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Created: Wednesday, 19 August 2015 20:08

Written by Shauna

Anniversary Release - Barry Manilow's "It's a Miracle"

“It’s a Miracle! A true-blue spectacle!”

Kind of describes how I feel about Chic celebrating our 7th Anniversary. It does feel a little miraculous to still be here and going strong. And just like the song says, “the miracle is YOU!” Without YOU and your support, Chic Recordings would have come and gone like a breath in the wind. So thank you for being our miracle!

Notes straight out of Wikipedia – “’It's a Miracle’ is a 1975 single by Barry Manilow and was the second release from his album, Barry Manilow II. "It's a Miracle" went to number twelve on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and was Manilow's second number one on the U.S. Easy Listening chart, spending one week at number one in April 1975. The single also peaked at number fifteen on the disco/dance chart, and was the first of four entries on the chart. Cash Box said that it's "an up-tempo, rocking tune with a great dance rhythm.”

"It's a Miracle" is traditionally the first song played at Barry Manilow concerts.”

We have been to two Barry concerts in the last three years, and he does indeed open the show with this song.

As I’ve told you all before, I have been a HUGE Manilow fan for years (since high school). He was the first artist I ever saw in concert. I have all his early LP’s on vinyl, and they are well-worn (some of them are pictured above). As proof of our five-year age difference, Vic has all the Beatles vinyl, and I have all the Barry vinyl. Barry was my Beatles. (No, I’m not comparing them musically. It’s just a statement of fandom.” Vic used to tease me mercilessly for my Barry love, and then he took me to a Barry concert (summer of 2019). On the drive home, he reluctantly admitted that he had been converted at the concert and had joined me as Barry’s newest “fanilow.” Yes, the concert was that good. In fact, it was the recent (2nd) concert we attended where I turned to Vic during the opening number and said “we can cut this one. It works!”

I reserved the song and immediately heard from Ted Lizotte with this reply: “I've considered his tune! Knock it out of the park!” So when it came time to select a caller for the male vocal, Ted was the only choice! It was clear he knew the song, and I could already hear his voice singing it in my head. As expected, he “knocked it out of the park.” (A good thing, since that’s what he told me to do with the song.)

The female vocal features Staff Caller, Patty Greene. More than one person has asked me, “if Barry is YOUR guy, why aren’t YOU doing this vocal?” The first answer is, Patty heard the rough track and called “dibs.” I know I’m the boss, but then she sent me some great tracks. Even so, I was second-guessing and told Patty I might decide to do the lead myself. But once we got into the studio and dropped her vocal into the music, she had “knocked it out of the park.” It would be a waste of time and money to redo it just for my personal vanity. Besides, this song is heavy with background vocals, so my stamp is on both keys anyway.

We spent a lot of time trying to make this cut right. We had “finished” the male tracks on Saturday, and while listening on the drive home it just wasn’t completely right. That led to more time spent listening to both our tracks and the original from Barry, making a list of things that needed adjusting. Sunday afternoon found us back in the studio (supposedly for the girl key), but first…back to the male tracks. I won’t bore you with the complete list, but it included a driving guitar on the intro and other key spots, brighter BGV sounds, new instrumentation, more timpani, and a complete remix. Then, on to the girl key and doing it all over again! My sincere hope is that it was all worth it and we “knocked it out of the park,” just as Ted told us to do.

CHIC 1080 in the male vocal range features the vocal by Ted Lizotte.

CHIC 2080 in the female vocal range features Staff Caller, Patty Greene.

To purchase, just head on over to the Chic Boutique for fast and easy mp3 downloads.

Click on the youtube links (to the left) for previews!