"Outstanding Concert by Manilow"

I saw Barry Manilow's concert at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia on October 9, 2004. This was the first time I had seen Barry Manilow perform live, although I have been an ardent fan of Barry Manilow since 1972(his early years). The following week after seeing the Manilow Concert I decided to purchase the audio cd entitled, "Barry Manilow, Two Nights Live." When the cd arrived in the mail, I immediately played the

first disc on my home stereo system. It was amazing! The audio

cd was an exact replication of the concert I had seen at the Wachovia Center. The audio recording was superbly engineered and produced. "Two Nights Live," was recorded at the PNC Center for Performing Arts located in New Jersey.



Each cd is exactly one hour of fantastic melodies and lyrics

as only Barry Manilow can achieve. All of Manilow's hits and then some are included in this two cd set. Make sure that you listen to the cd's in proper sequence, otherwise you will be missing the thrill and excitement of feeling like you were seeing Barry Manilow in a live concert.



Barry Manilow is now performing exclusively at the Las Vegas Hilton. I feel priviledged to have seen Manilow at one of his final concert tours in my area. Everytime that I listen to the audio cd, "Two Nights Live," I am reliving the excitement and glory of this talented entertainer, musician, vocalist, and dancer once again. I have many live performance audio cd's, but none can compare to the stellar performance of Barry Manilow's, "Two Nights Live."

Not His Best Live CD

I've been a Manilow fan since the first single in the 70's and he's my favorite musician. Having seen him numerous times in concert and considering him a fabulous live performer, I pre-ordered this CD and awaited it's delivery with great expectation.



So it brings me great pain to be unable to give him 5 stars. I listened to the CD several times just to make sure my initial impression wasn't wrong; sadly, it confirmed it. It has to be hard to sing the same songs for 20+ years and I know Barry once said he didn't want to become one of those people who go through the motions. To his credit, he hasn't - and that may be one of the issues I have with the CD. Through the years, he's always mixed it up in concert and given new arrangements to the songs and vocalized them differently and I guess maybe that kept them fresh and enjoyable to perform. Most of the time, they were enjoyable to hear. However, in this CD, some of the old favorites are sung in a way - sometimes in talk-sing (shades of Neil Diamond) that I yearned for the original rendition. To my surprise, he just didn't sound in good voice on some songs - and I've never heard him sound anything but great in any of the concerts I've attended.



I can't help but wonder why they didn't release the A&E Live by Request Concert or the make a CD out of the Manilow Live show (released in DVD format) he did a few years ago - both were fantastic and would have made a superior CD and more accurate depiction of his voice and live performance talents, in my opinion.



All that said, there are more good songs than bad. Some of the songs are performed wonderfully and capture him as anyone who has seen him live has heard him.



If you're looking for a comprehensive collection of Manilow music, I'd recommend The Complete Collection - the boxed set. While you may miss the music of a few of the years that came afterward, it's got every song he released up to that point and a number of tracks you won't find elsewhere. "Barry Live" is a great live album, even if it's earlier in his career - it more accurately captures his voice and the vitality of his live performance.



Bottom line, the performance of the songs isn't even and just doesn't do Manilow justice. It's not his best, but even at less than his best, he's better than most.

THIS CD IS HIS BEST YET!!

I JUST RECEIVED THIS CD THIS AFTERNOON, AND I CAN'T STOP LISTENING TO IT! IT'S ABSOLUTLY AWESOME!! HE JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER ALL OF THE TIME...MY GRANDCHILDREN AND I WERE DANCING TO IT THIS AFTERNOON, IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO YOUNG AND "OLD".



I ESPICALLY LIKE HIS NEW CUTS FROM THE MUSICAL HARMONY, I SAW HIM TWICE IN CHICAGO IN 2002 WHEN I FIRST HEARD THE CUTS FROM HARMONY, AND AM SO EXCITED THAT IT IS ON THIS CD. I JUST ORDERED THE DVD FROM THIS PREFORMANCE, CAN'T WAIT TO GET IT, AND SEE HIM PREFORM!