Barry Manilow, "Daybreak"

This weekend I bought a Barry Manilow box set, The Complete Collection and Then Some, at a deep discount from the Virgin Megastore in Union Square. It's not like I needed more Manilow in my collection - this set is added to three other CDs, six cassettes, five vinyl LPs (but alas, no longer the 8-tracks) - but this package offered some unreleased and live cuts I wanted to hear, including an uptempo pre-hit recording of "Could It Be Magic" redolent of Tony Orlando & Dawn (and indeed, that recording, credited to the fictional outfit Featherbed, was produced by Tony O himself).

The main cut I wanted from the box set, apart from that CIBM reading, was the live version of "Daybreak," a minor chart hit in 19781977 taken from Barry Manilow Live that is notable in my world for being the very first 45 I ever bought. The studio version of "Daybreak" is pleasant post-vaudevillian positivity, but it's the stage that really makes "Daybreak" come alive. When Barry playfully does some call-and-response with his background singers Lady Flash, the listener can hardly help but grin widely like a simple child and sway back and forth. Kind of the way Kathleen Turner does in Serial Mom.

Sang, girls!

(ETA: Tip of the cap to reader Mike for his fact-checking.)