Copacabana (song)
| Copacabana | |
|---|---|
| Barry Manilow | |
| publication | 1978 |
| length | 4:08 A side 5:46 B side |
| Genre (s) | Pop song |
| Author (s) | Feldman / Manilow / Sussman |
| Award (s) | Grammy Award |
Copacabana is a song from 1978, sung by Barry Manilow , written by Jack Feldman , Barry Manilow and Bruce Sussman . It is also known as Copacabana (At the Copa) . The arrangement is completely in the style of the disco era of the late 1970s.
background
The title and chorus of the song refer to the famous New York nightclub of the same name (the third verse mentions that the former nightclub is now, in the late 1970s , a disco ). It tells the story of Lola, a showgirl , and her lover Tony, a club bartender , who is murdered by Rico, a mob boss with an amorous interest in Lola.
Publication and Success
Copacabana reached number 8 on the Billboard Top 40 charts on July 7, 1978. The recording brought Manilow his first and to date only Grammy Award and the first gold single for a song he composed in February 1979 .
The recording was in the movie Foul Play (Foul Play) (1978) with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn used as background music and occurred in another over a dozen films. The single version lasts 4:08, the longer disco version Copacabana (At the Copa) (Disco) 5:46. Instead of the usual 12 "single, the long version was on the B-side of the 45s and can also be found on Manilow's first greatest hits album.
Shortly after the English version, Manilow released a Spanish version as a 12 "disco single, Copacabana (En el Copa) , which did not make it into the Billboards Hot 100, but was used by dance club disc jockeys.
A demo recording - albeit cut off - can be found in the 4CD / 1DVD box set The Complete Collection and Then Some… .
musical
1985 Manilow and his co-authors Sussman and Feldman expanded the song into a TV musical of the same name. They wrote many additional songs for it and expanded the story outlined in the song. This version of the film was later extended by its authors into a two-act stage musical that was shown at the Prince of Wales Theater in London's West End for two years before embarking on a long tour of the UK. A subsequent American production toured the United States for over a year. Over 200 productions of the show have since been performed worldwide.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Copacabana (At The Copa) , songfacts.com, as of March 3, 2009