QVC-My Review

Last year during the QVC special, a friend and I spent the entire hour yelling at the television for "Chatty Kathy" to stop talking. I'm unhappy to say, this year I was yelling alone. I understand that it's her JOB to sell the product. But seriously...does she have to inform us about every little detail of the song. "Don't you just love Jeff Bridges???" Are you kidding me? We all saw Barry's look on that question.

For some reason, however, he always seems to love these QVC sales events. He loves previewing his new album and singing those songs for the first time live. This time, he got an audience full of fans. And you could tell he was enjoying himself and keying off their excitement.

Now for the important stuff....the songs.

My favorite of the evening was Arthur's Theme. That song was made for him. I won't ever think of the original version again. It was pure heaven listening to him weave those lyrics and that melody. Not only was the performance exemplary, but the arrangement shined. The sax solo blew me away (kudos to Brandon).

I thoroughly enjoy hearing these cover albums when they are first debuted. Barry takes someone else's song and makes it his own. He listens to the lyrics to understand their meaning or the story they tell and he uses that to arrange the song musically to do what he does best, tell a story in the song. Many times, you don't realize what the original song was about until you hear his rendition. It's truly remarkable each time he does it and so many times the songs take on new meaning for me.

For those of us that haven't heard the entire CD, it will be a few more days of waiting. Then, I'll pop it in and begin another journey of "listening" to the music and discovering the absolute genuis that is Manilow.

Right Here Waiting,
Texas Fan