The Greatest Songs Of The Fifties

Performer: Barry Manilow
Artist: The Association
Producer: Barry Manilow
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Mike Landau (guitar); Walter Afanasieff (keyboards, programming). A significant album for Barry Manilow, THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE FIFTIES finds the Brooklyn-born crooner taking on tunes that were popular in his youth. This 2006 outing also marks Manilow's return to his former label, Arista, with the company's founder, Clive Davis, setting the singer up with 1950s pop classics much in the way that the savvy businessman steered Rod Stewart in the direction of jazzy standards. The result is a light, breezy affair that showcases Manilow's easy-going charm, as revealed on his gentle versions of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" and the Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream." Wisely avoiding over-the-top arrangements, this record presents a lush, restrained sound that allows Manilow's velvety voice to shine, making it one of the performer's finest studio albums in decades. A companion piece to the similarly self-explanatory GREATEST SONGS OF THE FIFTIES, GREATEST SONGS OF THE SIXTIES finds Barry Manilow tackling the pop songbook of the decade just prior to the one he helped define. Smartly relying on the Bacharach/David songbook, Manilow picked a solid set of familiar adult-contemporary tunes that fit his own increasingly jazzy and ballad-oriented style. Although a medley of the Association's big hits "Cherish" and "Windy" features the surviving members harmonizing behind Manilow's lead, it's an otherwise solo show, and Manilow is in fine voice throughout.

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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