He wrote the songs: Barry Manilow bidding farewell to legendary career

Barry Manilow is taking a mastery lap in the form of a farewell concert tour that the -year-old pop legend jokes is his see him before he croaks tour With each concert he s saying farewell to a certain region and on July he says goodbye to Oakland and on Sunday July he says goodbye to San Jose Those are the last scheduled dates on the current leg of the Last Concerts tour but the always-working Manilow will resume his Las Vegas residency at the International Theater from September into December so he s not really done Speaking via phone before a Rhode Island show Manilow looks back on an extraordinary career that exploded in when Mandy became a massive hit and Brooklyn-born Barry Alan Pincus Manilow is his mother s maiden name because an unlikely pop superstar Before Mandy Manilow spent much of his early career during the s writing and humming commercial jingles for such iconic brands as State Farm Insurance Pepsi Band-Aid McDonald s and Kentucky Fried Chicken Several of his creations are still in circulation The next time you hear the State Farm song Like a good neighbor State Farm is there know that you have Manilow to thank for it He also began working as a songwriter conductor and arranger for a variety of television productions But Manilow says he never really intended to be the guy in the spotlight but rather the pianist the composer the guy in the background as he puts it I had been playing piano for all these great singers but I had made demos of my songs that I was sending around and Bell Records yearned to make a whole album with me caroling Manilow recalls I mentioned that was ridiculous but that s what they craved Then came Mandy after which the hits kept coming and Manilow had to figure out how to be a performer I had worked with Bette Midler playing for her for a couple of years and I learned a lot from her Manilow says She was the bravest performer you will ever see and she just got into the craziest things When I had to tour I was not good at it I remember at the Bijou in Philadelphia I stunk I was really terrible I advised my manager I didn t want to do this anymore but the audiences liked me And Manilow was learning to like them back I began to get settled talking to them and my songs were solid and my arranging was solid he says After a while I could tell the audiences were having a good time so I owe my career to these people who let me learn how to be a performer while I was being a performer If music snobs turned their noses up at Manilow s open-hearted love songs audiences never did As the blockbuster singles like I Write the Songs Copacabana and Could It Be Magic continued to dominate the charts Manilow never lost his everyman charm People see me on stage and know this guy is real he says I m not a phony You know who I am I ve never figured out a way of not being myself on stage and I think that has worked in my favor In fact this is the key to Manilow s superpower Take his hit Looks Like We Made It The song starts quietly rather ordinarily with Manilow thinking about a former love and considering how they ve both moved on from one another But then the orchestra winds up and Manilow goes from Clark Kent to Superman in one seismic step-up key modulation for the final impassioned chorus The song suddenly becomes arena-sized and it s undeniably Manilow at his bulk Manilow Whether a song ends big or not depends on the song I m caroling But you re right I do build a song and not just keep it on one level he says modestly He also acknowledges that before he was a pop music master he was steeped in Broadway musicals where the calibration of emotion is engineered for optimal entertainment value and dramatic impact Manilow is in fact part of an esteemed club that includes George Gershwin Irving Berlin and Stephen Sondheim He added Broadway composer to his resume in when his musical Harmony opened on the Great White Way Getting there was a long rough process but in the end Manilow says he s proud of the figure which is preserved on the original cast album Manilow scoffs at the idea of certain sort of jukebox musical based on his life and hit songs I m still doing it myself he says with a laugh And he s not done creating either He s finishing up an album of original songs that he s been working on for years continually tweaking arrangements here and there They re solid solid songs he says I keep thinking of the word old-fashioned and I don t know if that s a good thing or not Maybe classic is a better word but they re the kind of songs you don t hear much anymore I m still doing it myself he says with a laugh Getting back to his current gig Manilow acknowledges that he doesn t really need to tour anymore I ve got more money than I ever thought I d have he says But Manilow does think it s pivotal to say a proper farewell With this tour it s kind of bittersweet because we re going places that have invariably been supportive of me he says People are coming to see their old friend Barry because I m not coming back to their city and they want to say goodbye I love being with all these people and I m going to make them feel good That s my job If I can make them forget for minutes what they re going through what everybody is going through then that s what I m going to be doing until I can t do it anymore Chad Jones has been writing about Bay Area arts since theaterdogs net BARRY MANILOW The Last Concerts tour When where p m July at Oakland Arena Arena Way Oakland - p m July at SAP Center W Santa Clara San Jose Tickets - Oakland - San Jose both subject to change ticketmaster com