Maybe you’re not a fan of Barry Manalo, but what if we told you you’ve definitely heard a song he sang if you’re a big enough fan of McDonald’s. The floppy-haired Kuner melted his way into the hearts of millions from the mid1970s to the early 80s. His 1973 debut album topped 85 million in sales, nabbing 15 Grammy nominations and three Billboard Hot 100 hits.

One of those hits, Copa Cabana, won a Grammy Award despite Manalow’s own serious doubts about its prospects. [music] >> But it was a novelty cut. Nobody was making songs like that. We never thought it would ever get played on the radio. [music] >> But even before that, Manalo was no stranger to novelty recordings that permeated American culture.

Before his first album and breakout success, Manalo sang a McDonald’s jingle that just about anyone above a certain age remembers. [music] [singing] >> While Manalo didn’t write that long-lasting tagline, nor was his ad the first to use it, his voice was the one that surely got it stuck in the heads of fast food fanatics for decades to come.

When that commercial originally aired in 1972, nobody knew the name Barry Manalo, aside from a few of the people at New York’s CBS affiliate, where he worked as music director for a talent show called Callback, which started airing in 1968. Manalo had started at the station in the mail room, and he told Variety in 2019 that he became known as the piano playing mailboy.

At the same time, Manalo was also attending the Institute of Musical Art, which later became known as Giuliard, where he was honing his craft of composing and arranging music. Over the course of his studies, Manalo did write quite a few jingles of his own. [music] Adweek quoted him as saying at the 2009 Cleo Awards, which recognized accomplishments in the advertising industry, “I learned the most about music working in the jingle industry.

It was the best music college I could ever imagine.” By the early 70s, Manalo had written a whole host of commercial jingles, including Pepsi’s Feeling Free Ac [music] >> and Green Boline Toilet Cleaners, Bathroom Bowl Blues, >> but [music] you beat the bathroom. >> One of his from 1971 that is still in use to this day is this jingle for an insurance giant.

>> Like a good neighbor, Safe is there. Believe it or not, Manalo told the television academy that he was paid a flat $500 for that one, which seemed like a lot to him at the time, but sure feels like a major underpayment now. Manalo says he realized actually singing the jingles rather than writing them was where the real money was since they led to residual payments.
And that’s how his 1972 rendition of the You Deserve a Break Today jingle came to be. The same year his McDonald’s commercial hit the airwaves, Manalo got a break of a different type while working as B. Midler’s pianist and music arranger. He also produced a demo which he passed along to Bell Records and boom, instant record deal.
Good thing he had the chance to practice recording about finding some relaxation in McDonald’s. If you’re a little bit younger and not familiar with the you deserve a break today jingle, it’s one McDonald’s has returned to off and on over the years. Originally discontinued in 1975, [music] the fast food giant brought it back in the 80s and again in the ’90s, slightly tweaked.
Have you had your break today? >> Now, of course, McDonald’s is all in on its I’m loving it jingle and has been since 2003.