Though many dont realize this guy does more than covers and showtunes. Manilow has quite a range, embracing Jazz on his early records and working with people like Phyllis Hyman, Sarah Vaughan, Kid Creole, Mundell Lowe, Mel Torme and tons of others on his Jazz Recordings in 1984 and 1987. Its been 10 years since Manilow has done a "pop record", 2001's amazing concept record "Here at the Mayflower" was Manilow at his best, doing a range of different music. But this record pushes it further than he has since the 70's records. At 67 Manilow sounds fresher than any of todays POP stars, 15 minutes is about a Fictional POP star, who gets the break and then falls, and then tries to make a comeback at the age of 23 (wonder who is talking about?) Well Barry was inspired by Britney Spears for one, and her downfall in 2007, 15 minutes is about that "lifestyle" that is going around now more than ever. But more importantly are these friggin songs. A range of rock/orchestra/pop and a ballad or two, Manilow is on another level with this record.
From USA TODAY
While his fans of nearly 40 years may disagree, legendary singer-songwriter Barry Manilow wishes that, in a way, his new studio album 15 Minutes didn’t have come to come out this week. “People have been hearing cuts and everybody’s flipping out over this album, more so than anything I have ever done. Every artist feels the same way: It’s like having a new baby, you create a beautiful thing, and then you release it and people say, ‘Boy, that’s an ugly baby,’ ” he says, laughing. “That’s what I’m nervous about.” Released on his own Stilleto Entertainment label, 15 Minutes marks Manilow’s first all-original effort — and a very strong one, at that — since 2001’s Here at the Mayflower, with several tribute and compilation albums in between. It’s a sonic story told in 16 tracks of a man who finds fame and then loses it, with lyrics by Enoch Anderson. You can hear songs from the album as well as classic hits on his just-launched Radio Manilow station on iHeartRadio (listen to it with the widget below), which also features other musicians’ music he digs. Listen to it for a couple hours and you’re liable to hear Sting, Annie Lennox, Crosby, Stills and Nash, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, the Four Seasons, Tina Turner, and Hall and Oates. Manilow, who’s in residence playing shows at the Paris Las Vegas, checked in with us to talk about the new album, music education and if he’ll ever follow in the footsteps of iconic music producer Clive Davis and channel his inner music mogul. Read below for the interview and check out a preview of the new album at Manilow.com.
The album is still very much you, but it’s obvious you’re trying some new stuff.
I hope people understand that this is a really risky thing for me to do, and I really love taking a chance like this. It harkens back to the earlier albums, before I did the covers. This is the kind of album I always made, filled with different styles and different kinds of songwriting. The first album [in 1973] had a jazz piece on it followed by a Chopin prelude followed by a couple of guitar-driven songs. Those are the kind of albums I used to love to make, but about 10 years into it, I started to make tribute albums to different styles of music, which I really loved doing. And Clive was very, very for those kinds of albums. I sort of lost the songwriting part and I missed it. So this is the first one in a long time where I actually get a chance to go back to writing and writing that kind of album filled with melodies and lyrics and great production.
You are the guy who writes the songs, after all. Was it easy for you to get back into that groove?
I have been writing over the years, but not for the albums as much as I have for Broadway stuff and the movies and stuff like that. My albums seem to have taken a turn to singing other people’s stuff, and they were very successful and people seemed to like it. But I missed the songwriting, so this is a real important one for me. I just really love it.
When you listen to the record, you definitely get the “fame” theme. Albums with a theme seem to be a staple in your discography.
The Paradise Café album [in 1984] had a theme: I put myself in a nightclub in the 1950s, and I was the piano player with a group of musicians. The same thing with the Here at the Mayflower album that was stories about people who lived in an apartment building, and that was great to write. For me as a songwriter, it is agony to try to write a hit song that will be played on the radio. There are people who can write like that, like Diane Warren, who cranks ’em out two a day. I really admire that because, for me, sitting down at the piano and trying to write a love song that will be played on the radio is just impossible. It is the most difficult thing to do. I don’t know how to do it — I’ve had luck doing it, but it’s always agony. As you know, writers have to face the blank page, and that blank page is very difficult for me. But if you give me a situation to write about, that’s fun. That I can do really, really well, and that’s why I came up with this idea. It felt like a really interesting idea to write songs about fame and what fame can do to somebody because I’ve been down that road. Those songs I definitely knew how to write, and I was even able to put some songs in that would sound good on the radio as well. But to just write a song about, “I miss you,” ugh, God, that’s hard. [Laughs]
Were there a few songs that you thought were riskier than others as you were writing?
There’s a song called Letter from a Fan that was risky because, No. 1, the topic of it was risky. She’s kind of a stalker and gets a little angrier and angrier as the song goes on. And I didn’t sing that one — I gave it to Nataly Dawn, who’s a wonderful singer from this group called Pomplamoose. I thought, Well, that’s kind of an oddball thing to throw on an album, but I knew it was the right thing to do. And some of these angry songs, I wasn’t sure whether the people who like what I do were going to be able to be OK with, “Oh, there’s a song on it called Who Needs You.” I thought the music of it was great, Enoch’s lyric is really great, but will the public like hearing me be angry on a song? Even after Letter from a Fan, I come in just an angry guy, with lots of guitars and edge music on it. I thought, Are they going to be looking for the pretty ballads? This is not an album of pretty ballads. There’s a lot of energy to it. But so far, the people who’ve heard this are having no trouble with any of that.
