Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow, born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943, in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, is a singer, songwriter, composer, and book writer whose career has spanned more than six decades. His mother was Edna Manilow, and his father, Harold Kelliher, was a truck driver of Irish descent whose roots trace to Limerick, Ireland. His parents divorced when he was an infant, and his maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. His grandfather changed the family surname to Manilow in the weeks before Barry's bar mitzvah. Manilow graduated from Eastern District High School in 1961 and went on to study at the City College of New York, the New York College of Music, and later the Juilliard Performing Arts School, where he focused on musical theater. While a student, he worked at CBS to cover his expenses.

Manilow's professional life began in the 1960s, when he composed an original score for a musical adaptation of the melodrama The Drunkard after CBS director Bro Herrod asked him to arrange songs for the project. That Off-Broadway production ran for eight years at New York's 13th Street Repertory Theatre. During the same period, he established himself as a commercial jingle writer and performer, composing and singing for brands including State Farm Insurance, Band-Aid, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepsi, McDonald's, and Dr Pepper. In 2009, he received an Honorary Clio at the 50th Anniversary Clio Awards in Las Vegas recognizing that body of work. By 1967, he was serving as musical director for the WCBS-TV series Callback, and he also conducted and arranged for Ed Sullivan's production company. Alongside Jeanne Lucas, he performed as part of a duo for two seasons at Julius Monk's Upstairs at the Downstairs club in New York. By 1969, Columbia/CBS Music vice-president Tony Orlando had signed him, and the two collaborated on recordings released under the name Featherbed on Bell Records.

In 1971, Bette Midler selected Manilow as her pianist at the Continental Baths in New York City and subsequently engaged him as producer on her debut album The Divine Miss M and her second album Bette Midler, released in 1972 and 1973 respectively. He also served as her musical director on the tour supporting her first album. His production work on The Divine Miss M earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Album of the Year at the 1973 ceremony. He continued working with Midler through 1975 and has also produced Grammy-nominated albums for Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson, and Sarah Vaughan. Bell Records released his debut solo album, Barry Manilow, in July 1973, followed by Barry Manilow II in 1974, which featured the breakthrough single "Mandy." That song had originally been recorded by co-writer Scott English under the title "Brandy" and was retitled during the recording session on August 20, 1974. Clive Davis had insisted Manilow record it despite his initial reluctance, and it became the first in a sustained run of hit singles and albums.

Among his most recognized recordings are "Could It Be Magic," "Looks Like We Made It," "Mandy," "I Write the Songs," "Ready to Take a Chance Again," "Can't Smile Without You," "Weekend in New England," and "Copacabana (At the Copa)." Manilow has placed 51 singles on the Adult Contemporary Chart's Top 40, including 13 number-one entries, 28 top-ten entries, and 36 that reached the top twenty. He has released 13 platinum albums and six multi-platinum albums, and his worldwide solo record sales exceed 85 million copies. He has received Grammy nominations as a performer, producer, and arranger fifteen times across every decade from 1973 to 2015, winning once. Frank Sinatra, in the 1970s, remarked of Manilow, "He's next."

On Broadway, Manilow appeared in productions spanning from 1976 to 2019, starring in Barry Manilow on Broadway and Barry Manilow at the Gershwin, and also appearing in Harmony, for which he served as composer and book writer.