Copacabana (song)

"Copacabana (At the Copa)"
Single by Barry Manilow
from the album Even Now
B-side "Copacabana" (disco version)
Released June 1978
Recorded 1978
Genre Disco
Length 3:48 (radio edit)
5:40 (extended version)
Label Arista
Writer(s) Barry Manilow, Jack Feldman, Bruce Sussman
Producer(s) Barry Manilow, Ron Dante
Certification Gold
Barry Manilow singles chronology
"Even Now"
(1978)		 "Copacabana"
(1978)		 "Ready to Take a Chance Again"
(1978)

"Copacabana", also known as "Copacabana (At the Copa)", is a song recorded by Barry Manilow. Written by Manilow, Jack Feldman, and Bruce Sussman, it was released in 1978 as the third and final single from Manilow's fifth studio album, Even Now (1978).

Origins

The song was inspired by a conversation between Manilow and Sussman at the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, when they discussed whether there had ever been a song called "Copacabana". After returning to the US, Manilow — who, in the 1960s, had been a regular visitor to the Copacabana nightclub in New York City — suggested that Sussman and Feldman write the lyrics to a story song for him. They did so, and Manilow supplied the music.[1]

Lyrics

The song's lyrics refer to the Copacabana nightclub, "the hottest spot north of Havana". The story starts in the late 1940s, focused on Lola, a Copacabana showgirl, and her sweetheart Tony, a bartender at the club. One night, a mobster named Rico takes a fancy to Lola, but he overplays his hand while trying to seduce her and is attacked by Tony. The ensuing brawl results in a shooting; after it is initially unclear "who shot who," it soon becomes clear that Tony has died. Thirty years later, the club has been transformed into a discotheque, but a drunken Lola, crazed with sorrow at having lost Tony, still spends her nights at the Copacabana dressed in her glamorous showgirl attire.[2]

Release

The recording was used as incidental music in the 1978 film Foul Play, which starred Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn, and has been featured in over a dozen other films since. It is one of two Manilow songs used in the movie, the other being its theme song, "Ready to Take a Chance Again".

In his autobiographical work, "Americana: The Kinks, the Riff, the Road: The Story", Ray Davies, former leader and singer of The Kinks, recounted a story of a meeting with Clive Davis, then-president of Arista Records, at the record executive's home on Long Island where Davies suggested to Davis that "Copacabana" should be released as a single.

The single version clocks in at 4:08; the extended disco version is titled "Copacabana (At The Copa) (Disco)" and is 5:46 in length. As opposed to a commercial 12" single, the extended version was on the flip side of the 45 and can also be found on Manilow's first Greatest Hits double album.

Reception

"Copacabana" debuted on Billboard magazine's Top 40 chart on July 7, 1978, and peaked at number 8. It peaked at number 42 in the United Kingdom the same year. Its parent album Even Now also reached the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number 12. Internationally, the song is considered his third greatest hit.[3] The track was Manilow's first gold single for a song he recorded and released.[4] Additionally, the lyrics to "Copacabana" earned Manilow his first and only Grammy Award for Pop Male Vocalist in February 1979.[5]

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Chart (1978) Peak
position
Australia KMR[6] 9
Belgium[7] 4
Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary[8] 3
Canadian RPM Top Singles[9] 7
Canadian RPM Dance/Urban[10] 2
France[7] 4
Germany 23
Netherlands[7] 6
New Zealand[11] 37
UK 42
US Billboard Adult Contemporary[12] 6
US Billboard Hot 100 8
US Cash Box Top 100 10
US Record World 6

Year-end charts

Chart (1978) Rank
Australia[6] 76
Canada RPM Top Singles[13] 52
US Billboard Hot 100[14] 74
US Cash Box Top 100[15] 82

Musical

In 1985, Manilow and his collaborators Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman expanded the song into a full length, made-for-television musical, also called Copacabana, writing many additional songs and expanding the plot suggested by the song. This film version was then further expanded by Manilow, Feldman, and Sussman into a full-length, two-act stage musical that ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre on London's West End for two years prior to a lengthy tour of the UK. An American production was later mounted that toured the US for over a year. Over 200 productions of the show have since been mounted worldwide.

Re-releases

Manilow released a Spanish version titled "Copacabana (En El Copa)" shortly after the English version was released. Though popular in dance clubs catering to Latin audiences, the Spanish version failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

A remixed version of the original English release titled "Copacabana (The 1993 Remix)" peaked at number 22 on the UK Singles Chart in 1993,[16] and #92 on the Australian ARIA singles chart in 1994.[17]

A home demo recording, albeit truncated, is available on the 4 CD/1 DVD box set collection, The Complete Collection and Then Some.... In conjunction to this release, the song was remixed and released as "Copacabana (At The Copa) 1993 Remix".

Manilow re-recorded the song, this time in an acoustic version, for his 2008 album The Greatest Songs of the Seventies. The timeline of the song was changed that in the third verse the events of the first two verses happened "many years ago", instead of thirty mentioned in the original.

Cover versions

References

  1. ↑ Mickey Podell-Raber and Charles Pignone, The Copa: Jules Podell and the Hottest Club North of Havana, HarperCollins, 2009, p.199
  2. ↑ "Copacabana" lyrics
  3. ↑ "Song artist 244 - Barry Manilow".
  4. ↑ "Copacabana (At The Copa)". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 2009-03-03.
  5. ↑ "Grammy Award Nominees 1979 - Grammy Award Winners 1979".
  6. 1 2 "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-06-02. Retrieved 2015-01-03.
  7. 1 2 3 "Copacabana site:tsort.info - Google Search". External link in |title= (help)
  8. ↑ "Item: 3825".
  9. ↑ "Image : RPM Weekly".
  10. ↑ "Item: 7471".
  11. ↑ "NZ Top 40 Singles Chart - The Official New Zealand Music Chart". THE OFFICIAL NZ MUSIC CHART.
  12. ↑ "Adult Contemporary Music Chart - Billboard". Billboard.
  13. ↑ "Item: 110".
  14. ↑ "Top 100 Hits of 1978/Top 100 Songs of 1978".
  15. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-11-03.
  16. ↑ "Official Charts > Barry Manilow". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  17. ↑ "The ARIA Australian Top 100 Singles Chart – Week Ending 05 Jun 1994". ARIA. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
  18. ↑ "Having Fun Dancing".
  19. ↑ "Kylie Minogue "Copacabana" Cover Release". www.popcrunch.com. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  20. ↑ "When Men Were Men And Sheep Were Scared". www.discogs.com. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  21. ↑ "Live at the Firecracker Lounge: Bradley Nowell". www.blogspot.com. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  22. ↑ The Shirley Bassey Show at the Internet Movie Database
  23. ↑ Copacabana (At The Copa) on YouTube
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