Early life

Manilow was born Barry Alan Pincus on June 17, 1943, in Brooklyn, New York. His parents, Harold and Edna Pincus (who died in 1993 and 1994, respectively), were of Russian Jewish ancestry.

Manilow's parents divorced when he was two years old, after which he was raised by his mother and maternal grandparents, Joseph and Esther Manilow, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Manilow's grandparents, who died in 1973 and 1975, had a strong influence on his life. It was they who encouraged him to take up his first musical instrument, the accordion, which was popular in his Jewish and Italian neighborhood.

In 1948, as a five-year old he recorded Happy Birthday with his grandfather in a coin-operated recording booth as a present for his cousin Dennis. Twenty five years later, a sample of this recording, known as Sing It, served as the opening track on his first album.

When his mother later remarried, Manilow's stepfather, Willie Murphy, brought an extensive collection of jazz and swing records into the house. As a teenager, he listened to these records constantly, coming to idolize such conductors and composers as Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter and Nelson Riddle. It was Murphy who gave him a piano for his 13th birthday, at the time of his bar mitzvah. Manilow then dropped the accordion and began practicing on his new piano.

At this point, Edna Pincus legally changed her surname, as well as her son's, to her maiden name, Manilow. Over the next few years, Manilow performed locally for small businesses and parties. He graduated from Eastern District High School in New York in 1961.