New Respect

No longer railing against criticism that his music
is fatally bland," Barry Manilow is back and as
effervescent as an uncorked bottle of champagne.

was always going to be."
Dante previously tasted his own pop
stardom, in 1969, as the lead singer of
arry Manilow has received
the Archies' No. 1 smash "Sugar
rave reviews for his new
Sugar" and on the Cuff Links Top-10
Here at the Mayflower CD,
bubblegum hit "Tracy," before meet-
and the top adult-contem-
ing Manilow in 1972. Both were then
porary recording artist is charming
working as studio jingle singers.
fans and quieting quibblers with bold-
After forming an alliance, Dante
er musical strides on his current "Live
and Manilow placed 18 Top 40 hits
2002!" tour that stops tonight at
on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and
Detroit's Fox Theatre for two weekend scored back-to-back gold and plat-
performances.
inum LPs. Yet despite numerous times
There's no doubting a sparkling
in the winner's circle, Dante recalls
sophistication on Here at the Mayflower,
that dissolving their six-year partner-
Manilow's 31st album and his first
ship was in the singer's best interests.
offering of original material
"Barry wanted to do
in 10 years.
different things and
The debut release on
we had kind of fallen
Concord Records, an inde-
into the habit of doing
pendent jazz label, show-
big, bombastic bal-
cases musical vignettes
lads," Dante explains.
about tenants in a ficti-
"I think he thought
tious apartment building
that it was time to
called the Mayflower.
change directions and
The 55-year-old Jewish
get out of that rut and
performer (born Barry
go into new and excit-
Alan Pincus in Brooklyn)
ing directions, like
"Here at the Mayflower":
wrote, arranged and played The CD's "Joe" and
Broadway music, jazz
most of the instruments on "Esther" characters are
and producing himself
”
the conceptual offering
alone.
rooted in Joe and Esther
that treks listeners down
On his own,
Manilow, the singer's
.
hallways and outside doors Russian-Jewish grandparents. Manilow discovered
of other people's lives.
that perpetual pop
That kind of total artistic
stardom would
control has made Manilow believe
become increa s ingly harder to navi-
more in himself and given him the
gate. However, after more than two
freedom for deeper, personal expres-
decades apart, Manilow invited Dante
sion, says Ron Dante, who produced
to sing background on three songs
all of Manilow's hit singles and albums
that appear on Here at the Mayflower.
from 1974 to 1980.
One of Dante's reunion contribu-
"There's a great deal of maturity and tions, "Turn the Radio Up," was the
confidence in Barry now, and I think
first tune to be pitched to radio. He
that he's used to the idea that he's a
says that its happy feeling reflects a
star," notes Dante, whose studio wiz-
dream-come-true for Manilow, who
ardry was behind such Manilow signa- will be inducted into the Songwriters
tures as "I Write The Songs," "Looks
Hall of Fame in June.
Like We Made It," "Can't Smile
Dante added that the Mayflower
Without You" and "Copacabana."
project had been in the back of
"When I was producing him, we
Manilow's mind for "a long, long
were both surprised at the amount of
time." The recording star told him
adulation and success that came very
that he was going to do "something
suddenly with 'Mandy.' We were both
that he really loved," using themes,
reeling from the impact.
words and images that he always want-
"Now, Barry is much more confi-
ed to put into songs.
dent and a matured artist who's at
"He said that it might not be a big
home on the stage. I think that he's
pop album, but he really felt that it
finally grown into the person that he
was going to be a personal album, a

MARTIN NATCHEZ
Special to the Jewish News

B

personal statement, and it really is,"
Dante suggests.
"There's a few references to his
grandfather and grandmother in two
of the songs. His grandfather meant a
lot to him and he got some of that
emotion into this album."
Indeed, the "Joe" and "Esther" char-
acters in the songs "Not What You
See and "I Miss You are rooted in
Joe and Esther Manilow, the singer's
Russian-Jewish grandparents.
The thematically linked tracks deli-
cately express a love story between a
married couple in their 80s and pro-
vide the new CD's most tender story
line.
"When I heard the cuts about his
grandparents, I cried," says Dante. "I
thought it was so touching, because I
knew where it came from. They
weren't just pop songs. It was some-
thing very close to his heart.
On stage, Manilow is also performing
numbers from his Broadway-bound
musical, Harmony, co-written with lyri-
cist and frequent collaborator Bruce
Sussman. The show, currently being
previewed in Europe, bowed at the San
Diego area's La Jolla Playhouse in 1997.
It presents the true story of the
Comedian Harmonists, a six-man a
cappella singing group in Weimar,
Germany, during the 1920s and 1930s.
At the height of their fame, the slap-
stick comedy sextet, comprising three
Jews and three non-Jews, played shows
around the world, sold millions of
records and were seen in more than a
dozen films.
But deemed "Jewish-Marxist noise"
by the Nazi Party, the Jewish members
of the group were forbidden to per-
form and the Comedian Harmonists
were forced to disband in 1934.
Manilow continues to sing his older
classics in concert, as well, including
most reissued this month on Arista
Records' new CD retrospective,
Ultimate Manilow.
Those musical memories, to Dante,
still symbolize the footprints of a fond
friendship that he's glad to have had
renewed.
"I was the happiest producer in
town with Barry, who was a super-tal-
ent, and our ideas always meshed on
our records," he says.
"Great songs were always coming at
us, and we would go into the studio
with the best that we could find. In
the end, we accomplished a lot." El

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