After Dinner Speakers: Barry Manilow, Elizabeth Dole, Helen Chamberlain

b. Barry Alan Pincus, 17 June 1946, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. An immensely popular singer, pianist and composer from the mid-70s onwards, Manilow studied music at the Juilliard School and worked as an arranger for CBS-TV. During the 60s, he also became a skilled composer of advertising jingles. In 1972 he served as accompanist to Bette Midler, then a cult performer in New York's gay bath-houses. Manilow subsequently arranged Midler's first two albums and gained his own recording contract with Bell. After an unsuccessful debut album, he took the powerful ballad "Mandy" to number 1 in America. The song had previously been a UK hit for its co-writer Scott English, as "Brandy". This was the prelude to 10 years of remarkable hit parade success. With his strong, pleasant tenor, well-constructed love songs and ingratiating manner in live shows, Manilow was sneered at by critics but adored by his fans, who were predominantly female. Among the biggest hits were "Could It Be Magic" (1975), "I Write The Songs" (composed by the Beach Boys' Bruce Johnston (1976), "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again" (1976), "Looks Like We Made It" (1977), "Can't Smile Without You" (1978), the upbeat "Copacabana (At The Copa)" (1978), "Somewhere In The Night" (1979), "Ships" (1979), and "I Made It Through The Rain" (1980). Two albums, 2:00 AM Paradise Café and Swing Street, marked a change of direction as Manilow underlined his jazz credentials in collaborations with Gerry Mulligan and Sarah Vaughan. He also appeared on Broadway in two one-man shows, the second of which, Showstoppers (1991), was a schmaltzy tribute to great songwriters of the past. During the 80s, Manilow was invited by the widow of one of those writers, Johnny Mercer, to set to music lyrics unpublished during Mercer's lifetime. A selection of these were recorded by Nancy Wilson on her 1991 album With My Lover Beside Me. In June 1994, the stage musical Copacabana, for which Manilow composed the music and co-wrote the book, opened in London starring Gary Wilmot and Nicola Dawn. In the same year he was the supervising composer, and collaborated on several of the songs, for the animated feature Thumbelina. His last album for Arista was a strongly jazz flavoured recording on which he sang Sinatra classics. It was no great surprise that he signed to Concord Jazz the following year. In 2001 a candid and revealing biography written by Patricia Butler was published.