Copacabana (At The Copa) – Barry Manilow (1978)

Description

Additional information about this, Barry Manilow vinyl art.

Barry Manilow – The Artist

Barry Manilow (born Barry Alan Pincus, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, musician and producer with a career that has spanned more than 50 years. His hit recordings include “Could It Be Magic”, “Mandy”, “I Write the Songs”, “Can’t Smile Without You” and “Copacabana (At the Copa)”. As well as producing and arranging albums for himself and other artists, Manilow has written and performed songs for musicals, films, and commercials for corporations such as McDonald’s, Pepsi-Cola, and Band-Aid, from the 1960s. He has also produced Grammy-nominated albums for Bette Midler, Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson and Sarah Vaughan. Manilow has sold more than 75 million records as a solo artist worldwide, making him one of the world’s best-selling artists.

Copacabana (At The Copa) – The Song

‘Copacabana (At The Copa)‘ also known as “Copacabana”, is a song recorded by Barry Manilow. Written by Manilow, Jack Feldman, and Bruce Sussman, it was released in 1978 as the third single from Manilow’s fifth studio album, Even Now (1978). The song was inspired by a conversation between Manilow and Sussman at the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, when they discussed whether there had ever been a song called “Copacabana”. After returning to the US, Manilow – who, in the 1960s, had been a regular visitor to the Copacabana nightclub in New York City – suggested that Sussman and Feldman write the lyrics to a story song for him. They did so, and Manilow supplied the music. The song’s lyrics refer to the Copacabana nightclub, “the hottest spot north of Havana”. The story starts in approximately 1948, focusing on Lola, a Copacabana showgirl, and her sweetheart Tony, a bartender at the club. One night, an ostentatiously wealthy man named Rico takes a fancy to Lola, but Tony intervenes when Rico becomes aggressive. The ensuing brawl ends in a gun being fired; although it is initially unclear “who shot who”, it soon becomes apparent that Tony has died. Thirty years later, the club has been transformed into a discotheque (as the real New York Copacabana had been), but a middle-aged Lola remains in her showgirl attire, now a customer at the bar who “drinks herself half blind” lamenting the loss of her youth, her sanity and Tony.

The Showgirl – The Shape

This record has been cut into three dancing showgirls. A showgirl is a female performer in a theatrical revue who wears an exotic and revealing costume and in some shows may appear topless. Showgirls are usually dancers, sometimes performing as chorus girls, burlesque dancers or fan dancers, and many are classically trained with skills in ballet. The term showgirl is also sometimes used by strippers and some strip clubs use it as part of their business name.

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