Not everything I post can be a cute squirrel or cat photo…
Hello Monday! I hope you’ve got your ears on and your minds open, because this is the day The Nest cracks open its musical depository full of forgotten and fun songs that we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy is ready to play something for you that would get her permanently banned from any nightclub with a reputation to protect, while the Sponkies look at that photo and thank Dog they were not alive during the 1970’s. Music and passion are always the fashion at The Nest…
When you think of lame, crappy, unlistenable mellow schlock from pop music’s embarrassing past, more than likely a gentleman by the name of Barry Manilow comes to mind. You wouldn’t know it given the reputation he seems to have earned, but Manilow is actually one of the most successful pop music artists EVER, with twelve more #1 songs than Bruce Springsteen ever had (That would be….. well, 12), and more Top 40 hits than there are disco fans in the world. For one decade from the early 70’s to the early 80’s, Barry Manilow was the King of Pop…
Yes…… THIS guy.
Because the whole world seems to regret having ever sung the songs that Barry wrote, you won’t find much from the Manilow catalogue played on your local radio station these days… with the exception of the incredibly cheesy “Copacabana.” That’s too bad… there are a few snippets of old songs that continue to bang around the grey matter in my brain that I can’t identify, but turn out to be old Barry Manilow songs once I take them to Google. One of my favorite blasts from the past that I had no idea was a Manilow song is this one from the latter days of his prime… the 1983 #26 hit “Some Kind of Friend.”
This song is so incredibly 80’s sounding, that I’m surprised it’s gotten buried underneath the shag carpeting. This song always hung around in the back of my mind because it was part of a children’s trivia show that aired on local Saturday morning TV in St. Louis when I was a kid that I watched all the time. “D.B.’s Delight” opened with the memorable synth intro from J Geils Band’s “Freeze Frame,” but when the show went to or from commercial break, it used the awesome keyboard riff from “Some Kind of Friend”… which permanently burned that melody into my brain even though it’s probably the only place I ever heard the song. You can hear it open this clip of the show from sometime in the mid 80’s…
Yeah, D.B. was a puppet, and a pretty creepy looking one at that. But not quite as creepy as….
You’re going to regret ever clicking on this post.
I’ll be back next week a lost song that won’t be by Barry Manilow, or feature his photo…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
the intro reminded me a little of fame (ooooh that movie… saw it 7 times lol)… I have to admit that I was a big fan of mandy… it had something what touched my heart… and therefore I named my guinea pig mandy ;O)))
Barry would be proud to hear that he inspired a guinea pig! When we had one, I just named it Piggie… I’m so unclever (But I loved that thing, it was so cute)….
I never would have guessed that was a Manilow song….never. He never struck my fancy I’m afraid and I’m sure all Manilowmaniacs will take me off their Christmas card list for saying that but hey…..I “calls ’em as I sees ’em”. He was just too “schlocky” (yeah I know it’s not a real word but you know what I mean).
Pam
You’re in good company, I’m sure! There’s only a select few Barry songs I like, and they’re by and large NOT the ones he’s best remembered (or hated) for. In fact, probably the criteria I have for liking a Manilow song is that they DON’T sound like a Manilow song!
His music was always ok with me – not yay or nay – just okay. I actually heard him on the radio last week on a talk show. OMP – he sounds so old. I mean really old. How do all of these people get old when all of us stay so young? XOXO – Bacon
Well, you can’t do plastic surgery on a voice. I guess he somehow got older than 29….
Snorts with piggy laughter!! XOXO Bacon
My kids named our first standard poodle after his song Mandy. Talk about cheesy, but she was a sweet thing and it fit her personality. As for Copacabana…it is the perfect wedding song. Everyone is probably more than a bit lit and the DJ is creepily leering at the young girls so someone gets the ‘great’ idea to form a conga line and sway/stumble to forget how creep he is.
Erm…make that ‘how creepy he is.’ Slow, useless fingers this morning. 😲
Who would have guessed DJ’s are creepy? Maybe I should give Snuggle Bear that role instead of Scratchy. As for me, I prefer to stay away from anything that involves dancing…. drunken or sober!
A LOT of my friends & their moms LOVED/LOVES him. One of my oldest friend had every one of his albums & I listened to that.
Now, about this 80s crap. Way, way too disco-y. I couldn’t listen to this whole song. It was about to cause me a seizure. This song is just awful.
I was surprised you even played it! Between it being Manilow and me warning that the sound sounded incredibly 80’s, I figured you’d just flip the video off and be done with it!
I wonder if Barry could be sued for his music causing seizures?
I listened to about 45 seconds then turned it off. I could tell I was about to pass out from that brain damaging “song”.
Manilow has always been a bit too mellow for my gritty taste, but a lot of people just LOVE HIS VOICE. Love. His. Voice. I think he still sells a lot of whatever they sell these days. Garry’s REAL preferences are kind of Frank Sinatra-ish, but he’s also pretty good with anything that has really good words, regardless of genre. Assuming he can (these days) hear the words.
I always thought Manilow was more of a standards guy than a pop music guy, but I was shocked when I saw how successful he was on the radio. Had he been around in Frank’s day, I think he would’ve gotten stuffed in the back of a trunk and driven out to the river…
ody N biskit……………..sew…………..hope ya hada grate week oh end…..springz ther final lee….de outside crewz doin grate…….baseballz bout reddy ta start …we think…may be it all reddy did…what else can we talk bout bee sidez manilow songz ~~~~~~~~~
😉 ♥♥
LOL! The good news is now there will probably never be another Manilow song on a Monday…
I learned another new song today. I wouldn’t have guessed that was him unless I listened really hard.
I have a Barry story (I have a lot of music stories because I have friends from the Bay Area and Southern California.) I’ve got dirt. Sort of weird and sad dirt. A friend of mine was getting married in 1979. The Best Man worked for Barry Manilow or was somehow associated with him. They went over to Barry’s house for a dinner party and all Mr. Manilow wanted to do was talk about himself and play his songs all nigh. He wasn’t interested any anyone else at all. I was told it was the most boring evening ever. I was also told all of the tapes in his car were of his music.
So now we finally know who Carly Simon was singing about! The mystery is solved! Thank you for sharing that awesome story…
Ha! Ha! Love that story that Juliette just told, Well, me for one I don’t mind a good ” Barry M ” song, They can be kinda catchy that doesn’t need a doctors script! 🙂
I can totally picture Barry coming out and “entertaining” everyone with his awesome history. He’s got some good songs, though he’s definitely not all that!
He’s so…tan. And um…something else…oh yeah, LAME!
That picture is almost comically bad. One you could hang up on the icebox to scare away the roaches…
I’m telling you…he looks like a paisley gnome…
The university library has a 4ft tall stuffed bear called Beary Manilow. He’s awesome.
Ha! As long as he doesn’t sing like a bad Chuck E. Cheese animatron…
Nope, just poses for pictures and gives hugs.
Dammit. I was all set to hate this song on principle but it’s actually quite catchy! Thanks again to Alexa for playing the song which is as ever “unavailable in my country”.
Barry Manilow is so sneaky at actually having a few decent songs despite being universally despised. Too bad Justin Bieber can’t learn from him…