Hitman Talks to Barry Manilow

Happy Birthday Barry Manilow! This will be the first time back in Corpus Christi since 1988! 36 years ago! He talks about the Manilow Music Project, what he does on his off time, who is his dream duet partner and more!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, Jeffes, Barry, misterManelo, how are you today? Thirty
six years ago? It's been thirtysix years since we've been we were two
years to a town. Wow,that's a long time. Nineteen eighty eight
was the last time you came toCorpus Christy. Isn't that crazy? Isn't
that just something? I'm so gladthat we put you on the list.

(00:23):
I'm so happy that we can comeback and say hello and goodbye. It's
just great that we're going to callthis Christie. Oh I am. I've
been to such a huge fan ofyours for so long. I'm actually a
little nervous talking to you today because, in fact, I went on social
media on Friday to let everybody knowI was talking to you, and everybody

(00:45):
went crazy. They were like,oh, oh my gosh, you're talking
to Barry Manelo. It's crazy.Oh good, good good. That's exciting.
So was it I wanted to bringup. Of course, you're a
National Treasurer. You've had fifty oneforty singles, thirteen hits of hit number
one, twenty eight appeared on thetop ten, thirty six reached the top

(01:06):
twenty. You have thirteen platinum andsix multi platinum albums. You are.
You are who I consider if anybodythinks of a superstar of the seventies and
eighties, it is of course you. How does it? And now you
besides your residency in Las Vegas andnow you've extended your stay at Radio City,
how do you feel? Well?I feel just great. I'm waiting

(01:32):
for the other shoe to drop.You know, I'm like one hundred years
old, and you know, Ilook at people that are my age and
they might look much different than Ido, and they have kind of stopped
or they've slowed down. And Ithink, if you slow down, you're
gonna stop. And so I don'tslow down. And I think that's what

(01:52):
keeps me going. And you know, the audiences keep me going in my
band and my crew, and I'mstill having a great old time. Now
I want to I want to actuallypersonally thank you. On this part.
I read about the Manilo Music Project. I'm a form a band student and
how you're you're doing this great projectwith music teachers. Can you tell me
a little bit about that? Yeah, Well, if the Manner of Music

(02:15):
project started here. I live inPalm Springs and one of my neighbors said
that his daughter was looking for asax because they ran out of saxes at
the school. I said, theyran out of saxes, so I got
I got a sax and then Ilooked up what's going on in high schools,
and sure enough, the government isstopped funding music and arts, and

(02:38):
now these schools are on their owntrying to keep music instruments into in their
classes. And when they break,these great music teachers put them together on
their own time. And these butthese kids, and these kids have they
send me videos of them playing thesenew instruments that we get them, and

(03:02):
it's just wonderful. These kids lovetheir music classes, even playing thirty year
old instruments. They still love theirmusic classes. They become their second family.
So we've been doing this for aboutfifteen years, getting instruments to schools
that are running out of instruments allaround the country. They tell me we've

(03:23):
by this time, we've given aboutten million dollars worth of instruments to schools
around the country, and I couldn'tbe happier. Wow, we're talking with
mister Barry Manilow, who will behearing Corpus CHRISTI on August the twentieth.
Tickets are still on sale right nowat ticketmaster dot com and of course,
at the American Bank Center box office. This will be the first time he's
been backed in thirty six years,since nineteen eighty eight. This is his

(03:46):
farewell tour. I just can whatto me. I don't like calling it
fair well. I mean, that'sa terrible word. You know. It's
just I've stopped. I'm stopping touringright Not because I'm tired or because I'm
bored. It's just because, youknow, I've been on the road for
so many years, you know,to put together another month long tour it

(04:14):
was just too much. So thisis the last time we're going to be
performing in these particular cities. Andyou know, you can come down to
the in Vegas. We're there atthe Westgate and Radio City and you know
I'm still around. Well, Iwas going to ask you this tour,
is it a lot like what you'reis at your residency? Is it pretty
much the same show that you doin Vegas? Bigger, bigger, longer?

