1980's Barry from Barry Manilow featured his last Top Ten hit, "I Made It Through the Rain," finding him still in control of the adult contemporary charts, but starting to fade on the Top 40. It's an interesting piece of the Manilow collection, the singer covering Kenny Nolan, co-writing with Maurice White, penning a song for another film -- "We Still Have Time" from the motion picture Tribute -- and including a campy duet with Lily Tomlin. Their unlikely pairing on "The Last Duet" is a kinda "Copacabana" redux, borrowing heavy melody from Orleans' "Love Takes Time" and lifting lyrics from '70s songs -- "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," "You're the One That I Want," and others. Manilow produces two of the ten tracks without production partner Ron Dante and composes half of the album with Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman, including the hit. Maybe it was a conscious effort to become an album artist rather than a singles act because Barry is more listenable all the way through than previous discs, which contained bigger and more significant hits. There are many musicians in the mix too -- Dean Parks, Paul Schaeffer, Abe Laboriel, Alan Estes, arrangements by Artie Butler -- all the stops seem to get pulled out to good effect. Kenny Nolan's tune has the syrup that artist is known for with Manilow adding the sincerity missing in Nolan's own hits. The song could very well have charted, as could have two terrific songs from "Mandy" co-writer Richard Kerr, "Life Will Go On" and "Dance Away." The movie theme is pretty good too. "We Still Have Time" is Manilow finally writing a song that is up there with hits he found from other composers -- something he really wasn't quite able to capture before this. A shame it or another good song from this fine disc didn't follow "I Made It Through the Rain" up the Top 40. It was almost a year before David Pomeranz's "The Old Songs" would go Top 15 for Manilow toward the end of 1981, and one wonders if there was resistance at radio, because the album Barry had more than enough great material and strong performance to continue the chart run that gave Manilow his enormous popularity. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
Representative Albums: "The Loneliest Boy in Town: Crazy Cajun Recordings, Vol. 1", "A.K.A. Roosevelt Jones: Crazy Cajun Recordings, Vol. 2", "I'm a Fool to Care: Classic Performances From the 1960's
Biography
Early rock 'n' roller Joe Barry, a Cajun from southern Louisiana, began recording locally in 1958. In 1961, his second single for Jin Records, "I'm a Fool to Care," was picked up nationally by Mercury Records' Smash subsidiary, and peaked in the pop Top 40, also reaching the R&B charts, and even charting in the U.K. Its follow-up, "Teardrops in My Heart," also made the pop charts. Barry continued to record for Smash, and later Nugget Records in the 1960s, but stopped working in music full-time by the end of the decade. In 1977, He released a self-titled country album on ABC-Dot Records, and in 1980 he made a religious LP, Sweet Rose of Sharon. But that appeared to be the end of his recording career until early in the 21st century, when, despite numerous ailments that have limited his ability to sing for more than 30 seconds at a time, he was able to record a new album, Been Down That Muddy Road, for Night Train Records, doing vocal overdubs for a period of two-and-a-half years. The album was released August 19, 2003. Just over one year later, on August 31, 2004, Joe Barry succumbed to the illnesses that hounded him and passed away in his hometown of Cut Off, LA. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Barry is the self-titled album released by singer and songwriter Barry Manilow in 1980. The album reached Platinum status.[1] The tracks were recorded at Evergreen Recording Studios in Burbank, California. Manilow co — wrote with Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire the album track Only In Chicago.
The album scored one top ten pop hit, "I Made It Through The Rain", which reached number ten, in late 1980. This album was released at a time when Barry's success was having its greatest impact overseas, particularly in England. His music was starting to be pushed almost entirely to adult contemporary music radio formats, known back then as easy listening. Although "I Made It Through the Rain" was his only Top-10 on the Hot 100 from this album, he managed to reach the Top-10 on the Adult-Contemporary lists with "Lonely Together" and the bouncy up-tempo "Bermuda Triangle" was a Top-20 hit in England in mid 1981.[2]
