Barry-oke By the Numbers
I have the best job because:
1. I get paid to make up stuff like Barry-oke. (By now you should know all about Barry-oke. If you don’t, just click here.)
2. I get to have book signings in which I can ask my audience to make Barry-oke requests AND THEY WILL ACTUALLY MAKE BARRY-OKE REQUESTS.
3. I get to perform Barry-oke for in front of a live audience. THIS IS TOTALLY RIDICULOUS.
For fun, I tallied up all the Barry-oke song requests from my signings in Princeton, NYC, Stamford, Tysons Corner and L.A. (I’m thinking about making a collage of all the requests once all the events are over.) Here are the results in descending order:
1. Copacabana/Mandy (tie–18 requests each).
It was no surprise when I picked Copacabana at my signings in NYC and Tyson’s Corner. Though Barry has much better songs to his credit, it seems to be the one that people remember him for. I’m such a nerd that I know Copacabana earned Barry his first–and only!–Grammy award. I also know that Mandy was originally called Brandy and sung by another artist before Barry turned it into his first number one hit in 1974. I know these things and yet I can’t tell you a single thing about Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides–all of whom I needed to read and write papers about in order to graduate from college.
2. Can’t Smile Without You (11 requests)
Jessica and Marcus’s big number in Perfect Fifths. I sang this at my first event in Princeton.
3. I Write the Songs (9 requests)
When I was sixteen, I went to an arts camp very similar to SPECIAL. My roommate was–and still is–a gifted poet with intimidating talent. We used to crack each other up by performing Barry Manilow songs in our dorm room at night. This one was her favorite.
4. Weekend in New England (7 requests)
When Barry sings this live, he manages to work in about ten dramatic modulations. This was a CRIMINAL omission on the Barry Manilow Chartbusters Karaoke CD that I bought for my events. So I paid niney-nine cents for Weekend on iTunes and burned it onto its own disc. I’m still hoping I get to perform this one, the first Barry Manilow song mentioned in the series: It’s the song playing on the 8-Track in the Caddie in Sloppy Firsts, when Jessica and Marcus go on their nondate.
5. Looks Like We Made It (6 requests)
If you listen to or read the lyrics, it’s actually a very fitting song for Perfect Fifths.
6. Bandstand Boogie (4 requests)
I must confess: I’m not a big fan of this one. It’s got way too many lyrics to memorize.
7. It’s a Miracle/Ready to Take a Chance Again (tied–3 requests)
It’s a Miracle is probably my favorite uptempo Barry-oke number. It would make me happy to sing it in front of an audience. Ready to Take a Chance Again has the lyric, “my life goes along as it should/it’s all very nice/but not very good.” Think about that for a moment. That’s either really deep or really…not.
8. Even Now/Could it Be Magic/I Made it Through the Rain (tied–2 requests)
I screwed up the lyrics to Even Now when I sang it in L.A. Could it Be Magic is approximately 38 minutes long which makes it a less than optimal choice for Barry-oke, though it does have some of the most awesomely overwrought 70s-style poetry-lyrics, “lady take me/high upon a hillside/high up where the stallion meets the sun…” Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know this was a freaking Ren Faire. I Made it Through the Rain is a song I sang to myself in elementary school when I was feeling downtrodden. I am not kidding.
Daybreak (which was chosen in Stamford), Jump Shout Boogie (props to Shayera in L.A. for that deep cut–I totally forgot that Barry even sang that), New York City Rhythm (potentially problematic because I don’t have the backing track), One Voice (ditto), Ships (really, Robin? Ships?) and When October Goes (a sentimental favorite) got one request each.
And finally, a shout out to my book club friends who misunderstood the whole premise of Barry-oke and requested The Real Slim Shady.
Tags: Barry-oke
