Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus, June 17, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, musician, producer and actor, with a career that has spanned more than 50 years. His hit recordings include “Could It Be Magic”, “Mandy”, “I Write the Songs”, “Can’t Smile Without You” and “Copacabana (At the Copa)”.
He recorded and released 51 Top 40 singles on the Adult Contemporary Chart, including 13 that hit number one, 28 appeared within the top ten, and 36 in the top twenty. Manilow has released 13 platinum and six multi-platinum albums. Although not a favorite artist of music critics, Manilow has been praised by entertainers including Frank Sinatra, who was quoted in the 1970s as saying, “He’s next.”
As well as producing and arranging albums for himself and other artists, Manilow has written and performed songs for musicals, films, and commercials for corporations such as McDonald’s, Pepsi-Cola, and Band-Aid, from the 1960s. He has been nominated for a Grammy Award (winning once) as a producer, arranger and performer a total of fifteen times (and in every decade) from 1973 to 2015. He has also produced Grammy-nominated albums for Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughan. Manilow has sold more than 85 million records as a solo artist worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling artists.