www.barrymanilow.de

My Name is Catrin and I am from Germany. I admire Barry Manilow and I saw Barry for the first time on German TV in 1975. I was 8 years old and knew I would follow him for the rest of my life.I am originally from East Germany and never managed to get any information or material on Barry before the fall of the Wall. Mr. Manilow never visited East Germany. Pitty!Shortly before the fall of the Wall in 1989 Barry visited West Germany and sang “Keep Each Other Warm”. This is still my favourite song after 17 years.After the fall of the Wall I took care of my family. Shortly after that I became very ill. I spent a lot of time in Hospitals and never had the opportunity to see Barry perform live. My illness stops me from leaving my home and therefore I will probably never be in a position to see Barry live. I have learned to live with the situation.In 2003 I decided to create my own website dedicated to Barry Manilow (www.barrymanilow.de). I would have never been able to do this without the help of a very good friend, Christina. For this I would like to thank her from the bottom of my heart.During the 3 years of intense work I have made many friends (Fans) from around the World. Fans from Russia, Japan, England, France, Brasil, America, Belgium and Argentina.My friends give me the feeling that I am doing something worthwhile and without them I would have never been able to continue with this work. They and Barry give me the strength, even on bad days, to carry on.I know many of my friends are very grateful for all I do, therefore I would like to thank each and every one of them. It is incredible that one man can arouse enthusiasm all over the world - this is something that inspires me. Barry is a person who has never stopped loving his fans – Isn’t that true Barry? He can always rely on the support of his fans through good times and bad times.Let’s go back to 1971 – Wow! Barry sat at the Piano for Bette and nobody back then, not even himself, ever thought that this man would become a World star.His backing vocals were anything but nice – my opinion. The song with Bette “Do You Wanna Dance” (Push, Push) or “Sweet Life” from 1972 which became a Hit.His success finally started in 1975 with “Mandy” – and the fan world belonged to Barry. Hits like “Could It Be Magic”, “I Write The Songs”, “Tryin’ To Get The Feeling”, “Copacabana”, “Even Now” and more followed.I think Barry’s success is partly down to the fact that he surrounded himself with the right kind of people (friends) To name a few - Ron Dante, Artie Butler, Lee Gurst, Garry C. Kief, Marc Hulett, Bruce Sussman, Jack Feldman. The list would be too long to mention everyone.One person particularly has played the biggest part in Barry’s life, Garry. I think Barry’s career would not have been like this if it had not been for him.We all only ever see Barry but forget that there are other people who work very hard for him. I have made contact with many people who have worked with Barry over the years and they have all said the same thing “It was an honour to have worked with Barry”.I find it a shame that Barry never recorded all of the songs he sang, I bet some of them would have been big hits. Just to name a few: Come Back Carrie, Look I'm In Love, Learnin' To Live Without You, Look At Me Now, April Showers, Bei Mir Bist Du Schön, Carolina In The Morning, How Deep Is The Ocean, I'm Hip, In The Mood For Love, Look At Me Now, Nobody Knows My Song, Sunrise, Sunset, Time After Time, A Man Like Me and more. Maybe we can hope that one day he will record some of these songs. We all know Barry is a perfectionist, and that is good. He would have never achieved what he has otherwise. He has performed over 3000 concerts, sold 75 mio albums. His last album “The Greatest Songs Of The Fifties” was a huge success.We are now expecting “The Greatest Songs Of The Sixties” which will be an even bigger success. And in the planning is “The Greatest Songs Of The Seventies” – Wow!Barry had enough hits himself in the seventies, however as he has mentioned in an interview, he has got some great ideas for this project.We can all wait very anxiously for this. -------------------------