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Barry Manilow - Greatest Hits

Barry Manilow - Barry Manilow - Greatest Hits Audio CD

A fair review of the Barry Manilow "Barry Manilow - Greatest Hits" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Barry Manilow reviews here, or go back to the Barry Manilow tabs.

Band: Barry Manilow
Title: Barry Manilow - Greatest Hits
Rating:

Release Date:
Media: Audio CD

Tracks:

A Great Alumb

Rondall. Here's an alumb on cd that is hard to find and even through it's missing one song jump shout boogie it is still good.

TRACK LIST

Year: 1978

Track Title
1. Barry Manilow / Greatest Hits
Label: Arista Records, Inc. Mandy
2. New York City Rhythm
3. Ready To Take A Chance Again
4. Looks Like We Made It
5. Daybreak
6. Can't Smile Without You
7. It's A Miracle
8. Even Now
9. Bandstand Boogie
10. Tryin' To Get The Feeling
11. Could It Be Magic
12. Somewhere In The Night
13. Weekend In New England
14. All The Time
15. This One's For You
16. Copacabana
17. Beautiful Music
18. I Write The Songs
.

Barry Manilow - Greatest Hits (1978)
The perfect 'bookend' release for this compilation is 1983's "Greatest Hits, Vol. When buying Barry Manilow product for his hit making days, this collection is the best that was made which covered his hit making days from 1973 to 1978. II", which covers Barry's hits from 1979 to 1983. The other compilation that is compatible to both of these releases is 1985's "The Manilow Collection - Twenty Classic Hits", which also includes "When October Goes" and a duet with Dionne Warwick called "Run To Me" not found on any other Barry Manilow compilation. Stay away from the 1989 Arista "Greatest Hits 1, 2, and 3", as they are all inferior to the above three out of print releases. If you want a Barry Manilow hits package that is still in print, and is also comparable to the above three compilations, go for "The Essential Barry Manilow" which was released in 2005 by Arista/Legacy Records.

Minor Quirks - but does the best job during Manilow's Peak Period
In addition to being a terrific vocalist, pianist, songwriter, and arranger - Barry Manilow provides the ability to entertain. When it comes to Barry Manilow, he often gets unfair deal when it comes to both the critics and the publics. Much of this comes from the excellent songwriting (whether it's Manilow's or thid party) and the passion that is delivered by Barry Manilow. Manilow's career spans more than 30 years - but the peak of Manilow's career came in the early years of his career that took place in the mid 1970s. While there are many Greatest Hits compilations that are available by Barry Manilow, it is perhaps his first Greatest Hits collection - "Barry Manilow - Greatest Hits" that still has stood the test of time. While this one may be hard to find, it still does an outstanding job at giving you a snapshot into this peak period of Barry Manilow's career. Because of some confusion in the naming of subsequent compilations, I am going to refer to this release as 1978's "Greatest Hits".

One thing that makes Barry Manilow's music special is his ability to work the song and "build it to a climax/crescendo". The music group Air Supply employed a similar approach with many of their songs. Like Air Supply, Manilow does a fabulous job at building the song to this "climax". It was during the "peak" period of the mid 1970s where Manilow did this better than he ever did. It is worth listening to the "build up" to a "climax" in many of the Manilow songs such as "Mandy", "Ready to Take a Chance Again", "Daybreak", "Could It Be the Magic", "Weekend in New England", "Can't Smile Without You", and "I Write the Songs", While Barry didn't write all of these songs, his style works just as well to "build up" the song as it did with the songs he wrote.

As for "Barry Manilow Greatest Hits", this is an old collection. This was released in 1978 on LP. It was during this year that Manilow had reached the peak of his popularity. Manilow had released seven albums: six studio albums and one live album. 1978's "Greatest Hits" takes 18 tracks from this period. Included in these 18 tracks is the song "Ready to Take a Chance Again" which was a song that was featured in the movie "Foul Play". While this may be a dated collection and there are other Greatest Hits collections available that are more comprehensive from a total career standpoint - this collection is comprehensive from that peak period of the 1970s. The one drawback is that with the new compilations that have been released, this is now a difficult collection to get hold of.

There are many other Greatest Hits collections that are available from Manilow. When considering 1978's "Greatest Hits", here are some other ones to consider:

"Barry Manilow Greatest Hits Volume II" (1983): In 1983, Manilow released a follow-on Greatest Hits album. This includes 11 songs that were released after 1978's "Greatest Hits". This is a perfect companion collection to 1978's "Greatest Hits" because all of the songs on "Volume II" are not included on 1978's "Greatest Hits". Like 1978's "Greatest Hits", with the new compilations that have been released - this is also a difficult collection to get hold of.

"Barry Manilow Greatest Hits Volume I, Volume II, Volume III" (1989): This is something that is going to be very confusing. In 1989, Arista Records came out with three new "Greatest Hits" collections. For the most part, the tracks on these compilations are also included on 1978's "Greatest Hits" and 1983's "Volume II". However 1989's "Volume I" and "Volume II" do not correspond to the 1978 and 1983 releases. All 18 songs on 1978's "Greatest Hits" collection are divided between these three CDs: 1989's "Volume I" has 9 tracks from 1978's "Greatest Hits", 1989's "Volume II" has 8 tracks from 1978's "Greatest Hits", and 1989's "Volume III" has 1 track from 1978's "Greatest Hits" ("Ready to Take a Chance Again"). While this overall is slightly more comprehensive than the 1978 "Greatest Hits" and 1983 "Volume II" combined, to get the "peak" songs that are on the 1978 "Greatest Hits" collection, you will have to get all three 1989 releases.

"Ultimate Manilow": This is a 2002 release of 20 tracks. Once again most of the tracks are from the 1978 "Greatest Hits" collection and the 1983 "Volume II" collections. However, when considering this against the 1978 "Greatest Hits" collection, it is missing three key tracks: "New York City Rhythm", "All the Time", and "Beautiful Music".

"The Essential Barry Manilow": This Barry Manilow release contains 34 tracks. While this may contain more songs than several of the other Greatest Hits collections, it is still missing one track - "All the Time".

I have no complaints about the content of what is on 1978's "Greatest Hits". The one gripe I have on this collection is how the songs are arranged. With Greatest Hits collections, I prefer the tracks to be arranged in chronological order. This allows me to see how an artist has progressed during a period of time. In the case of 1978's "Greatest Hits", the ordering of the tracks was shuffled with no particular logic. As a result, you don't get the benefit of listening to how Manilow has progressed during his peak period of the 1970s.

Another minor drawback is that there is little in the way of liner notes. The reason is perhaps that this is a dated collection. The songwriting credits are listed in the liner notes with some publication credits. Despite the minor quirks of the ordering of the tracks and the liner notes, the bottom line is that the content is here. While there are newer and somewhat more comprehensive overall compilations, I think this one does the best job at Manilow's peak period. If you are lucky enough to find this CD, I'd highly recommend this collection.

You can see a complete list of all Barry Manilow discography, or go back to the Barry Manilow tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.