Oh Mandy!

"I remember all my life, raining down as cold as ice, shadows of a man, a face through a window, crying in the night as night turns into…… OH MANDY!"

Yes, I am publicly declaring that I am a closet Barry Manilow fan. I realize this will sufficiently help to determine how old I am, but the truth needs to come out. I know I will be considered “less hip” in most of your eyes, but I can’t help myself.

I recently found Barry’s Ultimate Manilow cd among the racks at Target and I just can’t stop myself from listening to it while cooking dinner and then torturing my family by insisting it become our dinner background music.

I find myself randomly belting out “I Can’t Smile Without You” at completely inappropriate times and I am sure I have embarrassed my daughter enough at her early age by crying while Barry sings "Even Now", "Weekend in New England" and "Looks Like We Made It". All of the three bring back bittersweet memories of a time when I found solace from a broken heart in Barry’s sweet melodies and lyrics.

I think I even saw a few eye rolls last night when I danced around the kitchen doing my best Copacabana rendition – poor Lola and all that tragedy.

Yes, Barry is a long-time favorite of mine. Through the good times and the bad, he has been there and I am excited to once again be able to listen to him – I think the last Barry Manilow music I had came in a big paper sleeve, pressed onto vinyl and spun around on a turntable. Something that is so outdated, some of you may have never heard of it before.

I also recall that I had a piano songbook with all of his hits in it and I seem to remember torturing my family members, not to mention a certain boy that hung around with endless serenades of the songs that meant the most to me at whatever time of my life.

My favorite Barry Manilow memory though comes from a concert that I attended when I was thirteen. Yes, at thirteen, I and three of my closest friends where driven to the local civic center and dropped off by our parents to attend a Barry Manilow concert.

I will never forget it – it was a concert “in the round” but we had seats way up high – so it really didn’t matter. We were just excited to be out and feel a little independent.

Several things stand out in my brain about that concert, one, was we were surrounded by middle aged adults, not too many 13 year old girls charging the stage, screaming their brains out and two, that alcohol was being served at the concession stands. For us, this was a novelty in itself. It was probably the first time any of us had been any place where alcohol was being served, much less consumed heavily by those around us. One highlight of the evening was that one of the adults behind us, spilt beer onto the back of one of my friends… we were disgusted and giggly all at the same time.

But truly the topper of the event, the one that we recall even to this day is the three middle aged women who sat behind us and stood up every five minutes, screaming “oh Mandy!” at the top of their lungs. I can only presume this was in an effort to force Barry into singing his hit. Thankfully he eventually did – although I am sure not because of their insistence. We were just thankful they eventually sat down and quit behaving like thirteen year old girls.

Disdain my musical choices if you will, but Barry is a hit in my cd player. He "wrote the songs" and I love to sing them!

Living Happily In The Moment,
Beverly