Power Ballads - Barry Manilow's opus

Last Friday was Barry Manilow night. Much anticipated and as usual he didn't disappoint although there was some concern with the opening - he didn't sound quite right and committed the ultimate sin of incorporating Looks Like We Made It into a medley. We were aghast. Luckily I think he sensed our disdain because he soon settled down and gave us the old hits, unadulterated and sorted his voice out.

It led to much discussion on the train home about Barry's power ballads and his genius at writing them. I know he's famous for Copacabana but it's not even in his top 10 best songs in my opinion. Nobody but nobody does a power ballad like Barry.

Looks Like We Made It - an Our Tune special
I Made it Through The Rain - ditto
Trying to Get The Feeling Again - some class lyrics
Ready To Take The Chance Again - oh yes
I Made It Through The Rain - such long song titles!
Mandy - you came and you gave without taking
One Voice - singing in the darkness

One Voice was a real highlight on Friday. At the beginning of the concert we were all given glowsticks. Only Barry would give you a glowstick and 20,000 of them were waved around frantically. He started One Voice acapella into a dark stadium (except for the glowsticks) and well, the crowd went wild.

All Barry's ballads build beautifully but none quite so well as one of my all time favourite songs: I Write The Songs. I have just learned that Barry did not write this song. I am absolutely staggered. It has all the Bazza trademarks. No matter, it's wonderful and he always sings it near the end. We sway along singing tunelessly, it's almost a religious experience.

Thank you Barry. See you in Vegas.