Barry Manilow really has no peer in defining what it means to be uncool. Some claim the sun rose in the west earlier this year when Barry's latest album The Greatest Songs of the Fifties debuted at #1! on the pop albums chart.
If you're looking for guilty pleasures, get a copy of The Essential Barry Manilow and there's a whole raft of 'em. I defy you to keep from smiling at least a bit as you listen to "Can't Smile Without You" or that final dizzying gearshift key change in "Daybreak." For the truly uncool Barry Manilow fanatic, the must-hear album is Barry's Live collection. The "Very Strange Medley" of commercial jingles and "Jump Shout Boogie Medley" concluding with Barry Manilow as a teenage American Bandstand contestant really are in a world of their own.
