Barry Manilow hadn’t planned on having as momentous of an 80th year as he’s been having: In May, The New York Pops celebrated its 40th birthday with a Carnegie Hall gala dedicated to Manilow’s music; later that month, he began a five-night run at Radio City Music Hall, where he was joined by the leads of his musical Harmony, which opens on Broadway in November; and a summer tour preceded his return to Las Vegas, where he is on track to break Elvis Presley’s record for the most performances in the iconic International Theater.
Manilow never met Elvis, but he did stay in the original Elvis Suite when Westgate Las Vegas was The Hilton. “It was an older suite, but it was huge,” Manilow said during an August interview with Las Vegas Magazine. “It was the entire floor, the entire 30th floor, so I did get a sense of where he actually stayed when he was there.”
The 30th floor was remodeled shortly after Manilow’s Hilton 1985 debut. He stays in the current Elvis Suite when he flies into Vegas for his Thursday-Saturday Barry Manilow: The Hits Come Home shows. For Manilow, it was love at first sight when he saw the stage where The King reigned for 636 shows. Arenas enable him to take his music to the masses, but he considers the stage and audience capacity at the International Theater perfect for what he does.
“I like traveling into the audience,” said Manilow. “I have trouble being as intimate as I want to be with an arena. It’s fun and it’s exciting, but it’s a whole different kind of feeling than the Westgate. The Westgate is the perfect room for me. Out of all the rooms that I’ve ever played, this is the one for me. If I was building one for myself, this is the size that I would have built.”
Anyone who’s witnessed Manilow perform “Copacabana” at the venue would agree, as set design and a flight of stairs allow Manilow to perform above the audience as he sings of music, passion and fashion. It’s a place where Fanilows the world over can make a pilgrimage to their favorite singer, where songs transport them to happier times and longtime fans dance as if the decades since “Daybreak” never happened.
“These people are so happy, and they’re all ages. That’s why I still do it,” said Manilow, who had an epiphany during a mid-’80s concert. The lights hit the audience and it was as if he was seeing them for the first time. Until then, Manilow was somewhat self-centered in his shows. It was about the clothes, the look, singing perfectly.
“And then suddenly I looked at them and decided it’s not about me. It’s about them,” said Manilow. “Everything changed because I realized that’s why I’m on that stage. That’s why I’m there. It’s to make them feel great. It’s to make them forget their cancer and their divorces, and if they lost their job.”
The revelation marked the maturing of a special relationship between Fanilows and Manilow. “I’ve been very lucky,” said Manilow. “Those great people were there, not as many, but they were there from the very beginning. I don’t know why, because I was terrible on the stage.”
Manilow had never actually planned to be onstage. Before “Mandy,” before the first album, becoming a famous singer was not a goal. “Never even in my mind,” recalled Manilow. “I had no desire to do it. I was going to be a conductor, arranger or songwriter. Keyboard guy, anything in the background. The last thing on my mind was to be standing on that stage entertaining people.”
Prior to teaming up with Bette Midler at her legendary Continental Baths engagements, which ended in 1971, Manilow was an in-demand piano man and jingle writer who aspired to be an arranger, the next Nelson Riddle.
“I come from cabaret and Broadway,” he explained. “I used to play piano for everybody in New York. I was the go-to guy as the keyboard guy. I played for every singer that needed a piano player. I was the guy that they all called. Bernadette Peters, just everybody. I was the guy because I was a real good accompanist. I sound like a band when I play.”
Manilow was content, backing Midler as conductor, arranger and piano player. Then he made a demo, and his record company wanted to position him as a singer-songwriter, à la James Taylor and Carole King. He called the Divine Miss M for advice.
“I said ‘Bette, I think I just got a record deal.’ She said, ‘Doing what?’ I said, ‘Singing.’ She said, ‘But you don’t sing.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but they think I do.’”
The accompanist became an entertainer. Harmony, a bio-musical about German vocal group Comedian Harmonists created by Manilow and his longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman (“Copacabana,” “I Made It Through the Rain”), brings him full circle to being the wizard behind the curtain.
“They were a combination of the Manhattan Transfer and the Marx Brothers, all filled with great, complicated music,” said Manilow. “This happened in the 1920s and 1930s. The kind of music from the 1920s and ’30s, I love to listen to. … They were tremendously successful. They made 13 movies. They sold millions of records when records weren’t even big, and we had never heard of them.”
Previews for Harmony at Ethel Barrymore Theatre begin Oct. 18, shortly after he breaks Presley’s record during a three-day weekend of concerts, Sept. 21-23, that will benefit charities, including the Manilow Music Project. “It was the only way I could pay tribute to Elvis,” said Manilow. “Just to have something to do with Elvis is thrilling for me. I thought doing charity would be a way of saying ‘Thank you’ to Elvis. It was the only way I could say ‘Thank you.’”
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