Barry Manilow

Related Content

• Valentine's Day Warning: These Five Love Songs Are Not About Loving People
  February 14, 2012
• David Lindley: Show Preview
  January 11, 2012
• Burger Urge Does Serve a Filling Burger
  December 6, 2011
• Doughnuts, Skimpy Shorts on Cafe Menu
  December 6, 2011
• Fresh Eats: Burger Urge: An Imperfect Burger That Fits In Perfectly
  December 14, 2011

More About

• Barry Manilow
• Rod Stewart
• Elvis Presley
• Las Vegas Hilton

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Some jokes never get old, but the music of Barry Manilow isn't one of them. For his latest, The Greatest Songs of the Fifties, the Man Who Writes the Songs instead takes a cue from fellow dinosaur Rod Stewart, raiding the catalogs of yesterday's hit-makers for a tasty profit today. The result is an uninspired collection of warmed-over classics, from an unabashedly vanilla take on "Unchained Melody" to an Elvis Presley cover, "Are You Lonesome Tonight," that recalls the King in his youthful heyday ... had he been neutered. For Manilow fanatics who've worn out their copies of Showstoppers and A Christmas Gift of Love, this is precious stuff. Everybody else would be better off saving his money for tickets to the schlockmeister's long-running revue at the Las Vegas Hilton. Or not.