Barry Manilow, American singer and songwriter, was born on June 17, 1943. He was born Barry Alan Pincus in Brooklyn, New York, United States, to Harold Pincus and Edna Manilow. Barry Manilow has a younger sister named Betsy.

Early life

Barry Manilow was born to an Irish-American father, Harold Pincus, and a Jewish mother, Edna Manilow. His maternal grandparents were also Russian Jews and his Irish roots date back to Limerick, Ireland. Manilow grew up in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn and graduated from the now-defunct Eastern District High School in 1961. He met Susan Deixler in high school and they were married briefly afterward. Before enrolling at the New York College of Music, he studied temporarily at the City College of New York. To cover his expenses while studying, he also worked at CBS. He then studied musical theater at the Juilliard School of Drama.

Career

A CBS director named Bro Herrod met Manilow in 1964 and Herrod asked him to compose music for a musical version of the melodrama The Drunkard. Instead, Manilow created a complete original score. The Off Off-Broadwayical, written by Herrod and performed for eight years at the 13th Street Theater in New York, used Manilow’s song. Manilow later worked as a pianist, producer and arranger to pay the bills. Around this time, he began writing and singing commercial jingles and continued to do so through the remainder of the 1960s. He not only wrote the music for many of the television jingles he produced, but he also performed in them, for example for State Farm Insurance (“Like a nice neighbor, State Farm is there”) and Band-Aid (“I’m stuck.”) Band-Aid, Because Band-stuck Aid’s on Me!), for which he adopts a voice childish (Donald B. Wood wrote the lyrics). Commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pepsi (“It’s the Pepsi Generation Across the Country”), McDonald’s (“You Deserve a Break Today”) and Dr. Pepper are among his pure vocal performances.

For his efforts as a writer and jingle singer in the 1960s, Manilow received an honorary Clio at the 50th anniversary Clio Awards in Las Vegas in 2009. He claimed he learned while working as a writer for the jingle industry for three or four years. When I accepted the award, my main concern was making pop music. Callback, premiered on WCBS-TV on January 27, 1968, had Manilow as musical director in 1967. Then, while writing, producing and performing his jingles for radio and television, he directed and orchestrated for Callback’s production company Ed Sullivan and developed a new tune for The Late Show. He and Jeanne Lucas starred together simultaneously for two seasons in Julius Monk’s Upstairs at the Downstairs Club in New York. Tony Orlando, recording artist and vice president of Columbia/CBS Music, signed Manilow in 1969. Orlando later collaborated with and produced Manilow and a group of studio musicians on the Bell Records label, which Columbia Pictures had just purchased , under the nickname “Featherbed”.

Barry Manilow has a musical career that spans approximately seven decades. “Could It Be Magic,” “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” and “Copacabana (At the Copa)” are just a few of his most popular songs. He has produced and released 51 top 40 singles on the Adult Contemporary charts, including 13 number one singles, 28 top tens and 36 top 20s. Manilow has released six multi-platinum albums and 13 platinum albums. Manilow received praise from his contemporaries in the recording industry, including Frank Sinatra, who was quoted as saying in the 1970s, “He’s next,” although he was not a favorite of music critics. Manilow has written and performed songs for musicals, films and commercials since the 1960s, and produced and arranged albums for himself and other artists. These companies include McDonald’s, Pepsi-Cola and Band-Aid. Between 1973 and 2015, he was nominated (each decade) for fifteen Grammy Awards (including one) as a producer, arranger and performer. He has also appeared on Grammy-nominated recordings by Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, Dionne Warwick, Bette Midler and others. One of the world’s best-selling artists, Manilow has sold more than 85 million records as a solo artist.

Privacy

In 1964, Manilow married Susan Deixler, his high school sweetheart. Manilow later admitted that he was in love with his wife and that their relationship was strained by his obsession with pursuing a musical career as well as her immaturity. After just a year of marriage, he divorced the woman he considered “the perfect wife” to embark on a “wonderful musical journey.” Manilow attributes his courage to drop everything and begin a music career to the reaction he received from Playboy in December 1965. Manilow noted: “I asked a number of people what I should do and they asked me. ‘all gave different advice. I ended up writing the Playboy agent because I was so desperate.

Deixler had the union disbanded in 1966. Manilow claimed in 2017 that he was in love with Deixler, although he later had a long-term relationship with a man, and that their divorce had nothing to do with their orientation sexual. Television executive Garry Kief and Manilow began dating in 1978 and Kief soon became Manilow’s manager. After same-sex unions were legalized in California, the couple married in 2014. They kept their relationship and his gay orientation a secret until the marriage made headlines in 2015. Manilow didn’t want the world is aware of his private relationship with Kief. When Manilow’s close friend, Suzanne Somers, openly revealed that the couple had secretly married at Manilow’s Palm Springs residence, the media began covering the event. Although no official documents were filed, rumors swirled that Manilow and Kief exchanged wedding rings as a symbol of their commitment. Manilow told People that he kept his sexual orientation a secret until his release in April 2017, for fear of disappointing his predominantly female fan base. But when his supporters found out about the union, they were happy for him.

Barry became a stepfather to husband Garry Kief’s daughter Kirsten, and they raised her together for many years.

Net worth

Barry Manilow’s net worth is estimated to be around $100 million.