Barry Fucking Manilow - don't throw up, millions of fans can't be wrong

He Writes the Songs, He Spans the Decades, He Inspires the Karaoke -- by KELEFA SANNEH/NY Times

“I’m 95 years old and I look great, right?” That was Barry Manilow at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, telling a fib — maybe, if we’re honest, telling two fibs — and earning another big ovation.

In any case there’s no denying that his career has aged spectacularly well. Tuesday’s concert was the first of three appearances at the Garden. Fans paid as much as $294.80, including Ticketmaster fees, to watch him sashay across the stage and croon the old hits. The theme of the show is “Music and Passion,” after a line from “Copacabana (At the Copa)”; no doubt that slogan sounds better than “Music and Patter,” which might better describe this chatty show.

After tonight’s concert, the last of the three, this production is scheduled to return, in modified form, to its home at the Las Vegas Hilton. According to the trade magazine Pollstar, Mr. Manilow’s concerts grossed $29.2 million last year. And “The Greatest Songs of the Fifties” (Arista), the first of two CDs he released last year, made its debut at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. The sequel, “The Greatest Songs of the Sixties” (Arista), made its debut at No. 2, with more than 200,000 units sold in its first week. That’s more than three times the sales for this week’s No. 1 album, the “Dreamgirls” soundtrack. Thirty-four years after the release of his debut album, Mr. Manilow remains one of the most popular singers in America.

Tuesday’s concert helped show why: It was a daffy delight, especially the first half. “All I can hope is that these songs are ruined in karaoke bars for years to come,” he said, and that sums up his approach pretty well. There’s something unpretentious about the way he strains for grandeur. And when he sings his biggest and best songs — for instance, “Looks Like We Made It,” that triumphant ode to romantic failure (which was, sadly, absent from Tuesday’s concert) — he collapses the distance between sublime and ridiculous.

He can still rear back, raise his arms and hit the high notes. (His voice is warm rather than brassy, even when he gets to the big finish: “Somewhere in the niiight!”) He knows how to extend an inspirational ballad with an inspirational story. (He interrupted “I Made It Through the Rain” to reminisce about traveling with his grandfather from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Then, just when he seemed to have lost the thread, he dived back into the song.) And he knows how to milk a line for all it’s worth. (Though some listeners may detect the presence of a different dairy product.) When he finally sang “Mandy,” in a duet with a video projection of his younger self, it was clear that his spot in karaoke bars was well secure.

But why stop there? Inspired by the success of his two recent CDs, America’s spriest 95-year-old seemed ready to Manilowify the whole of pop music history. He transported himself to 1943 to revisit “Singin’ With the Big Bands,” his 1994 album. Then it was 1956, and the stage became an “American Bandstand” set, with a fake TV camera. On to the 1960s: Mr. Manilow took a drag, or pretended to, from “one of those funny cigarettes” and — avert your eyes if you’re squeamish — the Beatles ’ “Yesterday” got an oleaginous makeover. “I guess it’s time for the ’70s,” he said, as another decade fell away.

Even in a show as well oiled as this one, there were was some downtime. The saxophonist Dave Koz oozed onto the stage for a couple of interminable songs. (“He is the one that is keeping jazz alive,” Mr. Manilow said, and even Mr. Koz might beg to differ.) And Mr. Manilow sometimes seemed oddly strident when he talked about his favorite music. “I think that the public is just starving for a good melody and a good lyric,” he said, by way of explaining the success of his recent CDs. Another fib, perhaps, but he’s earned the right.