All Of Barry Manilow's No. 1 Hits Have A Strange Stat In Common

Over the course of his long career, Barry Manilow has placed 25 songs in the American Top 40. That's an impressive achievement unto itself, but it's extra extraordinary that Manilow went to No. 1 more than once. In the mid-1970s, Barry Manilow scored a No. 1 hit with multiple singles, but only barely; in an odd twist, none of them stayed there very long.

Between 1975 and 1977, three Manilow songs made it all the way to No. 1 on the all-genre Hot 100 chart, and in a strange trick of numbers, all three Manilow hits followed the exact chart trajectory: they all fell out of the No. 1 spot after they spent one week at the top. That's surprisingly not a lot of staying power for Manilow, who in 1971 wrote an ad jingle that's still sung today. 

Here's a look into the bizarre period during which Barry Manilow was a repeat chart-topping superstar, albeit briefly. 

Every time Manilow hit No. 1 in the 1970s, his song left that spot the next week, never to return. The singer, songwriter, and pianist established this goofy pattern in January 1975, when his single "Mandy," renamed because of a '70s rock hit, ascended to No. 1 on the pop chart. A week later, it fell to No. 3, supplanted by "Please Mr. Postman" by the Carpenters. Exactly one year later, "I Write the Songs" took the top spot, and again for just seven days, falling to No. 2 behind Diana Ross's "Theme from 'Mahogany.'"

In July 1977, Manilow made his triumphant return to the uppermost slot on the Hot 100 with what would ultimately be his third and final chart-topper. "Looks Like We Made It," hands down Manilow's saddest love song, reigned for just a week at No. 1, unable to resist the juggernaut that was Andy Gibb and his disco smash "I Just Want to Be Your Everything," and got knocked down to No. 3. That's three No. 1 hits and three total weeks at No. 1 altogether for Manilow, the king of smooth and maudlin soft rock.