Tryin’ to Get the Feeling

Alongside Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow was one of the strongest hitmakers discovered by Clive Davis at his newly founded Arista Records. This third album by the New York-born singer-songwriter, released in 1975, produced the US No. 1 ‘I Write the Songs’ and sold three million copies in America.

Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys wrote ‘I Write the Songs’; Captain & Tennille had recorded it first, but Manilow’s version became the huge hit that brought him wider recognition. The title song, ‘Tryin’ to Get the Feeling Again’, became a single in 1976 and had made its songwriter known when the Carpenters recorded it. Manilow’s singing and assured stage manner led to comparisons with Frank Sinatra. Yet he was also portrayed as the master of MOR—music between rock and pop—selling pop songs as advertisements, and as a ‘pop singer’ whose singing had taken the soul out of them.