Like Mick Jagger, Barry Manilow still going strong at age 81

The popmeister returns to St. Paul for the last time, but he'll still do residencies.

By Jon Bream Star Tribune

July 30, 2024 — 6:00am

OK, Barry Manilow changed his mind. So did Cher and Kiss. It turns out that Manilow's One Last Time Tour in 2016 — his farewell to touring — was not his last time or tour.

He's back at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul on Friday for "The Last St. Paul Concert."

"I was serious when I said that [last time]. But I'm really serious now 'cause I'm 100 years old. I'm not doing it again," he said this month, then stifled a chuckle.

"When I stopped touring, I'm not the kind of guy who sits around and watches television. I didn't like it. So I told [my manager], 'Book me a couple weeks in the summertime.' "

Because what he gets out of performing is something he can't resist.

"I missed watching people come in miserable and leave feeling so great. I can actually do that? Yeah, I should keep doing that."

While Manilow stopped touring, he still performs residencies. In fact, he's a hot ticket. Last year, he surpassed Elvis Presley's standard of 636 performances at Las Vegas' Westgate Resort Hotel, and this year he broke Bette Midler's mark with his 42nd show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.

"I didn't expect that," he said, sounding dumbfounded at his recent streak. "I'm still around. I still look good, and I can still hit the high F natural on 'Even Now.' "

Over time, Manilow has gone from "behated" (his word) to beloved.

"They killed me for the first 10 or 15 years, the reviewers. Even critics of concerts hated me," he recalled of his 1970s heyday with "Mandy" and "Can't Smile Without You." "But the audiences stood up for me. They'd write the newspapers and tell them that they were wrong.

"The year it changed, 1984, when I told Clive [Davis, then head of Arista Records] 'I gotta do one for me. I gotta stop doing these pop albums.' I did '2:00 A.M. Paradise Café.' I hired some of the greatest jazz musicians and singers. That album came out and all the critics changed their tune. From that moment on I stopped getting behated. I wouldn't say I'm beloved by critics."

Never listens to pop music

Like Mick Jagger, Manilow turned 81 this summer. And there's no question about either singer's vitality or ability to continue to tour.

How old does Manilow feel onstage?

"31," he blurted over the phone from his Palm Springs home. "Nothing has changed. Thank goodness. I look pretty much the same as I've always looked. I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm in great shape. I work out five days a week. My body looks pretty good for a skinny guy. I have a trainer. I do upper-body stuff. My legs are still skinny as can be."

Whatever age he feels, Manilow doesn't plug into what's going on in the world of pop music. He never did.

"I still don't. I don't connect with pop music. That may be why I have so many hit records. I wasn't doing what everybody else was doing. Because I didn't listen to the radio. I still don't. I paid no attention to Dylan. I listen to my old jazz albums. I've never been into Top 40."

Manilow just writes the songs that pop fans sang, especially in the '70s and '80s. Well, he didn't write "I Write the Songs," one of his biggest hits. Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys did. And Manilow wasn't the first to record it. The Captain & Tennille and David Cassidy cut it before Manilow.

"I turned 'I Write the Songs' down. The public is going to think I'm talking about myself. I heard the David Cassidy [rendition] and thought I could do something better. I paced around and thought 'What do you do to a song like that?' It hit me: 'It's an anthem to the spirit of music.' That I can do."

Brooklyn-born Manilow got his start in the early '70s as Bette Midler's music director and turned to jingle writing — State Farm's "Like a good neighbor" and McDonald's "You deserve a break today" — as his recording career took off and made him king of the middle of the road pop with "Could It Be Magic" and "Looks Like We Made It." He has sold more than 80 million albums while sending 13 tunes to No. 1 on the adult-contemporary charts.

With all that he's accomplished, the singer/pianist has been giving back with the Manilow Music Project by donating money to high school music programs in each city in which he performs. It started about 15 years ago because one of his neighbors was looking for a saxophone for his high school daughter because her school had run out of instruments.

"Music and arts don't get funding anymore in high schools," Manilow said. "It's the music teachers who are the heroes. We give them a couple of bucks, and we make a big deal on the stage."

Some of the money for the project comes from high-priced VIP tickets, which give fans a front-row seat and a backstage meeting with Manilow.

The recipient of the Twin Cities $10,000 prize is Dan Perelstein, music teacher at Washington Technology High School in St. Paul. When contacted by the Star Tribune, Perelstein, who took a photo with Manilow as an 11-year-old in 1991, had three questions for the popmeister.

Q: What one moment inspired you to become a musician?

A: There wasn't one moment. My family knew I was musical when I was kid. They had no money. They didn't know what to do with me. So all they could do was rent me an accordion and an accordion teacher. It was great 'cause I learned how to read music and play the accordion. And I was good at it. That's how it all started. At 11, I was a musician. I knew I was going to be a musician.

Q: What teacher inspired you to become a musician?

A: There was no teacher that inspired me. It was some of the great arrangers like Nelson Riddle, Don Costa. Those people inspired me to become a musician. I wanted to do that, take songs and turn them upside down for singers and give singers their own versions of pop songs. And I did that for Bette Midler if you remember "Do You Wanna Dance?" It was a rock 'n' roll song, and I slowed it down and made it into a real sexy thing for her. That's what I wanted to do with my life. Fate had other plans for me.

Q: Do you have a pep band arrangement for "Copacabana"?

A: There are so many remixes I wouldn't even try a new arrangement. I think the original arrangement is pretty damn good. I never thought it would wind up being a hit record. It was just an album song. It's turned out to be the most popular song in my catalog. There must be a marching band arrangement out there.