Barry Manilow: Songs from the Seventies (2007 TV Special) User Reviews

Songs from the Seventies was a nearly excellent show from Barry Manilow

[tavm · 9/10 · 3 December 2007]

Besides many of his own hits from the seventies ("Mandy", "Copacabana" in a nice Latin version, "Looks Like We Made It"), Barry Manilow also sings some hits from that decade from others like Frankie Valli's "My Eyes Adore You", The Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (which he tells us was originally inspired by a photo of a man carrying his polio-diseased brother along a long road in the early '40s with the title as a caption), and Albert Hammond's "It Never Rains in Southern California". He also sings a part of Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were" leading to a medley of many of his other hits from the seventies ("Even Now", "I Made It Through the Rain", "Can't Smile Without You", etc. before he ends with "I Write the Songs"). In the beginning, Barry tells of his first hit songs that he wrote being commercial jingles (Anyone remember "I am stuck on Band-Aid/Cause Band-Aid's stuck on me" or "You deserve a break today" from McDonald's or "Like a good neighbor/State Farm is there"? Those were all his). The show ends with Mr. Manilow singing acappella "One Voice". That last number maybe seemed a little pretentious to me. Otherwise, this was a very enjoyable show with great shots of the audience and musicians throughout. Well worth seeing for all Manilow fans.