Did you try out the songs in your Vegas show?
No, I’ve only done Bring on Tomorrow there, and it stops the show every night, so I’m OK with that. And I did this hour on QVC a couple of weeks ago. I did eight songs in front of an audience and we sold loads of albums, meaning the public was buying them and they really liked it.
Bring on Tomorrow, to me, has that classic Manilow sound.
I only wanted to do one of those. I didn’t want to put a batch of those on the album. There’s another beautiful ballad on it called Written in Stone. It’s when he becomes famous, and she doesn’t want to come along. What’s interesting about this album is Enoch and I were writing it about a fictitious young person who wants fame, gets it, blows it and starts again. I really was writing about somebody else, but somewhere in the middle of writing this thing, I realized that I had actually lived through every single song. I was really writing about myself. I didn’t start off writing an autobiographical album about what I went through, but I had really lived through every single experience. It’s just that I never went down that far as I take the guy at the end. I never wound up in a hotel room saying, “Nobody’s calling and what the hell happened?” I never did that. I did experience all the other ones.
It seems like that would be surreal personally if you’re writing these songs and have an epiphany like that.
It made for a better performance for every song. I could be more truthful as a singer than if I hadn’t experienced these things.
You have a reprise of the opening number before ending the album with a song called Everything’s Gonna Be All Right. It’s a hopeful moment after this sea of raging emotions.
I didn’t want to end it on a down note — that would have been a bummer. I wanted to go back and end on a hopeful note. You know, that’s me. I’m a hopeful guy. I’m sorry. I see the good in things. [Laughs]
Will your fans get to see you tour with this album or are you staying put in Vegas?
I stopped touring. It got me. It’s a young person’s gig. After about 30 years of room service and waiting for planes and hotel rooms and being away from home, I was done. I got lucky — the Las Vegas Hilton first asked me if I wanted to go there, and I didn’t want to retire. I love being with the band and I really have gotten very fond of performing, but I had to get off the road. I had to get my life back. This Vegas thing turned out to be a real gift. I don’t really tour anymore, but I’m beginning to stick some of these songs in when we do one-nighters now and again. We did four nights at the O2 Arena in London, and we did Bring on Tomorrow there. They really responded well. I’m putting my toe in the water and I’ll put two more songs from the album into the Paris show. If they go over well, when we go out again I’ll do three songs from 15 Minutes.
Some people might know who Nataly is, some might not, but she has a really nice voice. Do you feel that could be something you’re good at, finding talent on the side and developing it on your Stilleto label? Do you have a music mogul in you?
No, I really don’t. I’m not good at that. I did two, maybe three Broadway musicals, and casting is not my forte. I can spot talent, but I’m not sure I can spot commercial talent. That’s a Clive Davis thing, and I leaned on him for anything commercial. He was my commercial ears when it came to songs and productions. He’s great at spotting who’s going to have a hit record and what kind of sound they have. That’s not my thing at all.
You’ve done a lot for music education in schools around the country. How often do you get a chance do that?
We do it as much as we can, especially when we’re on the road and I know I’m heading someplace. We send letters out to schools and invite them down to soundchecks. I have my band come down, and we talk to all of them for an hour. I speak to the music directors and the principals and ask them what do they need, and if I can, we deliver brand new instruments to various schools. We did that here in Palm Springs, we did that in Vegas, we did that in Seattle. Especially when we’re in a town for a long time, then we really go nuts. But when we’re there for one night, I do the best I can. This Manilow Music Project is me and three of my friends — that’s it. It’s not like the Grammy Foundation or NARAS. I do it myself, so it’s a small grass-roots way of doing this.
Is it fun for you to talk to kids and see their burgeoning love for music, the same one you probably had at their age?
My favorite was when I did American Idol. I’ve done three American Idols and the last one I did, they asked me to talk to nine contestants that were about to go on to American Idol. I really loved speaking to them for an hour and taking their questions. They’re like sponges. These young people just want somebody to give them a hand on how do you do this, how do you sing, what do you do, what do you wear, how do you arrange a song, what do I do, how do I pick the right song? It was great talking to these people.
As a music fan yourself, have you heard anything recently that you really loved?
There’s one group that I’m particularly fond of, a British group called Friendly Fires. I like them! They’re kind of odd and I don’t know whether they’re a hit or anything. That’s not where I go – I don’t go for “hit” anything. But they’re good, they’re interesting, they’re unique and that’s the one I’d pick. I don’t go to pop radio, I go to electronica. My taste runs toward anybody who’s very, very musical. Pop radio has never done it for me. By the time they get hits on pop radio, they’ve watered it down to four chords and very, very simple lyrics. Yes, now and again we get great stuff on pop radio, but not often. I find my favorite music on NPR and KROQ. I’d much rather find it through those radio stations.
Best tracks
15 minutes
Work the Room
Written In Stone
Winner Go Down
Letter From a Fan/So Heavy So High
Bring On Tomorrow
Wine Song
Great Record!!
I must add that "Letter From A Fan" is a spooky as hell song, featuring Nataly Dawn, scary to hear her "writing" this stalkerish Letter, that we all KNOW exists from Fans!
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