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It's good to know that someone else enjoys Barry Manilow's gear changes as much as I do. In fact, this is a pretty accurate and entertaining all-round parody – I particularly like the selection of his song titles namechecked at the start of this clip (Ray Stevens is also clearly amused, like me and many others, by the fact that Barry Manilow doesn't write the songs). He even remembers to include that slow-ballad drumming of which Barry is so fond.

"Hey, but this is a deliberate parody, so it's not fair to include it in the Hall Of Shame!" you might cry. Well, tough. This site is trying to list all truck driver's gear changes ever (yes, I know, it's going to take a while at this rate), so whilst I acknowledge that it's very funny and gets straight to the heart of what Barry Manilow is all about, this song still has to take its place alongside all the others.

Listen!

Related stuff

If you're not familiar with Ray Stevens, you might be tempted to conclude from this song that he's just a novelty "Weird Al" Yankovic-style prankster. However, if you check out the (rather long) biography on his official website, you'll discover that he's also been a fairly prolific producer, arranger and publisher. Although publishing Elvis Presley's "Way Down" is probably not something most people would choose to boast about.