(04:39):
Wow? Wow, I'm in Vegas. You know they throw you off
the Stasia after seventy five minutes.They want those people back out of the
casinos. Oh my god. Whenwe do, when we do concerts,
I can do as much as Iwant, and I do, and you
know I've got you know, I'mone of the lucky guy that have a

(05:00):
catalog of songs that I can gofor over nineteen minutes and sing songs that
everybody knows every song. And youknow, I'm telling you, I'm a
lucky guy to be able to dothat. So you know, it's always
fun. You know, the audiencessinging along with me. It's just great,
was it. I wanted to tellyou a little story just shows how
much of a fan I was ofyours when I was a child. Well,

(05:24):
actually when I was a teenager,my sister and I we had your
forty fives and we used to playthem to the point where our needle was
a plastic needle, and it wouldthe plastic would go into the grooves of
the record to where it would almostit would almost sound muffled a little bit.
But what we did was we didperformances for our mother to your songs

(05:46):
and like what song, well,we did Copacabana. Man, it looks
like we made it. I meaneven now, ready to take a chance.
We did all these songs for mymom, and it's one of the
best memories that I have with mysister and I doing this for our mother,
and you were a big part ofit, and I really thank you
for that. I really do appreciate. So that's great, Jeff, That's

(06:10):
a great memory. So my questionto you is, you know you have
You've done a lot of your beautifulsongwriter, You've done lots of great songs.
You've even done a lot of greatjingles. Was there a song that
you wrote that you love but itwas never really released as a single.
The one that comes to mind iscould It Be Magic? And that was

(06:32):
on my very very first album backin the eighteen hundreds. But the first
version of could It Be Magic was, like I say, on my first
album, I didn't know anything aboutmaking records. Certainly I didn't know anything
about singles because the first version ofCould Be Magic was seven and a half
minutes. Now, as you know, as a radio guy, you don't

(06:54):
play a seven and a half minutesingle, and so but I loved my
seven and a half minute single.But well, finally radio actually began to
like the seven and a half minutessingle, so the record company edited it
down to a three minute record,So that's the one that really didn't get
as much airplayers. I would haveloved to get Cosette. You know,

(07:15):
that's a really great song. Wow, we're talking with mister Barry Manilow.
Who's going to be here. It'sCorpus Christy very very soon. First time
in thirty six years. And youknow, with a lot of the great
performers that are out right now,who would be your dream duet that you
would love to do a song with? Lady Gaga. She's a great singer,
Yeah she is. She's a greatperformer. I've gone to her concerts

(07:41):
and I tell everybody all the time, she doesn't put on a concert.
She puts on a show. It'sentirely different. She's a great performer absolutely.
Like you said, you love working, you love you love performing.
What do you do on your offtime? I go to my computer and
I write a song, or Isaw my in an album. I'm always

(08:01):
doing something basically. Oh, Iplay with the dogs. Oh I just
came back. I just came backfrom a month in London. I did
a month at the London Palladium inLondon, and we sold out the whole
place. It was amazing And theonly thing that I missed were the two
dogs that I have. We havetwo labs that are the kids. And

(08:24):
because I haven't been away from homefor a while, and that's why we're
saying good bye to all these citiesbecause touring just got me. It just
got me going going away from homeas many for as many months as we
used to do. So, Imean, I think it got the band
and got the crew. I thinkit's time to stop touring, but it's

(08:46):
not time to stop performing. That'swhy we have Radio City and we have
the West Gate. Oh wow,we're Misster Marian alone. One one,
one more question I wanted to askyou, and I asked this to everybody
I always interview because I think it'ssuch an important question. Is you know,
with people people like right now,they're up and comers, they're songwriters,

(09:09):
they're performers. What do they haveto do to take it to that
next level to make it in thistype of business. Nobody has the answers
to that. Nobody's got the answersto that one, Jeff, you know,
John Lennham once said, in orderto write a hit song, make
sure You've got a melody and agood and a good lyric, and nobody

(09:31):
knows nobody knows the rest of it. And that's it. Make sure you
got a melody and a good lyric, and that's it. You just of
curse your fingers. Nobody knows theanswer to that. Wow. Well,
it's it's an honor, it's anhonor to talk to you today. This
has now been my highlight of myentire career, getting too glad to getting

(09:52):
sucked you and and I'm looking forwardto seeing you on August twentieth, and
I'm going to say it happy birthday, by the way. Oh bye Fact,
Thanks, bye bye everybody. Bye.