my arms

Oh, let me know the wonder of all of you, all of you

Baby, I want you now, now, oh now, now, oh now and hold on fast

Oh, could this be the magic at last?

Could it be magic?

Come, come on, come on, come oh come into my arms

Oh, let me know the wonder

 

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