Barry Manilow and I go back a long way.

I can’t remember when I first heard Barry’s music. However, I know that I became obsessed about Weekend In New England shortly after he released it on 27 November 1976.

I was in 10th grade, and I played oboe in my high school’s symphonic band. I LOVED the oboe part in that song! Even though I had never arranged any music, I decided I would write out the parts for every instrument in our band so that we could play the song. I, of course, would have those wonderful oboe solos!

I listened to the record over and over and over and over to hear all the instruments and write the notes I thought I heard. This process was even more complicated because I had to transpose notes for the key of the instrument. Plus, I had to include the key change in the song. I wanted my arrangement to sound full and rich like Barry’s orchestra, though we didn’t have a string section.

I don’t remember how long it took to complete my transcriptions — possibly longer than it took for Weekend In New England to peak at #10 on the Billboard Top 100 on 26 February 1977.

Alas, my band director only let us play my masterpiece one time. I’ll never know if it was shelved because my arrangement had too many wrong notes, my fellow students had trouble reading my handwriting, and/or my teacher didn’t like Barry. I’ll always suspect it was due to that last reason.

 

 

When I went to college, I stopped playing or even listening to music. I worked at the IRS while going to school, so I didn’t have much time for anything else.

After graduating with my BA in Journalism, magna cum laude, desktop computers were in their infancy. I landed a highly-coveted position as a computer programmer. The hiring manager knew I didn’t have the technical skills at the moment, but I demonstrated in the interview that I had the aptitude for the work and am a fast learner. More importantly, I had the communications skills that were desperately needed for teaching the staff how to use their new computer hardware and software.

I discovered programming was a great match for my logical and analytical nature. I wanted to learn things and go deeper in my new career, so I went to grad school at night to earn my MS in Computer Information Systems.

Two life-changing events happened in 1992:

1. I finished grad school.
2. I saw Barry Manilow on an Oprah Winfrey show.

In watching that interview, I remembered how much I liked him in the 1970s. I bought a Greatest Hits CD. I thought that would be enough. It wasn’t.

The more I listened to Barry, the more I wanted to hear. I bought some of his albums. I didn’t know if he still performed in concert. I just knew that if he ever came to Atlanta, I was determined to see him.

Oh, yes, he was still doing concerts! He was in the midst of his “Greatest Hits and More” tour when I saw him for the first time on 30 July 1993 at Lakewood Amphitheater here in Atlanta.

I wrote in my journal:

I was very pleased with our seats. We were very close to the right end of the stage.

His curtain was multi-colored, with MANILOW embedded in it so that you could only see it when the light shone upon it. I was so excited at my first glimpse of Barry! I could see him through the curtain.

He began singing Ready to Take a Chance Again; I thought my heart would burst from joy!

I wrote more, much more. Many songs were old favorites. I wrote about Weekend in New England that I didn’t think it was humanly possible to sustain a note as long as he did on the ending When can I hold youuuuuuu?

Some songs were new to me, including Brooklyn Blues, If Tomorrow Never Comes, and I Made It Through The Rain.

I did something the next day that I’d not done in my teenage years for my then-idols David Cassidy and John Denver: I joined a star’s fan club — the Barry Manilow International Fan Club (BMIFC)! I’ve been a card-carrying member ever since!

The word “fan” is shorthand for “fanatic,” and that’s what I became after that first concert!

Since Barry wouldn’t come back to Atlanta any time soon, I decided to go to where he was.

My second show was 4/26/94 in Knoxville, TN, a 3-hour drive away. I was thrilled to have front row seats! Prior to the concert, a fan behind me offered to buy my ticket for $50. I said, “Absolutely not! This is a thrill of a lifetime!” My end-of-show handshake with Barry put me over the moon!

At the end of 1994, Drew and I went to Las Vegas for the first time. I was lured there by Barry’s wonderful New Year’s Eve concert at the old Aladdin hotel. (I’ve now seen a total of 14 Manilow concerts in Las Vegas! I’ve made several trips there and attended his show on subsequent nights. Once, he held my hand in 2005 while singing Copacabana; trust me, a hand hold is sooo much better than a shake!)

