Question (Patricia): What is it about your music and music of previous eras that keeps people coming back?
Answer (Barry): It seems to me that the songs are well written. I think well-written songs can last forever, you know? "As Time Goes By," written in the '30s, is just as compelling today as it was back in the 1930s. Anything from Gershwin, anything from Sondheim, anything from Sting, when they are beautifully written, they move you and you can understand and sing along. When they are melodic and well crafted, they last a long time.

Q: Do you place more importance on lyrics or melody?
A: Each one is different, Patricia. I wrote this beautiful song called "When October Goes." I wrote it to a lyric that was given to me by Johnny Mercer's widow. Johnny Mercer, as you know, was one of the great lyricists of all time. Anyway, I put that song on the piano and turned on my cassette machine, and I read this gorgeous lyric, and I wrote the melody in one pass. So what does that mean? Is the lyric more important than the melody or the melody more important than the lyric? I haven't got an answer to that one.

Q: One just inspires the other?
A: I guess. I just looked at it, and it sang to me. There's "Copacabana," one of the great, great lyrics that I ever had anything to do with. My collaborators Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman wrote those lyrics. I have no idea how they did it. But they wrote a story song in three verses and one repetitive chorus. I did my best putting a catchy melody to it, but geez, that is a song that will last.

Q: And you turned it into a musical.
A: Yes it's been everything. It's been an Atlantic City show with showgirls. Then it was a movie I starred in, and then a musical, then a breath mint, a suppository, a coffee bean, everything (laughing).

Q: Do you think the musical is making a comeback in films?
A: In my opinion they always ruin them. I didn't see "Hairspray." I can't tell you about it. I loved "Chicago." Now that was done by people who really understand musicals. Musicals are very difficult to bring from the stage to the screen.

Q: Music is always evolving. Do you have any feelings about hip-hop or rap?
A: I respect all the people that do that. I understand it, and I cheer them on. It's not my kind of music, but I do respect it. It is an art. You need to know how to do that kind of thing, and I don't. For me, I'd much rather listen to "Come Rain or Come Shine." That's where I live.

Q: Were you always comfortable in the spotlight?
A: No. I was very uncomfortable for many, many years because when this performing career hit me, I had never had any desire or any inspiration to be a performer. I only wanted to be a musician. "Mandy" was a total shock, a beautiful surprise. But I had to learn on the job, and thank goodness for fans who allowed me to learn on the job.

Q: Writing and performing your own songs -- is there added trepidation?
A: Oh no. No more trepidation. It's only joy and gratitude.

Q: So, of the three decades do you have a favorite?
A: So far today, it's the 1970s. It's the last one [the most recent in his album series], and this is my favorite [laughing]. It's brand-new, and it's still exciting. When I hear it, it surprises me because it's taken so long to do. This was a very complicated album. There are 13 songs that I had nothing to do with and nine songs of my own that I redid, so it was a long, long six-month project.

Q: It did all start with the '50s.
A: My parents, my family listened to it on the radio, but I was really young. I wasn't really into it. But because I was a musician, I played in piano bars and cocktail lounges and at weddings and bar mitzvahs for so many years. I knew all those songs inside out. So it wasn't so much that it was my music, but I paid my dues and cut my teeth on it, and I certainly knew every single one of those songs.

Q: How's the hip after your arthroscopic surgery last year?
A: You know it's always going to be there, but it's a million, million times better than it was so, yes. I'm doing just fine, thank you.