Customer Reviews

The Greatest Songs of the Sixties

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I am a confirmed Manilow fan, no matter how un-PC that may be considered by some, and have been ever since his "2AM, Paradise Café" album. And it's just as well I have that (and a lot of other Manilow material, eg "Swing Street", the Sinatra tribute...) to go on, because if my first introduction to Manilow were by way of this album, I would immediately join the ranks of those who spurn his stuff.

"Paradise Café" was rated by the international critics as the best album of the year it was produced, and is still one of the handful of discs I would grab if my house were burning down. This album, and its companion (the Fifties) I would cheerfully consign to the flames. The voice has just had it. Like Sinatra in his later days, like Buddy Greco, like Tony Bennett - all of whom I generally rate highly - Barry just doesn't seem to know to quit when he's ahead. I can't see him having made these discs for the money, but I can't see any other good reason either. The tremolo is just too much. The backing is what I would at best rate as OK.

I have bought both these albums, and wish I hadn't, because they tarnish the memory of a man who really was a great singer and entertainer but now is just, and very sadly, vocally over the hill.

Anyone care to buy the discs of me? Going cheap!

Manilow's remakes of 50's and 60's hits were a little bit disappointing to me. I would much rather listen to his own "oldies". Rod Stewerts remakes of songs from the same genre are much better, even though I still like to listen to his own "oldies" more.

Barry Manilow's latest CD brings us a superb collection of some of the greatest songs of the 1960s. Barry's voice is in excellent form; his voice is full, rich and vibrant. The quality of the sound on this CD is excellent even on my portable CD player.

The CD starts off strong with the romantic ballad entitled "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." The next track features a duet with Barry and The Association for the medley of "Cherish"/"Windy." Other great songs on this CD include "And I Love Her" by The Beatles; "This Guy's In Love With You" by Herb Alpert; "When I Fall In Love" by The Lettermens and Burt Bacharach's "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head." Excellent!

Another song that interests me is "Blue Velvet." The musical arrangement is beautiful. Moreover, the way Barry performs this number highlights the haunting quality of a former love. This strikes a chord in all of us because the theme is so universal.

Overall, it's impossible to put ALL the greatest songs of the 1960s onto any single CD. However, if that job could ever be accomplished, Barry does it darn well on this CD. The CD tracks flow gracefully and it's a refreshing way to fondly remember simpler times.

Another reviewer is right: Barry does reinvent the songs on this CD as he puts his own stamp on them. Even if you loved the original renditions of all of these songs Barry succeeds at making them his own by tweaking the musical arrangements and the vocal tones here and there. It's a very good formula that works for Barry Manilow on this CD.

I highly recommend this CD for fans of Barry Manilow, fans of classic pop vocals and fans of the music of the 1960s. Get this CD and turn the volume up--way up--you won't be disappointed.

I absolutely loved Manilow's Greatest Hits of the Fifties and was truly excited to hear that he had done a record of sixties covers. The results are disappointing. This recording is not nearly as enjoyable as its fifties predecessor. Perhaps it is because I do remember the original versions of each of these songs. Manilow's covers of Cherish/Windy and There's a Kind of Hush just make me want to pull out my Association and Herman's Hermits CDs. There just isn't any song that he covers on this disc that is as good as the original.

I don't get it. First Rod Stewart, now Barry Manilow has decided to mangle some classic tunes. They are has been singers who couldn't buy a hit, but for some reason if they warble a bunch of popular tunes, people buy their music in droves. Probably the same idiots that voted for Bush. Reality tv, Stewart, Manilow,... the dumbing down of America continues at a rapid pace. Why can't they just go away?

Let's face it ... we live in an era where most pop icons over the age of thirty have a rough time trying to persuade record execs that an album of original material will sell. Most artists are handed a set of songs the whole world sings and told, "Okay, sing this and pick up your paycheck at the door." But Barry Manilow isn't content to do that and, while it showed on "Greatest Songs of the Fifties", his dedication to the art of perfecting an arrangement and then totally reinventing a song is never more evident than on "Greatest Songs of the Sixties."

