A fluke to stardom

Though he became one of the top-selling recording stars of all time, Barry Manilow never gave a thought to a singing career when he was growing up in Brooklyn and started working as an arranger, orchestrator and accompanist for Bette Midler.

It was a fluke, he says, that led to four decades of best-selling singles including “Mandy” “Copacabana” “I Write the Songs,” “Can’t Smile Without You,” “Could it Be Magic” “Looks Like We Made It.” He has sold more than 80 million records.

“Before I started making records, I had 10 years of being an arranger, conductor and songwriter. When ‘Mandy’ came out in ’75, I was already 29. I already had a career. That’s where I thought I would be going. I was conducting and arranging for Bette Midler and then I figured I’d go to the next great singer and the next,” he said.

And while he didn’t personally compose “I Write the Songs” (that credit goes to Bruce Johnston), Manilow said he wanted people to hear his own music. So, to save money on hiring a professional singer, he made demos of his songs and started sending them around to record labels.

He recalls that it was a time when singer-songwriters like Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro were rising in popularity.

“A record executive heard them and asked me if I wanted to record them. When I got a record contract, the only reason I accepted it was because it was a way to get my music out there,” he said in a telephone interview about his performance on Friday at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall and the annual Van Wezel Foundation gala.

The concert is part of an extended farewell tour that is expected to mark his retirement from touring. The tour began in 2015 and he has dates booked through the year.

He once recalled in a radio interview that even Midler, whom he accompanied during her now legendary performances at the Continental Baths in New York City, was surprised that he was recording his own music.

Audiences instantly connected with his music, but that meant he had to start touring to promote the recordings. Behind the scenes or the piano, he was fine. But it was a different thing being in the spotlight.

“I was terrible. I’m telling you I was just terrible. But the audiences didn’t think I was. They never did. They were OK with me on that stage bumbling around not knowing what I was doing,” he said.

Manilow, who is now 74, eventually “made friends with the idea” of performing, which he has been doing regularly for more than 40 years, from Las Vegas nightclubs, to arena shows and occasionally smaller theaters like Van Wezel, which are his favorite venues.

“I like the smaller ones better. What I do is more intimate. When I do it in front of 10,000 people, it’s very exciting, but I like doing it in a smaller venue. They can understand the lyrics, it’s clearer,” he said.

And he’s different.

“The show is pretty much the same, 90 minutes of songs that everybody will recognize. But it’s different for me because we’re closer,” he said.

Many of his songs are meant to be performed live, he said.

“I’ve always written big. Sure, I do some small songs, but I always had this kind of theatrical bent to my writing, always a big idea, a catchy melody, a real interesting arrangement. Those kind of songs work just great when you put them on stage,” he said.

Manilow could probably do a four-hour show and not touch on all the songs that he has written or recorded that hit the top 40 or the commercials he wrote or performed from McDonald’s “You Deserve a Break Today” to State Farm’s “Like a Good Neighbor” and “Grab a Bucket of Chicken” for KFC.

A musical theater major at Juilliard, Manilow also has written two stage shows with original songs — “Copacabana,” built around his 1978 hit and “Harmony,” about the German male sextet the Comedian harmonists. The shows have been well-received in different regional productions but haven’t made it to Broadway, which he still hopes will happen at some point.

Various producers and writers also have proposed creating a jukebox musical built around his hit songs (in the style of “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” or “Jersey Boys”).

“People have approached me about a musical and I tell them to put something together and send it to me and if I like it, I’ll give them permission to do it, but nothing has come of it yet,” he said.

Unlike a lot of performers still plugging away with hits from decades ago, Manilow hasn’t stopped recording. He has recorded more than 30 albums, most recently “This is My Town: Songs of New York,” which was released last year.

“I just have ideas. The well hasn’t run dry. I’m still writing. I go from one idea to the next and I’m lucky that record companies are still interested and interested in having me make records. So far so good. I have ideas for three albums right now.”

His other recent albums have featured a series of greatest songs albums from each decade from the 1950s to the 1980s, and the “Greatest Love Songs of All Time,” as well a tribute to Frank Sinatra and several Christmas albums.

And audiences haven’t tired of listening to him.

“I think I will always connect with an audience with a good melody and a good lyric. If you see what goes on in these concerts, as I do, you’ll feel the same way,” he said. “I think they’re starving for it. They’re starving for a song that has a nice melody and a nice lyric. And I have to believe there will always be an audience for that.”

Barry Manilow

The singer performs at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, 777 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, as part of the Van Wezel Foundation annual gala. Remaining tickets are $206-$256. For more information: 941-953-3368; vanwezel.org. For information on the gala dinner and event: 941-366-5578; vwfoundation.org