Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again

"Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again" — Barry Manilow and the Art of the Comeback Ballad

The Soft Rock Moment and Its Champion

By the spring of 1976, Barry Manilow had established himself as one of the most commercially reliable presences on American pop radio. His previous single "I Write the Songs" had reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1976, and the audience that had made that possible was hungry for the next installment. What they received was "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again," a song that situated itself within a specific emotional experience that Manilow's growing fan base understood immediately and viscerally: the desperate, sometimes failing effort to recapture a feeling that has slipped away.

The single debuted on the Hot 100 on March 20, 1976, entering at number 67. Its ascent was measured and steady, characteristic of the way Manilow's material typically built: 57, 45, 37, 25, and continuing upward until the record reached its peak position of number 10 on May 22, 1976, after 15 weeks of chart activity. The 15-week run demonstrated the sustained listener engagement that distinguished Manilow's peak years from one-dimensional pop commercial success.

The Song and Its Origins

The track was written by David Pomeranz, an American songwriter who had developed a substantial reputation as a craftsman of emotionally nuanced pop material. Pomeranz wrote the song with a melodic sophistication that Manilow's production team, including Manilow himself as arranger and co-producer, brought fully to realization. The arrangement is built around the orchestral warmth that was Manilow's commercial signature: strings that swell at the chorus, a rhythm section that stays tasteful and supportive, piano providing the intimate foundation beneath the larger orchestral canvas.

Manilow's relationship with this kind of material was genuinely symbiotic. He had worked as an arranger and musical director before his own performing career took off, and his understanding of how an orchestral arrangement interacts with a vocal performance was unusually deep for a pop star of his era. The subtlety with which the arrangement of "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again" supports rather than overwhelms the lyrical content reflects that understanding.

Manilow in the Context of Mid-1970s Soft Rock

The mid-1970s pop landscape was bifurcated in ways that contemporary listeners sometimes forget. While disco was building its commercial momentum and rock was exploring increasingly hard-edged directions in punk and arena rock, a substantial portion of the listening public wanted something else entirely: melodically strong, emotionally accessible pop that prioritized feeling over noise. Manilow was one of several artists serving that audience, alongside figures like Neil Diamond, Barbra Streisand, and the Carpenters.

Manilow's commercial approach differed from these contemporaries in his emphasis on the orchestrated ballad form at a moment when many soft rock artists were moving toward a more stripped-down sound. The grandeur of his productions was a deliberate artistic choice, and the audience that responded to it did so with genuine commitment. Manilow's fan base during his peak commercial years was notably devoted, a relationship that went beyond passive consumption into something closer to active advocacy.

Arista Records and Clive Davis

Manilow had signed with Arista Records, the newly founded label operated by industry veteran Clive Davis, in 1974. Davis's involvement in Manilow's career was significant: he had the ability to identify commercially viable material and understood how to position an artist for sustained rather than momentary success. The combination of Davis's commercial instinct and Manilow's genuine musical ability produced one of the decade's most impressive sustained chart runs. "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again" was one installment in a series of Arista singles that charted consistently through the mid-to-late 1970s.

The Arista infrastructure provided Manilow with strong promotional support and radio access, but the underlying reason for his success was simpler: he had a great voice, he worked with well-crafted songs, and he understood his audience. The commercial framework amplified those qualities without being their source.

The Emotional Specificity of the Lyric

What made the song resonate beyond its radio-friendly production values was the precision of its emotional scenario. The experience of trying to recapture a feeling that was once natural and effortless, whether in a relationship, a creative pursuit, or an emotional state, is familiar enough to be universal while specific enough to feel personal. Pomeranz had identified a precise human experience rather than a generic one, and that precision gave Manilow's performance something to inhabit with genuine conviction.

Pop music in the mid-1970s sometimes trafficked in emotional generality, the vague sentiment that could mean everything and therefore meant nothing to anyone in particular. The best material of the era avoided that trap, and "Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again" is a clear example of a song that succeeded because it earned its emotional resonance through specificity rather than assuming it through grandeur of arrangement.

Put this on and let 1976 soft pop do its intended work. Press play and feel the strings and the longing arrive together, exactly as designed.

"Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again" — Barry Manilow's singular moment on the 1970s charts.