Barry Manilow recently broke Elvis' record for performances in Las Vegas, and he has a new Broadway musical called Harmony. He spoke with Terry Gross in 2002 about his hits of the '70s and '80s and writing advertising jingles early in his career. Film critic Justin Chang reviews the new film Poor Things, starring Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted Radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
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I'm Dave Davies.
Barry Manilow is one of the most successful pop performers of the seventies and early eighties.
He had 25 top 40 hits between 1974 and 83, including Mandy.
I write the songs trying to get the feeling again.
Looks like we made it can't smile without you copacabana and I made it through the rain.
Now, at the age of 80, he's got a musical on Broadway titled Harmony.
Manilow wrote the music and his longtime collaborator Bruce Sussman the lyrics.
It's based on the true story of the comedian harmonists, an all male group who were international stars in Germany before World War two.
But the group was banned by the nazis.
Here's a bit of the title song from the musical.
Harmony.
Did we have harmony?
But that's just about all we have suddenly a little harmony and the poverty's not so bad then we were poorest in Berlin we were patches on our path mercy when you're in harmony, you're in a trap.
Others went marching, not us we dance oi.
Before Manilow started writing and singing pop songs, he wrote commercial jingles, and he was Bette Midler's first music director.