Track Listing

1. Islands in the Stream (duet w/ Reba McEntire)
2. Open Arms
3. Never Gonna Give You Up
4. Have I told You Lately
5. I Just Called to Say I Love You
6. Against All Odds
7. Careless Whisper
8. Right Here Waiting
9. Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)
10. Hard To Say I'm Sorry
11. Time After Time
12. I've Had The Time of My Life

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2932 in Music
• Brand: Arista
• Released on: 2008-11-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Album Description
The Greatest Songs of The Eighties is the next release in a best-selling series of tribute albums of popular music which includes The Greatest Songs of The Fifties, The Greatest Songs Of The Sixties and The Greatest Songs Of The Seventies whose cumulative sales, along with Ultimate Manilow have surpassed 5 million units worldwide. The Greatest Songs of The Eighties continues the productive and successful reunion between Manilow and Clive Davis, Arista founder and Chief Creative Officer, Sony BMG. Davis has been Manilow's hitmaking collaborator on virtually all his recordings, since they first worked together on "Mandy". His debut #1 single, as the first artist signed to Arista by Davis in 1974. The two produced The Greatest Songs of The Fifties, The Greatest Songs Of The Sixties and The Greatest Songs Of The Seventies together, and that magic has carried over to the new album as well.

Customer Reviews

TRULY DISAPPOINTED
I've loved BM songs even since they started to come out during the 70's. I must say that I have almost every album in CD now and I was hoping this new deliver of 80's renditions would be kind of good... but no no no... My dear Barry, I don't think you'll have the Time Of Your Life with this CD... these songs aren't for you or your vocal tone... too low... too slow... I'm sure there are much better songs that you could've chosen. The only cuts I like are ISLANDS IN THE STREAMS (because of the duo with Reba) and I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU (because of the samba-like feel you've put into it which makes it kind of interesting).

Better luck next time Barry!

barry, please stop it....
im a big Manilow fan since the 70s. i have all of barry's albums and cds. saw him perform live a couple of time and we love it! the 50's album was super fantastic! the 60's album was great! the 70's album was okay. but his latest, 80's album???? barry should have covered some 80's songs attuned with his voice and personality that we know of. the songs he covered sucks. careless whisper , time of my life, against all odds didnt fit his voice. its to CORNY. my advice to you barry my man, please stop making decade covers. your first two, (50s and 60s) were supposed to be it. but the 80's? c'mon brother! poor song selection did this album in! however, a henry mancini tribute album might be a great project for you in your next album.

Barry's Way Of The 80's
When it came down to the music of the 80's there was so much innovation that showed well with the industry. Artists like U2 and R.E.M. were starting to make charted waters, and MTV had made its way to the living rooms across America, and artists like Madonna and Michael Jackson became staples of pop culture. But for Barry Manilow, he had a lot of personal problems from debt and bankruptcy, to his personal marriage ending in divorce. But, that still hasn't stopped him from touring and delivering great music then. With songs like Somewhere Down The Road, and the intimate The Old Songs, he still had a lot to prove on his own. But with Barry's recent comeback into his Greatest Songs Of The Decade series, he has shown a new audience the way the soothe songs his own way.

Barry Manilow's 2008 Greatest Songs Of The Eighties is the latest in Barry's decades hits tribute collection. The collection doesn't focus on staples from MTV acts like Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston or Prince, but instead highlights on Barry delivering his takes on mostly ballads that delivered to radio listeners across America. There are some covers that actually click well on the album like his smooth cover of Journey's Open Arms, a simple cover of Richard Marx's mega-ballad Right Here Waiting, and the overlooked Christopher Cross with his Oscar-winning Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do.) While there are a few surprisingly good covers here, there just are a lot of covers here that don't really seem to deliver the uniqueness and chemistry the songs had by those original acts like a weak rendition of I Had The Time Of My Life from Dirty Dancing and Wham!'s Careless Whisper, that puts the feeling of the album into shame. Those few covers were so terrible that I had to stop listening to the album, and turn back to listening to Mandy.

All in all, with several artists making cover albums recently like Seal with Soul and Deborah Cox with last year's sensational Destination Moon, I really feel that there wasn't really much to rave on Barry Manilow's Greatest Songs Of The Eighties, where the earlier records like Greatest Songs Of The 50's and 60's that worked well. I think that mainly it should be time that Barry should put an end to his greatest songs of the decade series, and focus in on making new material to swoon lovers of his voice to something completely different.

Album Cover: B

Songs: C

Price: C-

Mastering: C+

Overall: C 1/2-