When he announced his date at Madison Square Garden, I called my sister, who lives in Kanasas and she almost bought concert and plane tickets.
You know, my mother had a record with that song on it and I always thought it was funny that the singer had the same name as that woman from “The Carol Burnett Show”. I guess it just seemed too outrageous to me that they could be same person. But now I know.
hangs head in shame
I asked my husband to get tickets to his Cleveland show.
What can I say, being named after the guy’s song must mean I like his music.
Ava
Hee. I’ve seen all of them perform. I’ve also seen Bobby Sherman and Andy Gibb. 
Based on this thread I checked out Ticketmaster, and he’s coming to LA in November. Since I probably won’t be able to find anyone to go with me, you should make a road trip!
When he plays Vegas, he usually plays for a week straight (no pun intended) and he sells out every show.
I’m not a Manilow fan, but obviously he’s done something right to still be raking in the money after so many years in the business. I’m quite sure some of the people who are wildly popular now will be hardly remembered in 10 years, let alone 30. Why the OP is surprised at him being able to sell enough tickets for a show is the real head scratcher IMHO.
I have a confession.
I nearly bought his greatest hits cd today.
I stopped.
Not out of embarrassement. After reading what Dopers have to say about him being a trouper and a class act is enough for me. I’ve been living in a bubble for too long. Who knew Barry didn’t have to stage a comeback because he never left.
I am going to wait until my birthday next month…hint hint you bastiges and buy it for myself.
And then I am going to hum the music to Copacabana loudly at my kids school functions to drive the other mothers insane. Planting an earworm.
Its all part of a fienish plot.
So fiendish that I haven’t told myself why exactly I am doing it.
But there you have it.
It just figures that a pit thread about Barry Manilow would turn out to be the nicest pit thread ever.
From what I gather, he didn’t “write the songs.” At least not that one.
And to think, I used to be embarassed about owning a Gordon Lightfoot CD!
(Nothing against Barry. I’m not a fan, but I don’t HATE him. I’m mostly indifferent).
FWIW, he hasn’t written most of his own lyrics, but he does write most of his own music.
Hell, Lawrence Welk is still touring to huge crowds, and he’s dead! From the NY Times:
BRANSON, Mo. - Lawrence Welk disappeared from commercial television 20 years ago, but Alice Hutchinson, 84, will watch a rerun of his show on Saturday night, as she does every week. She will tape it and make copies for friends. She will chat about it for hours online. And she will not be alone. Twelve years after Welk’s death, “The Lawrence Welk Show” is the highest-rated syndicated show on public television, reaching an audience of more than three million households. His viewers outnumber those for MTV, VH1 and BET on Saturday nights. “I don’t watch much TV because it doesn’t interest me,” said Ms. Hutchinson, who came here as she does every year, to see members of the Welk cast perform onstage. Like the audience, the cast members have had their retirement years transformed by the show’s unexpected longevity. Norma Zimmer, 81, who became Welk’s “Champagne lady,” or featured singer, in 1960, said she had expected to retire long ago, but the annual fund-raising specials brought her back. “I was ready to stay home and ski,” she said.
I fixed that! 
*o/`
His name was Brutus, he was a Rightie,
With Dub’s white feather in his hair and his morals cut down to there.
He would harangue and do the troll-troll
And while he revived Clinton’s cigar
Shodan always tended bar
Across the crowded Boards, they worked from 8 til 4
They were dumb and they had G Dubya
Who could ask for more?
At the Straight Dope! The SDMB!
The hottest spot north of Urbana!
At the Straight Dope! The SDM-B!
Political passion is always in fashion
At the Straight Dope… they fell in love
His name was reeder
He wore a Dem pin
He was escorted to his cage, he saw Brutus in a rage.
And when he ‘sploded, he called him ou-out
But reeder went a bit to far
Shodan sailed across the bar
And then the posts they flew, ideas were smashed in two
There was rage and a single Pitting
But just who flamed who?
At the Straight Dope! The SDMB!
The hottest spot north of Urbana!
At the Straight Dope! The SDM-B!
Political passion is always in fashion
At the Straight Dope… push comes to shove
His name is Brutus, he was a Doper,
But that was many years ago, when he got used to eating crow.
Now he’s a looney, haunting old GD,
Still in the morals he gave up,
drinking from that bitter cup.
He sits there so refined,and drinks himself half-blind
He lost his youth and he lost his Georgey
They’re gone with his mind.
At the Straight Dope! The SDMB!
The hottest spot north of Urbana!
At the Straight Dope! The SDM-B!
Political passion is always in fashion
At the Straight Dope… take off the gloves…
o/`*
Damn, that was funny! Incorrect of course (eh, Brutus 
), but hilarious just the same. Kudos to you!
I saw Gord in concert about 2 years ago. It was great!
I love Barry! I do!
Of course, after reading this thread, I’ve got “Trying to Get the Feeling Again” or whatever it’s called stuck in my head and I hate you all.
But I still love Barry!
Don’t think I’m not tempted!
Mr. Ujest loves Gordon Lightfoot.
Every time The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgeraldn comes on the radio ( in November) he just loves it. I mock him terribly.
What?
The other day I happened to catch Oprah at the beginning of her show and she said she was going to finally have ‘the most requested guest ever.’ She talked about how thousands had written over the years begging to see this one guest so they were finally going to have him on. I was curious to see who it was, thinking of who it might be. The doors opened and out came Barry Manilow. The crowd went nuts.
I had no idea he was still this popular either. Really? The most requested guest ever?
What a great song it is, too!
Two things about it surprised me when I learned more about it. One was that the Edmund Fitzgerald was a modern day ship. For some reason, I thought the story was about a ship that went down in the 1800’s. The second was that Lightfoot wrote it in about 30 minutes while onboard an airplane where he’d just read about it in a magazine.
Manilow wrote and sang ‘Mandy’.
He can play armpit farts for the rest of his concert for all I care. In fact, I regard the rest of his music to be one long armpit fart.
But he did ‘Mandy’, which is enough.