Singin' With The Big Bands

Performer: Barry Manilow
Artist: Les Brown; Rosemary Clooney; Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra; Duke Ellington & His Orchestra; Glenn Miller & His Orchestra; Les Brown & His Band Of Renown; Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra; Harry James Orchestra; Debra Byrd
Producer: Phil Ramone; Barry Manilow
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Personnel includes: Barry Manilow (vocals); Artie Butler, Les Brown, Dick Hyman, Mike Melvoln (conductor); Buddy Morrow (leader, trombone); Jim Miller, Mercer Ellington, Larry O'Brien, Art DePew (leader); Charlie Young (alto saxophone); Warren Leuning (trumpet); Bill Watrous (trombone); Debra Byrd, Kevin DiSimone, Margaret Dorn, James Jolis, Jon Joyce, Don Shelton, Donna Davidson, Susan Boyd (background vocals); Rosemary Clooney, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, The Glenn Miller Orchestra. Engineers includes: Gary Chester, John Richards, Allen Abrahamson. Recorded at Edison Studios, New York, New York; Capitol Studios and Ocean Way Studios, Hollywood, California; Westlake Studios and Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California. The rock and roll era of the 1950s and early '60s was largely a transitional period between one style of R&B and another. There was the combo style that evolved into modern rock and pop, as well as the mix of pop, blues and big band sounds dating from the swing era onward, which produced the hybrid sounds of early rock 'n' roll. If you examine the pedigree of most '50s rock and roll session men, they were jazz veterans of dance happy big bands. It is this milieu which preceded Barry Manilow's formative years as fledgling songwriter, and it is here he turns for inspiration on SINGIN' WITH THE BIG BANDS. Manilow transports himself back to the Brooklyn Paramount in 1943 on the title tune, and subsequently takes the subway into the latter with a lift from the venerable Rosemary Clooney. Unlike his sister of swing, Linda Ronstadt (who made an excursion into the genre through the midwifery of Nat "King" Cole and Frank Sinatra's arranger, Nelson Riddle), Manilow recreates the ambience of the original orchestras with, in many cases, the actual orchestras, as presently constituted (minus their departed leaders and most original soloists). Alternating between dance tunes and ballads, Manilow's take on Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" is sassy and brassy, while he milks the sentimental melody of "Moonlight Serenade" for all its worth.

To many the very embodiment of the soft rock and middle-of-the-road genres, Barry Manilow became an international superstar in the 1970s with a string of hits combining heart-on-sleeve sentiment and finely crafted songs with slick, highly orchestrated production. His ultra-showbiz image (which was likely influenced by his early days as musical director for Bette Midler), appealed to an extremely wide audience. Although Manilow has long been regarded as the antithesis of hip, there is no denying his considerable talent, and his fans are among the most loyal (some might say fanatical) in pop music.

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