I saw the cover art for this CD and nearly dropped! HOWEVER, this is NOT the original 1973 version of this album - "One Of These Days", "Oh My Lady", "Could It Be Magic", "Flashy Lady", and "Sweet Life" were re-recorded in 1975 when this became BARRY MANILOW I and THOSE are the versions included here, just like the previous CD-incarnation. Just wanted to get that out of the way for those like me that foolishly hoped otherwise...

Now, on to BARRY MANILOW (I)- this album originally came out a year before I was born, and has been one of my all-time favorites for my entire life. Not many artists/albums make that personal list so Barry should feel special. :-)

Don't get me wrong, the '75 versions of these few songs are actually more polished and better vocally than the '73 ones, but it would still be nice to have a nice remastered CD copy of "Magic" with it's original vocal track and blaring electric guitar.

Overall this CD is EXCELLENT - the sound quality is definitely 5 out of 5 stars, superbly remastered compared to the previous CD issue, and the bonus tracks - well they're definitely worthy of release before now! Also of note are several clippings of various "white album" magazine adverts, and of course the updated liner notes and history of the album.

All in all Sony is doing a nice job with these, though I have to say they're just missing the mark a bit - BMG started a Manilow remasters project that was never completed, then when Sony took over I ended up buying the same CDs again for the extra, EXTRA bonus tracks. Maybe we'll get ALL the Manilow albums this time (crossing my fingers).

Oh well, it could be worse - these could have ended up like the Carpenters "remasters" from 98/99 - at least with Manilow it seems like a bit of time was put into both the packaging and sound quality. I'm very impressed so far!

Nice to see the original picture is back on this CD. But I was expecting the original recordings from the Bell label on 2 of the songs,especially on "Could it be magic",which is the re-edited version we have here;the other one being "Sweet Life".Besides those,I think this one is a great buy,filled with songs that were not originally in the album.Plus you get the original picture and the edited picture from the re-release and the original back cover.

This album is amazing, really raw and personal. I wish he had written more of these types of songs on his later albums (although his later albums were nothing to sneeze at). Really good first effort.

It's great to have the original cover back. I saw the cover on the record sleeve of the Partridge Family Bullintin Board back in 1973 and wondered who the hell Barry Manilow was. Man did I find out and I have been a FANILOW ever sinceI The extera tracks our great and I finnaly got to hear his pre-MANDY single "Let's Take Our Time to say Goodbye"

I been a fan of Barry Manilow since the beginning. Always enjoyed his Albums, whether on vinyl OR CD. LOVE the remastered version, new cover and all!