My feelings about the term "guilty pleasure" as it applies to music remain the same as they did ten years and two months ago. I don't like it because it implies that there are certain bands or songs you should feel guilty for listening to, even though you find them pleasurable. I don't ever feel guilty listening to music, and neither should you -- unless it's like a song or a band that overtly supports something like rape or racism or Purdue, in which case you are guilty of being an asshole. Rather, I take the term "guilty pleasure" to mean a song or band that I'm not supposed to like from a social acceptability standpoint -- for instance, if something is allegedly too poppy, too cheesy, too soft, too schmaltzy, or too foreign to be socially acceptable for me to enjoy it.
By that definition, I own several "guilty pleasure" vinyl records, by the likes of Air Supply, the Carpenters, DeBarge, Barry Manilow, and Carly Simon. I'm going to go with Barry Manilow's 1974 platinum-selling second studio album, the aptly title Barry Manilow II.
My mom used to listen to a shitload of Barry Manilow when I was growing up, so I am painfully familiar with much of his catalog. Some is good, some is palatable, some is neither. Manilow represents all that was cheesy about '70s pop music. He was schmaltzy, soft, and occasionally disco-y. But he was incredibly popular. If you need proof, look no further than his success on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart (called the Easy Listening chart until 1979), where he has had 46 songs in the Top 40, including 28 in the Top 10 and 13 #1s. But he also had mainstream success. After all, he writes the songs that make the whole world sing. He has notched 25 Top 40 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including 11 Top 10 songs and three #1s.
I picked up Manilow II at Goodwill at some point in law school. I was living in a house with a few other dudes, and one of us apparently had a turntable hooked up to the speakers, along with the five-CD changer, of course. When the weather was nice, on a weekend night before going out, we would occasionally open the front door and blare this album toward the street. The album was Manilow's first to reach the Top 10 of the Billboard album chart, and it featured his first two Top 40 songs, both of which are discussed below.
Favorite song from Side 1: "Mandy"
One of Manilow's most enduring songs, "Mandy" was apparently originally written about a dog. This makes the line "you came and you gave without taking" a bit problematic, as pretty much the only thing dogs do is take without giving. I'm also concerned about the line "you kissed me and stopped me from shaking." I did a song dissection of "Mandy" back in 2009, so feel free to click here to learn more about the song. The song was Manilow's first #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary charts.
Favorite song from Side 2: "It's a Miracle"
Side 2 is pretty slow and cheesy. One exception is "It's a Miracle," which, while cheesy, is at least upbeat and danceable (were I to advocate dancing). The song is about coming back home after being on the road and claiming that you're not going to leave again -- which is bullshit, since that's your job. It reached #12 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening/Adult Contemporary chart, and #1 on the Canadian pop chart.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment