Jim Steinman week continues with the video for Day 3.
When I was in eight grade, there was a girl in my class who loved Barry Manilow, and, if we’d lived in the same city as Manilow, I suspect she would have stalked him. She had pictures of him taped to her notebooks and locker. I sat next to her in one class, and I could usually catch her doodling his name over and over on her lined notebook paper. I, on the other hand, was not much of a Manilow fan. Ok, ok, so I know all the words to “I Write The Songs.” Deal with it. Other than that, meh.
For those of you of my generation, you’ll remember that Manilow looked like a real human being this:
For anyone who’s only just discovering Barry, you’ll see that he now looks like a sad, botoxed parody of himself this:
Plastic surgery aside, Manilow has what it takes to sing a Steinman song: a big voice.
Incidentally, lyrically, this is probably my favorite Steinman song. From 1983:
Why do people distort themselves so? He looks silly, as does poor Kenny Rogers. Helen Gurley-Brown looks like she’s stuck in a perpetual wind tunnel. Tragic.