Barry Manilow is best
known for such recordings as “Could It
Be Magic,” “Mandy,” “Can’t Smile Without
You,” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).” In
1978, five of his albums were on the
best-selling charts simultaneously. He
has recorded a string of Billboard hit
singles and multi-platinum albums that
have resulted in his being named Radio &
Records number one Adult Contemporary
artist and winning three straight
American Music Awards for Favorite
Pop/Rock Male Artist. Between 1974 –
1979, Manilow had 10 number one singles,
five of which were consecutive. For more
than 15 years, however, Manilow has
continued his success while one
critically important detail was out of
rhythm: his heart. Manilow is one of
more than 2.5 million Americans living
with atrial fibrillation (AFib). Mr.
Malilow sat down with Editor-in-Chief
Gary Barg to talk about the art of being
in rhythm, personally and
professionally.
Gary Barg:
Watching you perform, it is hard to
believe that you were dealing with
AFib even while you were on stage.
How did the disease manifest itself
and what did you do?
Barry Manilow: About
15 years ago, I was driving home and
it felt to me like my heart skipped
a beat, which did not seem very
important. But as I kept driving, my
heart skipping a beat kept getting
more and more out of whack. It
was not just a little skipping a
beat; it started to feel like it
was—the only way I can put it is out
of rhythm.
Your heart goes faster when you are
jogging or when you are excited. You
hear a boom-boom-boompa-dum and
maybe it goes
faster—boompa-doompa-doomp; it’s the
same tempo. But with AFib, it goes
out of
whack—ba-doomp-boom,badooma-dooma-dooma-badooma-badooma
wumpadoomp—like that. The first time
it happened, I thought, well, I am
dying or something. What’s going on
here? And then it kind of went away
and I did not do anything about it,
which was wrong.
It came back about a week later. It
is kind of insidious in that it does
not come from stress, or from being
excited; it does not come from
anything. It just starts when
it wants to start. I think I
was watching television. I could
feel my heart start to do that same
thing; it was going out of rhythm
again.
That is when I called my doctor
and he knew exactly what I was
talking about. He said, “You have
got atrial fibrillation,” and
described exactly what I had and
gave me medication. It could have
stopped right there. That is why I
tell people, “Go see your doctor.”
If you feel what I am talking about,
if this sounds familiar to you, go
to your doctor. That is what you
need to do. You need to have a
dialog and a relationship with your
doctor so that you know whether it
is getting worse or whether it is
calming down and what medication he
can put you on; you can live a very
normal life. Just by having
the doctor treat you with simple
medication, it could stop right
there for you. With me, it did not
stop right there and with a lot more
people, it did not stop right there.
