Born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York, Barry Manilow is another of the successful veteran contemporary singers from the Big Apple City along with Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand, selling worldwide over 75 million albums alone.
It is unclear if he was born in 1943 or 1946 according different sources, but he was the son to a of Russian Jewish ancestry family who raised him in Williamsburg, a low-income sector of Brooklyn. His father became divorced when Barry was only 2 years old.
Barry Manilow learned the accordion at age 7. At a time, he used to play his neighbor's piano. In 1948, Barry and his grandfather recorded together a song in a coin-operated recording booth as a birthday present for his cousin Dennis, the same happy birthday song that 25 years later Barry would include as the opening track of his debut album.
Influenced by Irving Berlin, Nelson Riddle, and Cole Porter, Barry began to play his own piano at age 13, eventually graduating from Eastern District High School, and attending the New York College of Music and the Juilliard School of Music. Barry Manilow had to pay for his college by working in the mailroom at CBS Records, the place in which he subsequently became a musical director of a CBS show.
In 1971, Barry Manilow became Bette Midler's music director, arranger, and pianist, signing a record deal with Bell Records in 1972, after which he debuted with a self-titled album that ranked number 28 on the Billboard chart.
During 1974, Clive Davis founded Arista Records in association with Columbia Pictures and getting the right to choose artists from Columbia's catalog, Davis chose Barry Manilow, whose contract with Bell Records, a subsidiary of Columbia, launched him to stardom.
Barry's immediate breakthrough into the mainstream came with "Mandy", a Scottish song brought by Davis which original title was "Brandy". Barry Manilow made the necessary arrangements, the song peaked at number one on Billboard in 1975, and the rest is history
Barry Manilow has released 47 albums from 1973 to 2007, including studio and live albums, compilations, soundtracks and greatest hits. He has also placed numerous top ten hits on the charts including "Could it be Magic", "I Write The Songs", "Daybreak", "Can't Smile Without You", "Even Now" "Copacabana (At The Copa)" and many others.
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