Barry Manilow: They Write The Songs

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BBC Radio 2 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Light Programme.

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They Write the Songs

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Barry Manilow looks at the lives and works of composers of the Great American Songbook.

Barry Manilow looks at the lives and works of ten famous composers of the Great American Songbook, playing rare recordings and de-constructing their songs at his piano.

They Write the Songs: Series 4: Episode 5

Episode 5

Series 4

BBC Radio 2 - They Write the Songs, Series 4, Episode 5

Barry Manilow looks at the impact made by songwriter and producer Georgio Moroder.

Barry Manilow returns with episode five of his new  ten part series. In this programme he looks at the impact made by songwriter and producer Georgio Moroder.

It may surprise people to see the ‘Father of Electronic Dance Music’ Giorgio Moroder included in a series about the art of song-writing. In this programme Barry looks at the particular song writing talent required to compose with computers. Moroder was the champion of ‘The Moog’ which changed the sound of modern music fundamentally after its invention. Lyric writing would have to change too, a point that Barry vividly illustrates by singing the lyric of Johnny Mercer’s ballad ‘Moon River’, and his own ‘Copacobana’, over the original track to ‘I Feel Love’. In this episode, we hear how songs began to be built up with nothing more than an electronic pulse, then adding a bass line, synthesizer sounds, drums and so on. Whereas in the golden age the lyric might come first, now it would come last, and it’s shape would be dictated by the track. A revolution in the way songs are written had begun.

They Write the Songs: Series 4

Amazing music. Played by an amazing line up.

Radio 2: Amazing music. Played by an amazing line-up. The home of great music, entertainment and documentaries

Barry Manilow returns to celebrate the lives and work of the great songwriters.

International superstar Barry Manilow returns with a fourth series celebrating the lives and work of the great songwriters.

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They Write the Songs

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