The Greatest Songs of the Fifties (CD - 2006)

Personnel: Barry Manilow (vocals, piano); Ken Berry (guitar); Gary Grant (trumpet); Dave Carpenter (bass instrument); Russ McKinnon (drums); Paulinho Da Costa (percussion); The Association.

A significant album for Barry Manilow, THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE FIFTIES finds the Brooklyn-born crooner taking on tunes that were popular in his youth. This 2006 outing also marks Manilow's return to his former label, Arista, with the company's founder, Clive Davis, setting the singer up with 1950s pop classics much in the way that the savvy businessman steered Rod Stewart in the direction of jazzy standards.

The result is a light, breezy affair that showcases Manilow's easy-going charm, as revealed on his gentle versions of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody" and the Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream." Wisely avoiding over-the-top arrangements, this record presents a lush, restrained sound that allows Manilow's velvety voice to shine, making it one of the performer's finest studio albums in decades.

A companion piece to the similarly self-explanatory GREATEST SONGS OF THE FIFTIES, GREATEST SONGS OF THE SIXTIES finds Barry Manilow tackling the pop songbook of the decade just prior to the one he helped define. Smartly relying on the Bacharach/David songbook, Manilow picked a solid set of familiar adult-contemporary tunes that fit his own increasingly jazzy and ballad-oriented style. Although a medley of the Association's big hits "Cherish" and "Windy" features the surviving members harmonizing behind Manilow's lead, it's an otherwise solo show, and Manilow is in fine voice throughout.

Barry Manilow's Greatest Songs of the Fifties turned out to be a surprise smash upon its January 2006 release, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts, so a sequel was inevitable. Ever the show biz pro, Manilow knew to strike when the iron was hot, so a mere nine months later he delivered The Greatest Songs of the Sixties, which is not just a continuation of the original, but an improvement. Again, Manilow chooses to largely ignore rock & roll -- he covers the Beatles' "And I Love Her," but that was a ballad, like "Yesterday," that found its way onto many easy listening pop records of the '60s, the kind recorded by José Felicano, the Lettermen, and the Sandpipers. In its sound and sensibility, The Greatest Songs of the Sixties is strongly reminiscent of these easy listening records -- the production may not be quite as warm, but it features the same blend of Lennon/McCartney and Bacharach/David, augmented by hits from both Dean Martin and Herb Alpert, from both Frank Sinatra and the Association (who indeed back Manilow on a nice medley of "Cherish" and "Windy"). It's not adventurous -- the arrangements are either faithful to the original hits or do not stray much; either way, they could have fit on a record released in 1968 -- but it is well-executed. Like on the Fifties set, Manilow never pushes hard; he eases back, keeping the focus on the song. Occasionally, a synthesizer might be a bit too prominent ("Strangers in the Night" could have used a little less keyboard), but they don't detract from a record that is, at its core, proudly old-fashioned -- and yet Sixties feels a bit less old-fashioned than its predecessor, and that's because Manilow has chosen songs that are popular standards still played on oldies radio and still covered by other singers. He may not improve on these original versions, and he might not find something new in the song, but he sings them well and serves them well, making for a thoroughly pleasant affair. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

A kind of a variation on Clive Davis' wildly successful American Classic Songbook albums for Rod Stewart, The Greatest Songs of the Fifties finds Barry Manilow singing vocal pop favorites of the Eisenhower era. Although there are songs that are indeed classics of the rock & roll era, there is no rock & roll here. Manilow has picked songs like "Venus," "Are You Lonesome Tonight?," "All I Have to Do Is Dream," and "Unchained Melody" (which originated in the '50s, but the Righteous Brothers had the biggest hit with it in 1965), which were on the pop crossover side of rock & roll in the latter half of the '50s. These are complemented by pop standards -- such as "It's Not for Me to Say," "Sincerely/Teach Me Tonight," "What a Diff'rence a Day Made," "Beyond the Sea" -- on an album that, in terms of repertoire, would not be out of step with the MOR pop LPs Mitch Miller produced at Columbia in the '50s and '60s. Of course, The Greatest Songs of the Fifties is a 2006 release, so it has a slick, semi-synthesized sheen and a warm, hazy glaze of nostalgia which, truth be told, isn't all that far removed from Manilow's big hits of the '70s, when Barry was romanticizing the Copacabana and doing big-band medleys on-stage. Given this, it shouldn't be a shock that Barry comes across as a slick, accomplished professional on these songs, never doing anything surprising but never resorting to hammy shtick, either, the way that Rod occasionally does on his songbook albums. That said, Greatest Songs isn't as rich musically as Rod's records, primarily because Manilow doesn't collaborate with an outside arranger here, or even many other producers: as the back cover says, "all song layouts created by Barry Manilow," and he keeps this within the realm of a nostalgic supper club revue. He does it well and he does it professionally, which will certainly make this record pleasing to his fans, but the record is just a shade too predictable (but never unpleasant) for listeners who aren't already firmly within Manilow's camp. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize