Hold on to your stereos, America, the master of mellow is convinced that today`s music fans are ready for the Return of the Standard.
”I think there is a little crack in the wall in Top 40 radio,” says Barry Manilow, who brings his latest worldwide tour to Poplar Creek Wednesday and Thursday. ”If music is cyclical, like they tell me it is, I think there`s a big audience out there that is missing the melody.”
He says many people are tired of today`s radio fare.
”That`s the way I felt 10 years ago when disco was driving us all nuts,” Manilow says, adding that he thinks listeners want music ”without a groove, with something that doesn`t make you dance, (but) that makes you listen, that makes you feel.”
Coming off the best reviews of his career for his jazz-oriented ”Swing Street” album, released last November, Manilow says his five-year flirtation with jazz was mainly to show himself and his critics he could break out of the mainstream.
”I`ve sort of had my fun in the jazz world . . . I`m done now,” he says of his work with such notables as Gerry Mulligan, Phyllis Hyman and Diane Schuur.
”I`m not a jazz artist,” Manilow says, recalling that he hasn`t had a hit single since the pop tune ”Read `Em and Weep” in 1983. ”I`m a pop musician.”
Manilow, 42, acknowledges that after so many years of being panned by the press for that type of music, ”I started to wonder, `Maybe I really do stink, maybe the public is totally wrong.`
”I had to prove to myself that I didn`t, and that`s what forced me away from the pop area.”
Having proved himself with the critical success of ”Swing Street,”
though, Manilow says he`s ready to get back to doing what he does best. He says his next album, set for release this fall, is ”reminiscent of songs I recorded five years ago . . . glorious melodic ballads that are very accessible.
”We`ve put together a batch of pop songs that are as good as anything I`ve ever done,” Manilow says, ”and because I haven`t done it in a while, it`s fresh.”
Much of the material for the album, which he`ll be making on the road this summer, is outside material. ”I`m putting my ego on the side on this one,” Manilow says. ”I`m writing a few, but I really want to be as open as I can. So I`m looking as hard as I`m writing.”
One of his best finds so far: ”Please Don`t Be Scared,” a song written by a background singer, Mindi Sterling, whom Manilow has never met. ”I`ll put my money on it,” he says of the song.
Manilow offered the first look at the new material on July 8 at San Diego`s Civic Theatre performance, which started his 28-city summer ”Big Fun” tour. After finishing the U.S. tour this fall, including a stop in Normal, Ill., Sept. 7, Manilow will play in Europe, Japan and Australia. But he hopes to go to Broadway next spring.
”The show is very Broadway-style,” he says, adding that it uses his 10- person company as singers, dancers and actors. ”It`s not a guy standing in front of a band. It`s even got a storyline.
”We elaborated on some of the theatrical effects we had in Chicago,”
Manilow adds, referring to last December`s shows at the Auditorium Theatre. In one part of the new act, ”We made this into a full-blown production number called `God Bless the Other 99,` ” a tribute to life`s losers, he says.
”It`s been stopping the show.”
Before the summer tour, which takes him to several outdoor theaters, Manilow wasn`t sure it would.
”San Diego was thrilling because it was the first time we tried this show in an outdoor setting,” he says. ”I was curious to see whether it would reach them, and it did.”
Another first that the new tour offers: Manilow opens the house to questions from the audience. ”It`s terrifying and exciting at the same time,” he says. ”So far, they`ve been gentle with me.”
Until recently, critics hadn`t been as kind. Referring to his new-found acclaim, he says, ”I was surprised, although I was more surprised when they bashed me. . . . I don`t think this show is that much better than anything else I`ve done.”
What he had been doing, despite the critics, was selling albums. Lots of them. Coming off his job as a writer of commercial jingles, including McDonald`s ”You Deserve a Break Today,” and an accompanist for Bette Midler, he went on to make 25 consecutive Top 40 hits.
Manilow took a beating for those songs, beginning with 1974`s No. 1 hit,
”Mandy.” Having proven his range with ”Swing Street,” though, he`s now thicker skinned.
”It doesn`t matter,” he says. ”I`ve got the review that calls me a genius right next to the one that calls me a jerk. Who cares?”
