Barry Manilow is a legendary singer who’s been a firm feature in the music industry for some 60 years but his humble beginnings have left some fans in awe.
The famed singer-songwriter is one of the world’s best-selling artists, having sold more than 85 million records worldwide as a solo artist.
Brooklyn-born Barry Manilow, 81, studied musical theater at the prestigious Juilliard Performing Arts School. As a student, he worked at commercial broadcast television and radio network, CBS. This helped put him on the map to stardom.
In 1964, CBS director Bro Herrod asked Manilow to arrange some songs for a musical adaptation of the play, The Drunkard, but the creative went one step further and instead penned an entire original score.
Manilow’s work was used by Herrod in the Off Broadway musical which went on to enjoy an eight-year run. From there, the future hitmaker started working as a commercial jingle writer and singer, a job he held for the remainder of the 60s.
This was news to one Barry Manilow fan, who didn’t realise the singer’s entertainment origins could be traced back to penning catchy jingles.
On Reddit, they posted an old black and white photograph of a young Barry Manilow and added: “TIL [today I learned] Barry Manilow got his start writing and singing jingles, including State Farm (Like a Good Neighbor State Farm Is There) and Band-Aid (I Am Stuck on Band-Aid, 'Cause Band-Aid's Stuck on Me”.
But other fans were well aware of Manilow’s origin story - partly due to the singer’s openness at his shows. One person said: “He would do a medley of them during his concerts.” Echoing this, another said: “He mentions this during his performances.”
A third proposed: “His song ‘I write the songs the whole world sings’ was a hint to his jingle writing. Also, he wrote the Dr Pepper song”.
Someone else commented: “He would perform the jingles and called it ‘VSM’ for ‘Very Strange Medley’. It’s on his ‘Live’ album.”
In 2009, Manilow was awarded an Honorary Clio at the 50th Anniversary Clio Awards in Las Vegas due to his work writing and performing jingles.
He attributed his popstar success to his few years in the jingle industry. He said: “I learned the most about music working in the jingle industry. It was the best music college I could ever imagine.”
By the late 1960s, Manilow had bagged a record deal, being signed by Columbia/CBS Music vice-president and recording artist, Tony Orlando.
In the early 70s, the singer-songwriter made waves working as a pianist for other artists’ auditions and performances, which led to Bette Midler choosing him as her pianist at the Continental Baths in New York City in 1971.
He went on to work as a producer on her debut and second albums, even being nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for his production role on Midler’s The Divine Miss M at the 16th Grammy Awards.
He and Midler worked together until 1975.