Barry Manilow Revisits Pop Charts Thanks to New Release (2/2)

Manilow says the biggest challenge he faced with the latest in the series was making acousticversions of his own '70s hits.

"It took two months to figure out how to do it, it sounded simple - we'd do an 'unplugged' acoustic version of all these things. It was very difficult. I wound up doing two and three renditions of each one. But, we finally got it. They're beautiful. It's a beautiful album."

Barry made his first appearance on the pop chart with "Mandy." The song, which climbed to Number One in 1975, is one of six Manilow hits from the 1970s that he added as acoustic bonus tracks on his new album.

Barry retired from the road in 2004 after performing his sold-out "One Night Live! One Last Time" tour. In early 2005, he began a long-term engagement at the 1700-seat Hilton Theatre in Las Vegas. Last year, the run was extended through 2008.

The first single from Barry's new album, The Greatest Songs of the Seventies, is his remake of Albert Hammond's Top 5 hit from 1972, "It Never Rains In Southern California."

参考译文：

曼尼洛说，他的近期系列专辑面临的最大的挑战就是制作他自己70年代的非电声版精选曲目。

"我们花了两个月的时间学会制作这个版本，这听起来很简单，但做起来却非常困难：我们先要做全部精选曲目的一个"不插电"原声乐器版，每一个曲目我都要重新演奏2－3次。但我们最后成功了，那些曲子都非常优美，是一张不错的专辑。

歌曲"嫚蒂"在1975年荣登流行歌曲排行榜榜首，这也是巴里第一次在流行歌曲排行榜中亮相，"嫚蒂"是曼尼洛这次作为非电声版的附加歌曲收录到他的新专辑里的其六首70年代金曲之一。

2004年，巴里在他的热门巡回演唱会"One Night Live! One Last Time"（现场告别演唱晚会）圆满结束后就退出演艺圈了。2005年初，他在位于拉斯维加斯拥有1700个座位的希尔顿剧院开始从事长期工作。去年，他与剧院的演出合同已签至2008年。

来自巴里的新专辑（70年代最棒的歌曲）的第一首单曲－"It Never Rains In Southern California."（南加利福尼亚从来不下雨），这是巴里的翻唱版本,原版来自艾伯特•哈蒙德1972《五大金曲》中的畅销j歌曲。