I Need Your Help Barry Manilow

"I Need Your Help Barry Manilow"
Single by Ray Stevens
from the album The Feeling's Not Right Again
B-side "Daydream Romance"
Released March 1979
Format 7"
Length 3:44
Label Warner Bros. Records
Songwriter(s) Dale Gonyea
Producer(s) Ray Stevens
Ray Stevens singles chronology
"Be Your Own Best Friend"
(1978)		 "I Need Your Help Barry Manilow"
(1979)		 "Shriner's Convention"
(1980)

"Be Your Own Best Friend"
(1978)		 "I Need Your Help Barry Manilow"
(1979)		 "Shriner's Convention"
(1980)

"I Need Your Help Barry Manilow" is a 1979 song by Ray Stevens. It was the first track on Stevens' album, The Feeling's Not Right Again. The single's release in March preceded the release of the album in June.

The single reached number 49 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It spent a total of eight weeks on the chart. On the Cash Box Top 100, it peaked at number 34.[1] It also charted in Canada and Australia.

As with most of Stevens' songs, "I Need Your Help Barry Manilow" features a comedic story line. It also uses riffs reminiscent of many of Manilow's best known hits, led off with a musical phrase resembling the opening of "I Write the Songs". The fictional singer recounts a litany of unfortunate events in his life, some of which are comically trivial or nonsensical. He reaches the conclusion that he needs Manilow to sing one of his more melancholy and wistful songs to comfort him, as several of Manilow's biggest hits have story lines about suffering and misfortune, particularly in love gone awry.

Other Manilow songs mentioned or alluded to include "Mandy", "Copacabana", "Can't Smile Without You", "Weekend in New England", "Could It Be Magic" and "Tryin' to Get the Feeling Again". The song also makes reference to MasterCharge, the San Andreas Fault, gossip columnist Rona Barrett, and a slogan for Dristan nasal spray.

Just as the album's cover art is a spoof of Manilow's album Tryin' to Get the Feeling, so the single's cover art is a spoof of Manilow's album Barry Manilow II.

Chart history

Weekly charts

Chart (1979) Peak
position
Australia 92
Canada RPM 63
US Billboard Hot 100[2] 49
US Cashbox Top 100[3] 34
US Billboard Adult Contemporary[4] 11
US Country 85

References

  1. ↑ CASH BOX Top 100 Singles, Week ending April 28, 1979
  2. ↑ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  3. ↑ CASH BOX Top 100 Singles, Week ending April 28, 1979
  4. ↑ Billboard Adult Contemporary, April 28, 1979
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