Music Trivia

Some people think I am crazy, but I like Barry Manilow. And I have liked him for a very, very long time. I think since he was a pup. And anyone who says they do not like him has never seen him perform. He does a Vegas-style act - very high-energy, and very classy. I saw him in Detroit many, many moons ago. At one point in his show, he had his guys select a woman from the audience to come up and sing one of his songs with him, and after she went back to her seat and he had done another song, he called her back up and handed her a video (back then it was a VHS) of her time on stage with him, just so her friends would believe her. It was very cool.

One thing I have learned over the years is that a lot of singers write jingles to pay the bills. Folk singers do this a lot - they write songs for ads, or for other people, and they make their money behind the scenes, and that pays for what they want to do, which is sing folk music, which would never pay the bills. It's kindof like stamping - the Day Job pays for it.

So Barry Manilow has a song he calls his VSM - Very Strange Medley, which is a medley of a bunch of his commercial songs. In my never-ending effort to educate those of you who have probably never even heard of the man, have a listen. This is not a video - just the song. The picture is the album cover of one of his Live albums, and yes I have it, and yes, it is round, and vinyl.