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And Finally Artist News Releases
I see dead people (singing with Barry Manilow)
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 24 September 2014
Who would be your ideal dinner party guests, alive or dead? Actually, forget alive, just name the dead ones. And why does this game always have to be a dinner party? Dead people don’t eat. Sure, dead people don’t sing either, but no one told Barry Manilow that.
Apparently unable to find any living singers to collaborate with, Manilow has announced that his latest album will be a collection of duets from beyond the grave. I mean, haven’t you always felt that Andy Williams’ version of ‘Moon River’ was missing something (ie Barry Manilow)?
Titled ‘My Dream Duets’, the album features vocal tracks of eleven deceased singers, including Whitney Houston, Judy Garland, Dusty Springfield, Marilyn Monroe and Louis Armstrong. All having either failed or refused* to work with Manilow while they were alive, they have now had their vocals extracted from old recordings and plonked onto these new recordings alongside the man himself.
Says Manilow: “The songs have all new arrangements and sound as if they were recorded yesterday. The album is a miracle. It’s been a huge undertaking, musically and technically”.
There’s a question of taste too, but he was too excited to stop and think about that: “Having the opportunity to record these legendary standards with artists whom I admire so much was really a dream come true”.
The album is due out on 27 Oct through Universal/Verve Music, the label to which Manilow recently signed. Insisting that this whole project is totally fine, Verve chairman David Foster says: “The way he has taken the classic solo performances of the many iconic artists on ‘My Dream Duets’, transforming them into songs arranged for two voices, is an incredible artistic accomplishment. This album is really a crowning achievement in an unprecedented career spanning many decades”.
Here’s the full tracklist:
1. The Song’s Gotta Come From The Heart with Jimmy Durante
2. Goody Goody with Frankie Lymon
3. Dream A Little Dream Of Me with Mama Cass
4. I Believe In You And Me with Whitney Houston
5. Sunshine On My Shoulders with John Denver
6. Zing! Went The Strings Of My Heart with Judy Garland
7. Moon River with Andy Williams
8. The Look Of Love with Dusty Springfield
9. The Candyman with Sammy Davis Jr
10. I Wanna Be Loved By You with Marilyn Monroe
11. What A Wonderful World/What A Wonderful Life with Louis Armstrong
*I should state, I have no evidence that any of these people ever refused to work with Barry Manilow. But, for future reference, any singers who aren’t feeling at their best right now might want to state their Manilow-duetting preferences in their last will and testament, just to be sure.
