Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Zombie Duets: Barry Manilow New Album Pairs Him with Deceased Stars on their Signature Hits

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Barry Manilow is certainly the crypt keeper. He’s gone from pairing himself in a duet with one dead singer to a whole album of Zombie duets.

On “My Dream Duets,” Manilow– who once sang a song he didn’t write called “I Write the Songs”–teams up with 11 famous singers who are six feet in the ground on their biggest hits.

This isn’t like when Natalie Cole made a version of “Unforgettable” with her late father, Nat “King” Cole. She was at least related to him.

No, this is Manilow capitalizing on whatever’s out there now that his own career has ebbed.

Manilow’s captive partners, so to speak, include Whitney Houston, Dusty Springfield, Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy Durante, John Denver, Judy Garland, and Louis Armstrong.

The estates of those artists were obviously keen to see if they could make some money with Manilow. We can thank the Lord that there’s no “Imagine” with John Lennon or “Walk on the Wild Side” with Lou Reed!

If Manilow had waited, he could have had “This Will Be” with the aforementioned Natalie Cole. I guess that will be in Vol. 2.

Between this stuff and hologram concerts by dead artists, we can look forward to a whole new low in standards of taste in the coming years. Just what we needed!

By the way, this is NOT a Clive Davis production. Manilow moved to Universal’s Verve label a few years ago.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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