By the mid-1990s, I had met and made friends with other fans on-line by using my Compuserve account to access the old Usenet groups. (Anyone remember those?) I started traveling to more Barry concerts in other cities. I’ve now seen him 57 times in 21 different cities! Don’t worry — I won’t tell you about all of them. 🙂

Until I started attending so many concerts, I never realized how vitally important music is to my soul. Barry was the conduit to get me back into listening to and enjoying music, and, as a result of that step, actually playing music again after being away from it for over a decade. Rather than simply returning to piano, oboe, or flute, I started playing the harp.

Atlanta hosted the 1996 summer Olympics. To raise funds, the Atlanta Olympic Committee sold engravable, commemorative bricks to be laid in Centennial Park. Drew’s parents bought a brick with both our names on it. I bought 2 bricks of my own:

Through the 1990s and 2000s, I collected Barry’s recordings, sheet music and songbooks, programs, pictures, pins, apparel (shirts, hats, and jackets), bobblehead, videos (VHS, laser disc, and DVD), music boxes — if it had Barry’s name on it, I wanted it! I bought from the BMIFC, other fans, eBay (I was an early adopter in 1997), and even record collectors and stores around the world who responded to ads I ran in DISCoveries magazine. I definitely acquired some rare recordings that way, like colored vinyl from other countries!

I also found rarities by checking out record stores wherever I traveled. When Drew and I went to England and Scotland in 1997, we spent more time thumbing through dusty bins of records than visiting museums!

In 1999, I sold a big chunk of my Barry memorabilia in order to buy my first pedal harp. However, I still use my Barry Manilow I Made It Through The Rain umbrella, and posters and a cardboard cut-out of Barry adorn my craft room. The Hamburg poster on the right has its own story.

I also won’t part with the RIAA gold record for Barry Manilow II, Barry’s second album which includes his first big hit Mandy. Can you believe that song hit #1 over 50 years ago? The gold record belonged to Dick Fox, who was Barry’s agent at the time.

While Barry was in town on 12 July 2000 to promote his delightfully fun 2-act musical comedy Copacabana, he did an interview on the 99X FM morning show. I was listening to it that day while I was at work at the IRS. They invited fans to call in, and I was thrilled to actually talk to Barry! His advice to “create your own stuff” applies to all of us in creative fields.

If you listened to my exchange with Barry, you might be wondering what he wrote about following your dreams in his 1987 autobiography Sweet Life: Adventures on The Way to Paradise. Here it is:

I believe that we are who we choose to be.
Nobody is going to come and save you. You’ve got to save yourself.
Nobody is going to give you anything. You’ve got to go out and fight for it.
Nobody knows what you want except you,
and nobody will be as sorry as you if you don’t get it.
So don’t give up your dreams.

One of my dearest dreams has been to meet Barry and have a private, meaningful conversation with him. On Saturday 1 August 2026, after seeing Barry in concert for the 57th time across 33 years, that dream came true in Nashville!

It was especially meaningful to meet him now because Barry had lung cancer surgery at the end of 2025. No one knew whether he’d want or be able to go on stage again. His concert was FANTASTIC!

He was so warm and kind. I called to Drew to join us, but Barry told me that we’d first take a picture of just us, and then we’d take one with Drew.

I’m looking forward to seeing Barry’s concert again in Atlanta this week!

I didn’t have time to tell him that we fans want him to update his memoir, and I want him to record the book as an audiobook. Barry, when you’re ready for that task, I would love to narrate the introduction for you!

 

Other resources on this topic:

Articles:

• 6/17/06 Hollywood Star Search
• 5/27/10 3 Cs of Branding Illustrated by Barry Manilow
• 5/28/10 3Cs? Make the *4Cs* of Branding Illustrated by Barry Manilow
• 6/5/24 Living With No Regrets
• 4/29/26 Stop The Comparisons

Harp videos of Barry’s songs:

• 8/21/22 Even Now first 2 pages
• 1/22/23 Copacabana 1st stanza
• 8/13/23 Even Now full song
• 11/19/23 This One’s For You
• 5/5/24 The Old Songs 1st verse and chorus
• 5/26/24 Can’t Smile Without You
• 9/1524 Ready to Take a Chance Again
• 1/26/25 Mandy
• 8/10/25 Somewhere in the Night