Notes & Personnel Info |  | Personnel includes: Barry Manilow (vocals); Artie Butler, Les Brown, Dick Hyman, Mike Melvoln (conductor); Buddy Morrow (leader, trombone); Jim Miller, Mercer Ellington, Larry O'Brien, Art DePew (leader); Charlie Young (alto saxophone); Warren Leuning (trumpet); Bill Watrous (trombone); Debra Byrd, Kevin DiSimone, Margaret Dorn, James Jolis, Jon Joyce, Don Shelton, Donna Davidson, Susan Boyd (background vocals); Rosemary Clooney, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, The Duke Ellington Orchestra, The Glenn Miller Orchestra. | | Engineers includes: Gary Chester, John Richards, Allen Abrahamson. | | Recorded at Edison Studios, New York, New York; Capitol Studios and Ocean Way Studios, Hollywood, California; Westlake Studios and Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, California. | | Personnel: Barry Manilow (vocals); Debra Byrd (vocals, background vocals); Rosemary Clooney (vocals); Charlie Young (alto saxophone); Warren Leuning (trumpet); Artie Butler, Bill Watrous, Bill Tole, Buddy Morrow (trombone); Donna Davidson, Jon Joyce , James Jolis, Don Shelton , Kevin DiSimone, Margaret Dorn, Susan Boyd (background vocals). | | Audio Mixer: Don Murray . | | Recording information: Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA (??/1900-??/1994); Edison Studios, New York, NY (??/1900-??/1994); Ocean Way Studios, Hollyw (??/1900-??/1994); WEstlake Studios, Los Angeles, CA (??/1900-??/1994). | | Photographer: Tim White . | | Unknown Contributor Roles: Debra Byrd; Christopher Stern ; Duke Ellington Orchestra; Cord Himelstein; Richard "Dickie" Reed; Bill Wilson; Glenn Miller; Harry James; Robert Wieger; Kird Bonin; Jimmy Dorsey; Larry Walsh; Marc Hulett; Rosemary Clooney; Tommy Dorsey; Les Brown; Richard Harris. | | Arrangers: Dick Hyman; Jay Hill; Art Depew; Mike Melvoin; Artie Butler; Sy Oliver. | | Like Neil Diamond, Barry Manilow embarked on a transition during the 1990s from being a contemporary pop singer/songwriter to being an interpretive singer on the model of Tony Bennett, who achieved a career resurgence around the same time with a series of thematic albums. Manilow followed 1991's Showstoppers, an album of songs from Broadway shows, with Singin' with the Big Bands, which found him covering swing-era standards, in some cases accompanied by the ghost bands of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Harry James, and Glenn Miller. Les Brown & His Band of Renown were still active, and he backed Manilow on a rendition of his hit "Sentimental Journey." For the most part, the songs covered were known more for their instrumental power than for the vocals of people like Bob Eberly and Ray Eberle, and Manilow matched them, while soloists re-created the signature sounds of the big band musicians and the arrangements were subtly updated. So, for example, when Manilow sang Benny Goodman's "And the Angels Sing," he equaled Martha Tilton's vocal, and Warren Leuning aped Ziggy Elman's famous trumpet solo. Manilow got in more trouble with songs like "Sentimental Journey," originally sung by Doris Day with a marked sultriness he didn't even try to evoke, and with Frank Sinatra trademarks like "All or Nothing at All" and "I'll Never Smile Again." Born just after World War II, Manilow seemed to respond to the effervescence of the sweet swing sound, but to have no grasp whatsoever of the underlying longing and pain that went with and informed these songs of wartime separation. ~ William Ruhlmann | | The rock and roll era of the 1950s and early '60s was largely a transitional period between one style of R&B and another. There was the combo style that evolved into modern rock and pop, as well as the mix of pop, blues and big band sounds dating from the swing era onward, which produced the hybrid sounds of early rock 'n' roll. If you examine the pedigree of most '50s rock and roll session men, they were jazz veterans of dance happy big bands. | | It is this milieu which preceded Barry Manilow's formative years as fledgling songwriter, and it is here he turns for inspiration on SINGIN' WITH THE BIG BANDS. Manilow transports himself back to the Brooklyn Paramount in 1943 on the title tune, and subsequently takes the subway into the latter with a lift from the venerable Rosemary Clooney. | | Unlike his sister of swing, Linda Ronstadt (who made an excursion into the genre through the midwifery of Nat "King" Cole and Frank Sinatra's arranger, Nelson Riddle), Manilow recreates the ambience of the original orchestras with, in many cases, the actual orchestras, as presently constituted (minus their departed leaders and most original soloists). Alternating between dance tunes and ballads, Manilow's take on Ellington's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" is sassy and brassy, while he milks the sentimental melody of "Moonlight Serenade" for all its worth. |
Producer: Phil Ramone; Barry Manilow |
Engineer: Don Hahn; Gary Chester; Bill Molina; John Richards; Allen Abrahamson |
Musical Guests | | Les Brown | | Rosemary Clooney | | Jimmy Dorsey & His Orchestra | | Duke Ellington & His Orchestra | | Glenn Miller & His Orchestra | | Les Brown & His Band Of Renown | | Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra | | Harry James Orchestra | | Debra Byrd |
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