MANILOW STILL HAS IT, ECSTATIC CROWD FINDS
By Rob Thomas

Printed with special permission by The Capital Times  (THANK YOU!)

Barry Manilow may not get very many people excited these days.  But those he does get excited get really, really excited.

Witness his performance Saturday night at the Dane County Coliseum, where he had women of all ages squealing, screaming and hanging on every note.

They danced when he sang "Copacabana (At the Copa)."  They swooned when he crooned "Weekend in New England."  and when he closed with "I Write the Songs," their voices filled the auditorium top.

If you think the ideal venue for a Barry Manilow concert is the ninth circle of hell, your mind wouldn't have been changed after Saturday's show.  But Manilow's on-stage charisma, self-deprecating with and stong voice should at least cause you to think twice before dismissing him.

"I hope you're feeling good, and if not, I'm here to make you feel better," he told the ecstatic audience.  "And for all those gentlemen who were dragged here tonight, you're going to thank me at the end of the evening."

It was an evening drenched in nostalgia.  The fans were taken back to Manilow's heyday in the 1970s, when "Mandy," "I Write the Songs" and "Copacabana" ruled the AM airwaves.

Manilow, meanwhile, seemed to be yearning for the swinging 1940s and 1950s, when lyric and melody were king and queen.  He performed in front of an excellent 20-piece orchestra that gave all his songs a classic feel, and took side trips from his greatest hits into the back catalogs of Frank Sinatra and Johnny Mercer.

At one point, the 53-year-old singer said he missed hearing the sound of a vocalist with an orchestra on the radio, noting that greats like Dean Martin and Mel Torme have been relegated to "geezer radio."

"I heard something that was kind of depressing on one of those stations," he said, "I heard me."

Manilow's way with a lyric is impressive, particularly these days, when most pop music seems to be rushing through the verses to get to a catchy chorus.

He was at his best sitting behind the piano, savoring each phrase of "Ready to Take a Chance Again" or an affecting "I Made it Through the Rain."  His tossed-off version of "Mandy," however, sounded like he was singing it for the 10,000th time.

He clearly seemed more excited about revisiting the old standards with the full orchestra, as when he did several Sinatra tunes (his last album was "Manilow Sings Sinatra.")  And the melody he added to unplublsihed lyrics by Mercer was just seamless.

Inspired by a recent Nashville Network special in which country stars such as Deana Carter and Trisha Yearwood interpreted his songs, Manilow returned the favor with covers of Garth Brooks' "If Tomorrow Never Comes" and a big-band version of Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry."

One of the true highlights of the evening was "Trying to Get the Feeling Again," a song that now sounds totally dated on record.  But with the strings swelling and Manilow's voice hitting passionate heights in the final lines, he breathed new life into it.

After Manilow finished the last note, he sat absolutely still for a few seconds, mouth slightly open before smiling and shaking his head.  It was as if he too, was surprised to find he still had it inside him after all these years.