This is Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast More what You Hear Weekday Afternoon's on the Drive.
He's coming off of a huge celebration fifty years as a recording artists. On top of that, he's got his Manelow music project that we wanted to talk about and his upcoming show in Oklahoma City at the Paycom Center on August the seventeenth. I'm delighted to have Barry Manilow on with us today.
Hi, Hiley, Nice to talk to you, and nice to talk to the folks there at Oklahoma City.
Early in your career, this was a very important stop on your tour, was it not.
I'll never forget it. It was one of the first big arena shows that I've ever done, and it was so fantastic for me, for my band, for my singers, and the audiences would be audience was just great that they actually brought us back like five or six months later. That was the first time that had ever happened. So they were telling me, the Oklahoma City people were telling me what was about to happen to my life.
And I think that was at the old Civic Center Music Hall, which, by the way, is still standing and still hosting shows.
Well, you know it was in nineteen seventy five. That was a long time ago.
Man, Yeah, it sure was, and your music has been going strong ever since.
I know.
One of your biggest influences was that nineteen forties kind of the big band American standards. That influences most of your composition.
You think when you listen to it, you hear stuff like that In my pop song.
Absolutely, I did.
Key change here were there? You know, a key change here were there? A big ending? Maybe I stole it from those great that came before me. Sure, you know, I think most of the stuff that I do, I think it's more influenced by the Broadway kind of music than it was the big band stuff.
But I can hear that too. In your arrangements, do you arrange all the music yourself?
Yeah, I consider myself an arranger first. When I started off, I wanted to be Nelson Riddle. That's what I went to school for. That. I arranged for any singer that needed an arranger. I did that for Bet Midler for many years, and that's what I was going to do with my life, you know. But Faith had other plans in store.
For me, definitely. Barry Manilow is with us. His show is coming up and in August, and your tickets are still available, by the way, at the pay Comm Center box office as well as Ticketmaster outlets. Let's talk a little about your Mantelo music projects. I know I'm heartbroken when I go back to my alma mater high school and they've gotten rid of the chorus program, They've gotten rid of the jazz band, they've trimmed the regular marching
band down to hardly anything at all. In my high school life, music made everything else so much more complete.
Well, you know, it really makes me sad to hear that, and I did hear about it. About fifteen or twenty years ago. One of my neighbors asked me if I could find sas for his daughter because the school was running out of instruments. And I said, ah, the schools are running out of instruments, and so I started to do a little research, and sure enough, because they are not funding music and arts anymore in high schools, yeah, the kids are playing broken down instruments or you know,
they're running out of instruments. And so, from about fifteen years ago till today, I've been donating instruments and schools all around the country, and we call it the Man of the Music Project. And you know, I think they tell me that we've given away around ten million dollars worth of instruments over these years. And you know, I
get thank you notes from these kids. And recently I got a picture and a thank you note from a kid who had just gotten a new tuba, so he was thanking me for his new tuber and the picture was with him and the new tuba and the tuba was fuller than he was. But it was a sweet, litte little notes from.
Him celebrating fifty years in the business, comparable Barry Manilow's with us. And the way this works is is you go from city to city and offer to make these contributions, and you allow people to get online and vote for their favorite.
Well, this time around, I always started to do something on every tour that we've been on, and this time round came up with this idea that the kids in each city would pick their favorite music teacher and when they do, we invite the teacher and a guest to the show. I give him a couple of bucks, and I make a big deal of them at the show.
And I know that the voting has already closed for Oklahoma City, but it will be announced when you come through in August at your show at the Paycom Center.
Yes, yeah, of course I've done this before and it's a wonderful moment in the show. I really look forward to it.
Very Manlow joining us as he's coming through in August and tickets still on sale at the Paycom Center. It's going to be a great show. You put a lot into your shows, Oh, yes, always.
But you know, I've learned my lesson over these years. When I started out, the audiences used to love me doing the album cuts, the stuff that wasn't the big gest, But as years have gone by, the audiences have told me they want stuff that they know they want, the hits they want. And I'm one of the lucky guys who has got a big catalog of songs that everybody
is familiar with. So that's what I do. I'm happy to do it, and you know, by the time we get to Cocoa Cavada at the end, the audiences are lighting themselves on fire, so it's always a great show.
Along those lines, I've often wondered how you felt, and where you were when you first learned that. Frank Sinatra proclaimed Weekend in New England the greatest song ever written.
Well, you know that, and he said something that was very encouraging. He said he's next. And you know, you know, Sata had a way of just doing you know, you take a look at his quotes, and he used to have really quick, little one liners and they were always great. Anyway, when he said that, I was right in the middle of getting the worst three views anybody has ever gotten in their entire career, and here came Sinatra saying he's mixed, and that made me feel real good.
Barry Manilow is with us. By the way, next time I'm in New York City, where's the best place to get good locks and bagels?
Catches deli?
Okay, keep that in mind and his show coming up in August. You can get your tickets at Ticketmaster also at the Paycom Center box office August seventeenth, seven pm. And I've often wondered, because I'm musical, Barry, your music is meant a lot to me because it's very singable, it's very catchy. Do you dream in music?
Not often? But I did one This is an interesting one. I woke up with a full song in my head, lyric and melody, and I took to my little cassette machine from the concept machine, and I whispered the melody and the lyric into my cassette machine. It was a song that turned out to be one voice. It's a lovely song that I put on an album back then, and that was the only time I ever dreamed a song.
The rest of the time, sometimes I come up with a melody, a little fragment, but that was a full song with a full lyric that I just whispered into that concept machine the whole thing.
I've done it before. I've woken up with a tune that I didn't think i'd heard before. I'd hum it into a recorder of some kind, and then I'd find out, Yeah, it's not exactly like something you've heard before, but it's probably so close you'd be sued. So I've never brought in any further than that very manlow with us. Do you still include the very strange medley in your act?
Boy? You know my that no, because they stopped playing most of the ones that I used to I used to do. I used to call it my very strange memory. Yeah, but there's two that they still use. One is I'm stuck on a band aid and the other one is like a good neighbor. Yeah, yeah, they still use that, those two. So sometimes I actually talk about those two.
I've had to deal with advertising agencies before and advertisers, and often when they come to me with what they are looking for in an advertisement, they always have more information and are closer to the product than they need to be.
Uh.
And maybe you found that too when you were writing jingles.
Oh yeah, they would give me the lyric, and the lyric used to go for two pages. You can't write a catchy song with two pages of work. But I'll tell you one interesting thing. That safefarm insurance commercial which has been running for a what forty years? Forty years, forty years my greatest hit. So I got five hundred dollars for that for writing that, which was very good there, which was very helpful during those years. But you know, the composer doesn't get royalties. So that's it now forty
years later. The girl who sang it is out of Third Rose roy because she was on the spot. As long as you get on, whether you're talking or whether you're singing, you get royalties, you get reiduals, but the composer doesn't. But like I say, five hundred dollars during those days, you know it was great and it should have lasted a month. That's what most commercials do, but that one as lasted as a forty years amazing, Rent Very Manlow.
His show is coming August seventeenth, seven pm at the pay Comm Center. Tickets on sale a ticket Master in paycom box office. Your Manelow Music Project. Is there a website for that?
Barry? Yeah, I think it's going to just go online the Landlot Music Project and tell you everything about it.
And learn more about that and how important music is to our high schools. And thank you for taking some time with us today and we look forward to seeing you at the pay Comm Center.
Thanks please, bye bye everybody.
Thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation