Barry adapts ‘Manilow sound' for '80s tunes

“The Greatest Songs of the Eighties” won't win Barry Manilow many young new fans.

But, for Manilow CD collectors jonesing for a new product, “The Greatest Songs of the Eighties” will provide a rush of euphoria.

One of Manilow's greatest assets is his skill as an arranger who knows the “Manilow sound” and how to achieve it. His own preference may be to adapt to a Johnny Mercer lyric, but he respects the ear of co-producer Clive Davis, who he calls “the Albert Einstein of music” on the disc's liner notes, and he accepts Davis' feel for the type of material Manilow fans will like.

With those parameters, Manilow has chosen melodic pop hits such as Stevie Wonder's “I Just Called To Say I Love You,” Cyndi Lauper's “Time After Time” and Van Morrison's “Have I Told You Lately.”

The opening track, a cover of the Kenny Rogers-Dolly Parton hit, “Islands in the Stream” with Reba McEntire, is the kind of smart merger you wish our government could come up with for the stock market.

The song that best utilizes the Manilow formula of power modulations is probably his solo rendering of the Bill Medley-Jennifer Warnes hit, “(I've Had) the Time of My Life.”

The biggest miss is “Have I Told You Lately,” which lacks Morrison's ethereal quality.

But this “decades” CD uses that Manilow formula more appropriately than any since his No. 1, “Greatest Songs of the Fifties.”

Rick Astley's “Never Gonna Give You Up” could become a high-energy dance production in Manilow's Vegas show.

Manilow could have juxtaposed the order of these songs better to give them another layer of meaning, but he'll do that in his Vegas show.

This is supposedly Manilow's last “decade” CD, but we'll be listening to his varying interpretations in his live performances.