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Spring 2006 is a very good time to be a Barry Manilow fan. An afterglow remains from the #1 debut of The Greatest Songs of the Fifties, his Las Vegas show recently reached its one-year anniversary, and now Music and Passion, a DVD of the stage show and 3 reissued early albums will help you fall in love with Manilow all over again.

Step Back in Time - Barry Manilow II

Stick the Barry Manilow II CD into your player, and it will take you back to the days when only music industry cognoscenti had an idea of who Barry Manilow was.

Then there was that song titled "Brandy" that Clive Davis suggested to the young performer. With a slight change of the title to "Mandy," Barry Manilow became a star and Clive Davis' legend was enhanced. The album is a somewhat disjointed affair with an air of throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. "It's a Miracle" is still irresistibly joyful after all of these years and the vocal version of Count Basie's "Avenue C" still works.

A Solid Work - Tryin' To Get the Feeling

The next album Barry Manilow released still stands as one of his most consistent artistic achievements. Tryin' To Get the Feeling consolidated the momentum from Barry Manilow II and featured the smash hit "I Write the Songs," another suggestion from Clive Davis. The album includes the moving ballad "Lay Me Down," and "Beautiful Music," an admirable match for Abba's "Thank You for the Music." One of the 2 bonus tracks has Barry Manilow indulging his love for Broadway with his version of Stephen Sondheim's "Marry Me a Little." The album makes Manilow's artistic vision clear anchored by ballads and spiced with a bit of jazz and a lot of showmanship.

Tryin' To Get the Feeling is a good starting point for the Barry Manilow fan looking to delve a bit deeper beyond greatest hits packages.

It's All in the Orchestration - Even Now

By the time Even Now, Barry Manilow's 5th studio album, was released, he was a superstar. This gave him the ability to experiment a bit, but, unfortunately, the results were mixed. The venture into disco on "Copacabana (At the Copa)" was a rousing success, but the domestic drama of songs like "Losing Touch" sound painfully forced. An element of the songs here that should not be underestimated is the orchestration. The hits "Copacabana (At the Copa)," "Can't Smile Without You," and "Even Now" feature the pristine backing work of veteran Artie Butler. However, the songs like "Losing Touch" that include orchestration by Jimmie Haskell sound overwrought and have not aged well.

Back To the Present - Music and Passion

If you wish to see the kind of show Barry Manilow puts together today, the 2 disc DVD collection Music and Passion is a useful purchase. With an adoring audience, it would be difficult for Manilow to go wrong, but he manages to take the show beyond the simply mundane and shows flourishes that will maintain the interest of the most casual of fans.

Barry Manilow dispenses with a number of the major hits in a medley early in the show which leaves more room for slightly more challenging material. A Fifties Medley featuring songs from the Greatest Songs of the Fifties album is pleasantly entertaining, but an extended segment influenced by Barry Manilow's Here at the Mayflower album is even more intriguing and involving. Beyond the show, a second disc includes all of the extras a true fan could want. By the time a production number of "Copacabana" including a hip hop section winds down to a close, you'll realize Barry Manilow's gift of showmanship is alive and well.