He writes the songs...

...and he'll be singing them twice next week in his hometown of Brooklyn!

Yes, Barry Manilow, the greatest showman of this or any other generation, will tape his second TV special for PBS next Tuesday & Wednesday at Steiner Studios.

The two shows (Tuesday at 5 p.m. and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.) will be combined into one PBS special, which will air in December. They come a week before Barry releases his newest CD, "The Greatest Songs of the Seventies."

Next week's shows are invitation-only, and moments after I got the e-mail from his fan club a week ago today, I replied. Ever since, I've been checking my e-mail feverishly, waiting for the confirmation message they said would come by Sept. 10th.

(I actually didn't want to write about this until I got definite confirmation, figuring if I blogged about it before then, I'd jinx myself. Ah, whatever!)

And so I wait...

Barry did a similar dual-taping last year, when he filmed his first PBS special, "Manilow: Music and Passion." Barry's "The Greatest Songs of the Sixties" came out at the same time, and some of the then-new songs were on that show.

That taping, though, took place at the Las Vegas Hilton, where Barry's been doing his "Music and Passion" show for a few years. Hence, the Poughkeepsie-to-Vegas trip was kinda hard to swing at the last minute.

Still, Barry won an Emmy for that PBS special last year — when we saw him play Atlantic City back in October, he actually brought the Emmy on stage with him to open the show — so I'm looking forward to two great shows!

Over the past 12 years, I've seen Barry Manilow nine times (next week should make Concert No. 10 and No. 11), from Poughkeepsie to Tampa, from Cargenie Hall to Foxwoods, and he's never failed to put on an amazing performance.

I'm sure next week won't be different. Hopefully, I'll let you know!

Photo at top right courtesy of RCA Music Group, used with permission.