The Fanilows have been around for quite some time, but really reached a pop culture high when a Will & Grace episode titled "Fanilow" outed Will as a Barry fan.
Before he sang "Mandy", Barry Manilow honed his skills on Madison Avenue, penning brilliant jingles for State Farm ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there"), McDonald's ("You deserve a break today"), and Band-Aid ("I am stuck on Band-Aid, 'cause Band-Aid's stuck on me!")
Well, you came
And you gave without taking
But I sent you away
Oh, Mandy
Well, you kissed me
And stopped me from shaking
And I need you today
Oh, Mandy
Before striking out under his own name, Manilow released a handful of tracks under the name of Featherbed, a "ghost" group consisting of Manilow and other session musicians organized by producer Tony Orlando.
Scott English, the song's co-writer, originally released the song as "Brandy" in 1971, reaching No. 12 on the U.K. charts. The title was changed for Manilow to avoid confusion with an existing hit by Looking Glass, "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)", a soft rock number about a bar waitress in a harbor town.
Bette Midler caught Manilow's act in 1971 and chose the young musician as her pianist at the Continental Baths in New York City that year, and subsequently as a producer on her debut album The Divine Miss M (1972), for which Manilow was nominated for the Album Of The Year Grammy Award.
And if I hold you for the sake of all those times love made us lose our minds
Could I ever let you go?
Whoa, no, we made it
Left each other on the way to another love
Looks like we made it
Or I thought so till today
"Could It Be Magic" is based on Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in C minor, Opus 28, Number 20. The 1975 re-release became one of Manilow's first hits, and Donna Summer's disco version hit No. 3 on the U.S. Dance chart the following year.
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