Barry Manilow - The Greatest Songs Of The Eighties Review

Barry Manilow - Grammy-, Tony- und Emmy-Preisträger - veröffentlicht sein neues Album "The Greatest Songs of The Eighties", ein 12teiliges Bilderbuch einer vergangenen Musikdekade. Arista Records bestätigt, dass das brandneue Album am 21. November in den CD-Shops landen wird.

In Zusammenarbeit mit seinem langjährigen Förderer Clive Davis, dem kreativen Direktor von Sony BMG, und den Co-Produzenten Scott Erickson und Michael Lloyd entführt Barry Manilow seine Hörerschaft zurück in die 80er Jahre.

"The Greatest Songs of The Eighties" legt einen Schatz internationaler Pop-Musik frei, dem Manilow mit seiner unverwechselbaren Stimme seinen Stempel aufdrückt. Von seinem Duett mit Reba McEntire ("Island In The Stream") - einer Hommage an Kenny Rogers und Dolly Partons #1-Duett von 1983 -, über drei legendäre Filmsongs: Phil Collins #1-Hit von 1983, "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now); Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes' #1-Hit von 1987 "(I've Had) The Time Of My Life" (von Dirty Dancing); und schliesslich Christopher Cross' oscarprämierter #1-Hit von 1981, "Arthur's Theme (Best You Can Do)" bis zu vielen mehr....full text Barry Manilow's Greatest Songs series enters its fourth decade with no reason to quit, not when the 1980s produced cartloads of adult contemporary nuggets and certainly not when the first three volumes performed so well on the charts. As on previous editions, Manilow and co-producer Clive Davis display a sure hand in their song selection. Virtually all of these are ballads originally performed by Manilow contemporaries or inheritors, artists such as Phil Collins ("Against All Odds"), Christopher Cross ("Arthur's Theme"), Bill Medley ("I've Had the Time of My Life"), Cyndi Lauper ("Time After Time"), Journey ("Open Arms"), Richard Marx ("Right Here Waiting"), and Wham! ("Careless Whisper"). The songs will all be familiar to anyone who lived through the '80s and Manilow sings the songs straight, wringing maximum emotion out of each with the warmth and character of his strong voice. Granted, there's precious little room here for new musical interpretations, barring only a light Brazilian vibe for Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You." The biggest surprise on The Greatest Songs of the Eighties is a cover of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," a large hit in England and America, but one that retained its popularity in the 2000s when the "rickrolling" prank phenomenon gave it more YouTube popularity than a thousand Richard Marxes. Still, there's no trace of irony in Manilow's version; like all the other songs here, he brings little more to it than what the song originally possessed. One of the intriguing characteristics of earlier volumes in the Greatest Songs series was discovering how Manilow and his co-arrangers would treat their updates of classic songs; here there's virtually no difference between Barry Manilow's covers and the sound of the originals. John Bush, All Music Guide...full text The Greatest Songs of The Eighties is the next release in a best-selling series of tribute albums of popular music which includes The Greatest Songs of The Fifties, The Greatest Songs Of The Sixties and The Greatest Songs Of The Seventies whose cumulative sales, along with Ultimate Manilow have surpassed 5 million units worldwide. The Greatest Songs of The Eighties continues the productive and successful reunion between Manilow and Clive Davis, Arista founder and Chief Creative Officer, Sony BMG. Davis has been Manilow's hitmaking collaborator on virtually all his recordings, since they first worked together on "Mandy". His debut #1 single, as the first artist signed to Arista by Davis in 1974. The two produced The Greatest Songs of The Fifties, The Greatest Songs Of The Sixties and The Greatest Songs Of The Seventies together, and that magic has carried over to the new album as well....full text