Barry Manilow comes to Everett for a cystic fibrosis benefit

Make all the jokes you want about Barry Manilow. There's plenty of material.

Last week, the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, started blasting Manilow's songs through the loudspeakers of its mall district. They're hoping songs like "Mandy" and "Can't Smile Without You" will scatter loitering teens.

And yet, the 200 young hopefuls on "American Idol" hung on Manilow's every word when he held a session on singing and songwriting earlier this season.

"They were like sponges," Manilow said by phone the other day. "They couldn't get enough of what I had to say. And they were all very serious."

Need more? Manilow sold out every one of his "Music and Passion" shows at the Las Vegas Hilton for three straight years. He took a couple of months off before opening a new show, "Ultimate Manilow: The Hits," last July. He's packing them in.

Manilow is still racking up No. 1-selling albums, he won an Emmy in 2006 and, on Sunday, the singer will headline a fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Washington at Everett's Comcast Arena.

Manilow can write the songs, and organizers are sure he can raise the research money. Sunday's event — "Ultimate Manilow: The Hits ... and then some" — is Manilow's second benefit concert to raise money for research for CF, a chronic, inherited lung disease. The first, two years ago in Oregon, raised $400,000, according to organizers.

"Even if you don't like me, I think you should go," Manilow said. "Because it's a wonderful way to spend your money."

Manilow has made plenty of his own since the Brooklyn native started plinking on a spinet piano given to him by his stepfather (he still has it), and later working in the mailroom at CBS Records, where he used to sneak into the rehearsal rooms to play their Steinway and Yamaha pianos. Sometimes he accompanied singers, sometimes he played for himself — and always, they sent him back to his desk.

"It's a long, long time ago," Manilow said the other day. "Now and again, I meet people from the mailroom, and most of them are directors at CBS, because they promoted from within.

"I could have been a director! I could have had a great career at CBS!" he said. "But no, I left."

Was that such a bad thing? Look what it gave us. "Mandy." "It's a Miracle." "I Write the Songs." "Weekend in New England." A TV movie and two stage shows have been built on one of his hits, "Copacabana."

The producers of "American Idol" have brought him back three times to work with their wannabes.

"These kids are so green, and they get thrown on stage, and they have to learn songs that they don't really know," he said of the "Idol" finalists. "It's a rough contest. So I thought I helped a little bit in that way.

"And I think the ones that win are very talented," he continued. "Carrie Underwood is no accident."

Who is Manilow listening to these days?

"A lot of rock 'n' roll," he said. "Oddball people like Garbage. Have you ever heard of Peeping Tom? They're a really interesting group. And Coldplay."

Interesting. That band's lead singer, Chris Martin, has said he is trying to write the perfect song.

Hasn't Manilow already done that?

"Who, me?" he asked. "No. There's no such thing. If anybody has ever come close, it's the Beatles. Something like 'Michelle' is just about the perfect song.

"But good luck!"

Nicole Brodeur: 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com