Just a couple quibbles

This is a nice collection of Barry Manilow's best-known songs.



First off, let me just say that I wouldn't consider myself a fan (that would be my wife), but I do enjoy much of Mr. Manilow's music. Not often, and not in large doses, but if I'm in the right mood, I can blitz right through a collection of Barry and really enjoy the sweetness, the heartfelt emotion, and OK...even the schmaltz. Yes, there are times to embrace your inner kitsch. You boil this stuff all down and there is genuine life, honest emotion, decent tunefulness, and a nice helping of fun here. Those are all good things in my book.



At nearly 78 minutes, "Ultimate Manilow" has jammed about as much as it could on to a single "Best of" CD. So I can't complain too much about the omission of personal faves like "Read 'Em and Weep" or "Some Kind of Friend". To add either of those two would have dictated the removal of something else that probably was just as deserving of inclusion (I'd have left off "When October Goes" or "Somewhere Down the Road", but that's just me).



My little beef has to do with the versions of "Daybreak" and "It's a Miracle". Someone else already mentioned this, but I wanted to add my voice to theirs. On "Daybreak", I'm sorry, but an essential part of the song is the part at the end, where Barry cries out "Somebody yell 'one more time'! We may as well go all the way!". The crowd does yell "One more time", and off Barry and company go into one last victory lap of the chorus. It's a great moment, and I think nicely captures that essential live Manilow quality of sweetness, fun and playfully naive energy. So why was the studio version chosen for "Ultimate Manilow"? No idea, other than somebody simply goofed. The other oversight was including the album version of "It's a Miracle" rather than the single. The single has more energy to it. It's also the version most of us heard on the radio. It really is much more the definitive version than the album version heard here.



Other than these minor issues, I really have no complaints. And I do like the version of "Copacabana" included here.



So don't be afraid to buy and listen to and enjoy this music. If you need to you can always balance it out with some Elvis Costello after you're done.

please 5 stars

barry manilow songs are great. my favorites daybreak (live) not studio recording. does not give feeling. neither did it's a miracle on this cd. then the cd was not remastered to sound good. when turned up high. the speakers rumbeled. i hope his other essential collection has that. comeing soon. not buying it. if it dont have it's a miracle right or daybreak (live). lucky i got his greatest hits back in 1989. true to the album.

The Manilow Mystique Is Alive And Well

Never a critic's favorite, Barry Manilow managed to silence even his most vicious detractors by firing off a nonstop string of hits between 1974 and 1982 and even after that still attracting huge album sales (this cd alone went to number three the charts).



Collecting 10 years (1974 to 1984) of big hits and intriguing album tracks, this cd truly captures Manilow in his prime. The hits started with the 1974 album "Barry Manilow II" and a song called "Mandy". The syrupy but enjoyable ballad (a favorite in any fan's book) shot to number one and put Manilow on the map. With his success cemeneted by huge album sales and additonal hits the disco tinged "It's A Miracle" and the sonic marvel "Could It Be Magic" (which builds up to one of the best climaxes on any song ever), Barry began a long and fruitful career.



1976's "Tryin' To Get The Feelin' Again" proved to be an even more successful album, yielding Barry's signature tune "I Write The Songs" (another number one and one Barry didn't write, ironically enough) and the hit title track, which may be well be the anthem for all men who lost their sexual spark in the pre - Viagra era. Also from that album was "Bandstand Boogie", an update of the "American Bandstand" theme (by the way, get well Dick Clark! Just thought I should mention that).



His second album of 1976, "This One's For You" continued the hit streak, with the powerful Randy Edelman ballad "Weekend In New England" marching into the top ten and "Looks Like We Made It" going to number one. The album's title track, an uderrated gem, managed to crack the top thirty.



Barry was so successful by this point that when he released his live album "Barry Manilow Live" it shot to the top of the album charts, dethroning Stevie Wonder's "Songs In The Key Of Life". It even yielded a top forty hit in "Daybreak", which is presented here in its studio version, which is just as good.



1978's "Even Now" supplied Barry with two million sellers in the form of the giddy ballad "Can't Smile Without You" (this one has to be my favorite) and his timeless disco foray "Copacabana (At The Copa)", which is the precursor to the Latino craze that hit America in the late 1990s' in the form of the far less talented Ricky Martin. The album also yielded the underrated top twenty title track and the sensual top ten hit "Somewhere In The Night".



1978 was also the year Barry sang "Ready To Take A Chance Again", the love them from the movie Foul Play". The song just missed the top ten and was nominated for an Oscar.



1979's "One Voice" provided early signs that Manilow's hit streak may be at the last stages, since it wasn't as big or as consistently entertaining as the other albums before it. Which is not to say it's a bad album. It yielded the beautiful top ten hit "Ships" (penned by, of all people, ex - Mott The Hoople frontman Ian Hunter) and features some good songs not on here (such as the top twenty hit "When I Wanted You", which, despite its fairly high chart position, isn't really needed).



1980's "Barry" yielded the last Manilow single to make the top ten, the triumphant ballad "I Made It Through The Rain". After a few less successful singles, Barry enjoyed a brief resurgance in 1981 with "The Old Songs", a gorgeous top twenty hit that is an underrated gems, as well as "Somewhere Down The Road", a pretty ballad from the pen of the great Cynthia Weil.



1984's "2:00 A.M. Paradise Cafe" is represented by "When October Goes", a posthumous collaboation with the late great composer Harold Arlen. This song is a hauntingly beautiful number that has yet to be discovered.



"Ultimate Manilow" includes more or less every significant hit needed If you're a beginning fan or a Manilow fanatic, you must get this cd.