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I Need Your Help Barry Manilow

"I Need Your Help Barry Manilow"
I Need Your Help Barry Manilow - Ray Stevens.jpg
Single by Ray Stevens
from the album The Feeling's Not Right Again
B-side "Daydream Romance"
Released March 1979
Format 7"
Genre Soft rock, adult contemporary
Length 3:44
Label Warner Bros. Records
Writer(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)

"I Need Your Help Barry Manilow" is a 1979 parody pop 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. 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 by a sample of "I Write the Songs". The fictional singer recounts a litany of unfortunate events in his life, reaching 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".

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.


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