So, Barry Manilow’s steaming pile of an album drops in stores today. Barry has been assaulting several decades of music over the past few years, and he has now turned his attention to my favorite nostalgic 80’s music.
The track listing is an eclectic collection of 80’s music with a focus on love songs, which I suppose is Barry’s stock-in-trade (except when he isn’t singing about murder’s at the copa….copacabana).
1. Islands In The Stream [Reba McEntire assists Barry in butchering this song]
2. Open Arms [As if Barry could compete with Steve Perry on this classic song]
3. Never Gonna Give You Up [Now this is more Barry's speed. I am curious as to his rendition of this "hit"]
4. Have I Told You Lately [I'm ambivalent about this song, so I'm ambivalent about Barry covering it]
5. I Just Called To Say I Love You [The thought of Barry singing this cracks me up. I don't know why]
6. Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) [The odds are good that Barry will botch this song up royally]
7. Careless Whisper [Not a huge fan of this song. I think a Barry Manilow cover would be hilarious, in it's own way]
8. Right Here Waiting [I can't see Barry putting in the emotion of this song to match Mr. Marx]
9. Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) [This is more like Barry. He'll probably do OK here.]
10. Hard To Say I’m Sorry [Barry can't live up to the original. Don't even try.]
11. Time After Time [I see no way how he doesn't ruin this song]
12. (I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life [I don't know who is singing this with him...maybe he is accompanying himself in a falsetto]
If I had to pick the track listing for Barry, just based on humor, I would have picked these songs:
1. Material Girl by Madonna
2. The One I Love by R.E.M.
3. Sweet Child of Mine by Guns ‘N’ Roses
4. Toy Soldiers by Martika
5. One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head
6. Centerfold by J. Giles Band
7. Queen of Hearts by Juice Newton
8. Buffalo Stance by Nenah Cherry
9. Cold Hearted by Paula Abdul
10. Shock the Monkey by Peter Gabriel
11. Stray Cat Strut by The Stray Cats
12. Mr. Roboto by Styx
So, I guess I like 80’s songs and dislike Barry Manilow enough to rouse me from over 5 months of zero blog entries. Who knew?
