Barry Manilow spent a good deal of time on the road in 2014 and 2015 for what he was calling his \u2018farewell tour\u2019. \u00a0While this may or may not be true based on other musical artist’s habits of making multiple \u2018farewell tours\u2019 (ie: \u00a0Cher, The Rolling Stones), no one can doubt the recorded legacy Manilow will leave behind. \u00a0His list of hits is much too long to repeat here, but starting with the ode to his dog (Mandy <\/i>1974)<\/i> to his last chart topping hit (Read \u2018em and Weep<\/i> – 1983 on the Adult Contemporary Charts, he was a hit making tour de force. \u00a0More recently, \u00a0he reached #2 on the ACC for 2012\u2019s Santa Claus is Coming to Town, <\/i>\u00a0a full 30 years after his most prolific decade in the recording industry. \u00a0But what about all those other memorable tunes he wrote? \u00a0You know, the annoying ones that you have been bombarded with for years and didn\u2019t even know they were written by Manilow.<\/p>\n
Barry Manilow wasn\u2019t always a pop star. \u00a0He began his musical career quite modestly as the piano playing jingle writer before he became the music arranger for an artist who would rise from cult obscurity to superstar status in both music and films: \u00a0Bette Midler. \u00a0His exposure via Midler\u2019s wild stage show and subsequent breakout album The Divine Miss M <\/i>(and its\u2019 revival WWII hit The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company C) <\/i>brought him to the attention of the Arista record label and soon after, his first hit record Mandy<\/i> in 1974. \u00a0Mandy<\/i> may have been about his dog, but it wasn\u2019t a dog in terms of record sales! \u00a0His impressive double album Barry Manilow Live<\/i> \u00a0(1977) also served as a kind of greatest hits package for those who weren\u2019t familiar with his songs beyond Mandy<\/i>. \u00a0The one track that I will focus on from that live album is simply called the V.S.M.<\/i><\/p>\n
Manilow introduces the V.S.M. <\/i>by informing the audience that when they put the Very Strange Medley<\/i> into the act, his \u201cartsy fartsy friends asked him \u2018how could you do such a thing, how could you put such a piece of garbage in your act\u2019 while his trashy friends all said \u00a0\u2018oh I love that medley that you do (audience cheers) and I see you are all sitting out here tonight…so, how could I resist\u2019\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0He further explains that \u201ceverybody has probably heard these tunes, but they didn\u2019t know that I (Manilow) had anything to do with them\u201d before running through the following snippets (if you didn\u2019t watch TV or listen to radio back in the 1970s, you may have to wait until they resurrect them for some future retro-ad campaign to hear them to the point where they are burned into your brain. \u00a0Those who did hear them first hand in the 1970s beware, they still have the power to get stuck in your head!):<\/p>\n
First up, the Kentucky Fried Chicken jingle (Get a bucket of chicken, finger licking good, Have a barrel of fun, goodbye ho-hum, Say hello to your family, Kentucky Fried Chicken, have a barrel of fun), <\/i>followed by State Farm Insurance (Whenever you\u2019re driving, Where ever you\u2019re bound, Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there), <\/i>Stridex (Give your face something to smile about, with Stridex), <\/i>and of course the ever popular I am stuck on Band-Aid cause Band Aid\u2019s stuck on me. \u00a0<\/i>But wait, Manilow is just getting warmed up – next comes the Bathroom Bowl Blues,<\/i> and odes to Dr. Pepper (It\u2019s not a cola, there are colas by the score, so drink Dr. Pepper, the joy of every boy and girl, It\u2019s the most original soft drink ever in the whole wide world, Dr. Pepper), <\/i>Pepsi Cola (Join the Pepsi people, feeling free, feeling free, All across the nation, it\u2019s a Pepsi generation, \u00a0Here today, here to stay, feeling free), <\/i>and then the big finish (So much life to be lived, So much reason to try, And when you feel it you\u2019ll get, A certain feeling inside . . .). \u00a0<\/i>Have you guessed the last one yet? \u00a0Here is the the more familiar part: \u00a0You deserve a break today, so get out and get away, to McDonalds, McDonalds, McDonalds <\/i>(and I am ashamed to say that I typed the last part without having to reference the recording).<\/p>\n
Mere words can not explain how strange the power of advertising is when combined with a catchy \u00a0jingle that makes an ad stick in your head like, well, yes, like the Band-Aid they sang about. \u00a0The fervor and production his band puts into this segment of their show makes it all the more fun. \u00a0Who would have thought ads could be fun? \u00a0You can see a good version of the V.S.M. <\/i>at www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a5Y05rTiTHU<\/a><\/span> although they dropped the Bathroom Bowl Blues <\/i>from this particular performance.<\/p>\n Some artists refuse to dilute their art for commercial gain. \u00a0\u00a0The Doors surviving members never did reconcile with drummer John Densmore after he refused to let The Doors music be used in ads that no doubt would have paid the band enormous amounts of money. \u00a0Led Zeppelin resisted for a long time before giving in to the money thrown at them by Cadillac. \u00a0Where does this leave an artist like Manilow who made a living writing commercial jingles before he found pop music success? \u00a0Counting his money and loving every minute of it is my guess. \u00a0Pete Townsend of the Who took a little different path when he said, \u00a0\u2018I wrote the songs, why shouldn\u2019t I make money from them?\u2019 \u00a0You have to give Manilow credit for both embracing his commercial jingle writer past at the same time he is making fun of some of his most memorable (not necessarily most loved) tunes. \u00a0Farewell Barry Manilow. \u00a0You may or may not stop touring, but your jingles will live on. \u00a0I wonder if he will start writing jingles for AARP?<\/p>\n