Guitar,Piano,Vocal,Voice - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.1205935 By Barry Manilow. By Bruce Johnston. Arranged by John Fries. 20th Century,Pop,Standards. Score. 3 pages. John Fries #804127. Published by John Fries (A0.1205935). Please contact me by email at jfries@ptd.net to make a special request or to find out all that I have to offer and to express your comments or concerns. Thanks, John. I Write the Songs is a popular song written by Bruce Johnston in 1975 and released on his album Going Public in 1977. Barry Manilow's version reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in January 1976 after spending two weeks atop the Billboard adult contemporary chart in December 1975. It won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year and was nominated for Record of the Year in 1977. Johnston has stated that, for him, the I in the song is God. Manilow was initially reluctant to record the song, stating in his autobiography Sweet Life: The problem with the song was that if you didn't listen carefully to the lyric, you would think that the singer was singing about himself. It could be misinterpreted as a monumental ego trip.
