Manilow, 61, has also reshaped the concert side of his career. Following the example of Celine Dion and Elton John, he is cutting down on his road time by doing most of his performing in Las Vegas. His extended engagement at the Las Vegas Hilton began in 2005, and will continue until at least May. We spoke to him by phone, before one of the Vegas shows.

Star-Ledger: So are you working on your '80s album yet?
Barry Manilow: Not yet. I haven't been given the go-ahead. These decade albums are all the brilliant idea of (record executive) Clive Davis, and if he wants it, I'd be very happy to do it. But in the meantime, on my own, I'm writing an original album.

SL: Was doing the '70s album a different experience for you, just because the '70s were kind of your decade?
BM: Yeah, I think the '70s album was more difficult. The 50s ... I'm an arranger, and arranging songs like "Beyond the Sea" and "Sincerely" and "Venus" ... those are fun to do, because they're so far away that I could play around with them. Then, the '60s ... I still was able to put my stamp on those songs. But boy, when I got to the '70s, I couldn't do that. You can't f--- with "Bridge Over Troubled Water." You just do it, and sing it. And that's what I found with every one of those: "You've Got a Friend," and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "Sailing." Every time I tried changing things around, it hurt the song. The other difficult part was redoing my own songs. I mean, how the hell do you redo "Mandy"? I sat at the piano and said, "Well, now what? I did this already." So, I came up with this idea of doing, like, an unplugged version of it, and even that was pretty complicated to do. So this was a more challenging album than I had thought.

SL: What has it been like for you, to do so much performing in Vegas?
BM: I love it. Most of my life since the 1970s ... when we put a tour together, it was always months away from home. At least three weeks, and then we would take a week off, and then we'd go out for four weeks ... and that was my life. I finally had just had it and said, "I have to have my life back now." And right then, they offered me Vegas. I still love hanging with my band, and making music and all. So this Vegas thing was a godsend. I can still make my music, play with the audience, play with the band. Then I go home. I hang out at home all day long, then fly here at night, and do my show. Then I go home again.

SL: Where is that home?
BM: I live in Palm Springs, and I fly home, every night, from Vegas to Palm Springs. I mean, sometimes we stay here. They've given me a really nice suite: it's 15,000 square feet, and it's got a swimming pool and a lawn. And I built myself a little recording studio here. I bring my friends, I bring the family. But whatever it is, it's not the road, so I'm happy.

SL: Do you keep changing the Vegas show, to keep it fresh?
BM: Oh yeah. Shows like the brilliant Celine Dion show, and Elton's show, and all of these, they seem to have gotten themselves into a hole, in my opinion, because they're stuck with dancers, and production. Once you've set that, you can't change -- maybe they can, one song or something -- but most of the show is so produced. If they changed a song, everybody would bump into each other! I don't do that. Mine is very beautiful to look at, and it is produced, too, but it still enables me to change anything I want, every night.

SL: I assume it's a different kind of show from what people will see in New Jersey.
BM: What we're taking to New Jersey is a big, blown-up version of what I do here. We've done it before. We did it at Madison Square Garden, for three nights, and had a ball there. And we did it in Atlantic City, and Chicago.

SL: If you do the '80s album, what songs would you do?
BM: I haven't even thought about it. At first, I thought, "I can't." The '80s were all about ... what do they call it? New wave. It was all about those groups that stood on their heads. But when I looked up songs that were Top 40 of the Year, for that decade, there were a handful of songs that were beauties. There's enough that I could probably play around with.