Barry Manilow

Barry Manilow was a lite rock songwriter with a few big hits to his name when this live album shot to No. 1 on the charts and catapulted him to international stardom. Manilow isn't the best singer in the world, but he's a master showman. His 1970s gigs were like KISS or Alice Cooper concerts that didn't scare away moms. Barry is also an old school songwriter, so Live's best cut may be the extended medley of all the awesome commercial jingles he wrote. This version includes 8 bonus cuts.

So rock and rollers can't stand him and what else is new? Well, two aperçus. One, he is beyond the pale of New York chauvinism. And two, all the best commercials in his notorious "Very Strange Medley" were written by other composers, just like his hits. (Grade - C-)