I was a child during the sixties, so these songs were part of a sweet, comforting soundtrack that played while I was starting school, playing with my friends and crying in my bedroom. Mom was playing Elvis while Mrs. Brown made us all sing "Raindrops Keep Falling On my Head" in choir. I wasn't in love with these songs back then because they were just part of the background noise. But Barry injected new life into each and every one of them. Now, for the first time in my life, I'm really paying attention to the lyrics because his brilliant arrangements make me want to do that. I never cared for "A Kind Of Hush" until I heard it on this CD, and, in the past, whenever I would hear Elvis start singing, "Wise men say ..." I'd find myself tuning out the rest of the song. It wasn't that Elvis sang it badly (c'mon, it's ELVIS for God's sake), it was just that I had grown too used to the song to be able to properly listen to it. But I gotta admit - the first time I heard Barry sing "Can't Help Falling In Love" on this CD, I totally goose-pimpled! (Oh no! I'm so uncool! And my friend sitting next to me had the same problem!) Neither one of us had expected to like it, but suddenly we were loving it! I think we hit the "back" button on the car stereo four or five times just to hear it again.

The "Cherish/Windy" medley is another prime example of how Barry can take something that you've heard for ages and wrap it up so you can interpret both songs in an entirely new way. I adored "Windy" as a child - my older sister had purchased the 45 and I used to play it on her dusty old turntable in our rec room. (It's a fun song for 6-year-olds to dance to, what can I say?). So, to me, that one was kinda sacred - and now Barry Manilow was going to screw it up? I was so ready to HATE his version. And, there he goes - proving me wrong AGAIN. The way he marries these two Association tunes (with the Association singing along, no less) is priceless.

The whole album impacts you that way. Maybe Barry Manilow didn't "write the songs the whole world sings", but when it comes to music, he is a craftsman like no other. He consistently finds a way to capture the spirit behind the song and give it back to the world in a new, wonderful and totally unique way. This album will give you a new appreciation for songs that you, like me, might have taken for granted along the way ... but, best of all, it is fiercely determined to just make you smile and feel GOOD. Where else can you spend ten or twelve bucks and get all that?

Barry, please create music again. Clive Davis you do not need. This is so below you. Your versions do NOTHING compared to the originals. Be your own man and make a new album of songs we are not familiar with. This is karoake at it's worst. You are better than this tripe.

Some of us might quibble a bit with Manilow's insistence that "Blue Velvet" is one of the greatest songs of the '60s.
I suppose that depends what you were doing during that decade, or how you interpret the artistic explosion of the decade's music.
Manilow apparently remembers the '60s as one long suburban cocktail party attended only by white people. This dreck - with the stiffest, whitest arrangements I've heard this side of "The Lawrence Welk Show," and the all but unparalleled, karaoke-style blandness of the vocal delivery - makes Rod Stewart singing jazz seem a welcome option.
Someone please make this ridiculously colorless repackaging of the past stop.
It's starting to get scary.

An LP of cover songs...again

Lets have some original material

Older artists are doing it ..ie The Stones. McCartney, The Who

If this LP charts at #1....if I were Barry I would give the honour back.....this is terrible covers of worse songs.......again

This talented man of pop music has sold his artistic soul to Clive Davis, to the charts and to his plastic surgeon.

"The Greatest Songs of the Fifties", a lazy covers CD dreamed up by Davis and recorded by Manilow, debuted at No. 1 in February. And now this extra-fast sequel ( " Fifties" was released on 31st of january 2006 ) has set a record for a single-hour sale on QVC and on Billboard "Sixties" earns the singer his highest SoundScan debut -- 202,000 copies -- topping "Fifties" opening by 30 percent.

"Sixties" has some charms.

The craftsmanship on remakes such as "There's a Kind of Hush", "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'", "And I Love Her" and "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" is top-notch.

While the arrangements tend to slavishly follow the originals, Manilow tweaks the Association's Cherish and Windy a bit, turning them into a medley and luring members of that easy-listening act to harmonize. Manilow also seems to have more affinity for this era's softer music than he displayed on his tentative, bland Fifties disc.

Besides, Manilow has allowed Davis to lead him astray before with even poorer results. His all-time worst album remains "Summer of '78" , a lifeless and synthetic 1996 collection of '70s covers.

But, as on the others, the song choices on "Sixties" are predictably safe and pleasant, and worse yet, Manilow's still viable gift as a songwriter is not utilized.

Also, Manilow and Davis pull a fast one by REUSING the 1998 recording of "Strangers in the Night" from the "Manilow Sings Sinatra" CD. Did they think we wouldn't notice? Don't put it past them to simply repackage "Summer of '78" with a new title, "Songs of the Seventies", for the next volume, to be released in.....three months...

No, please, give us some break !