cover image Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise

Sweet Life: Adventures on the Way to Paradise

Barry Manilow. McGraw-Hill Companies, $17.95 (274pp) ISBN 978-0-07-039904-4

One of the world's most popular musical performers tells the story of his career. Barry Alan Pincus, his father an Irish-American truck driver, his mother the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, grew up poor in Brooklyn. Not a good academic student, he learned to play the piano, aspired to marry young, have children and become an executive at CBS. But soon he got part-time jobs as an accompanist and arrangermost notably for Bette Midler at the Continental Baths and later at Carnegie Halland was induced to sing some of his own songs on a recording. Success and fame came quickly. Even now he wonders at his sudden rise. This warmhearted memoir reveals a friendly, appealing man who maintains relationships with old friends and former sweethearts and believes in ""people, loving, and music.'' The biggest lesson he's learned ``is to follow your heart. If you do, you can't go wrong.'' Photos not seen by PW. Major ad/promo; author tour. (November)