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Copacabana (song)

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"Copacabana"
Song
B-side"Copacabana" (Disco version)

"Copacabana" is a 1978 disco song, sung by Barry Manilow and written by Jack Feldman, Barry Manilow, and Bruce Sussman. It is also known as "At the Copa"[citation needed] after the first few words of the refrain. It debuted on Billboard magazine's Top 40 chart on July 7, 1978, and peaked at #8. It peaked at #42 in the UK the same year. A remixed version of the song peaked at #22 in 1993. The record earned for Manilow his first (and only, to date) Grammy Award in February 1979 and his first gold single for a song he composed.[1]

The song's title refers to the famous New York City night club, the Copacabana night club. As per the lyrics "... at the Copa, Copacabana, hottest spot north of Havana ...", and tells the story of Lola, a showgirl, and her lover Tony, a bartender at the club.

The recording was used as incidental music in the 1978 movie Foul Play, which starred Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn, and has been featured in over a dozen other films. The single version clocks in at 4:08, the Extended Disco version is titled "Copacabana (At the Copa) (Disco)" and is 5:46. As opposed to a commercial 12" single, the extended version was on the B-side of the 45 and can also be found on Manilow's first Greatest Hits double album.

Manilow released a Spanish version shortly after the English version. Available as a 12" disco single, "Copacabana (En el Copa)", didn't chart on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, but was used by dance club disc jockeys.

A home demo recording, albeit truncated, is available on the 4 CD/1 DVD box set collection, The Complete Collection and Then Some....

In 1985, Manilow and his collaborators Bruce Sussman and Jack Feldman expanded the song into a full length, made-for-television musical, also called Copacabana, writing many additional songs and expanding the plot suggested by the song. This was the first original musical written for television since Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella in 1957. This film version was then further expanded by Manilow, Feldman, and Sussman into a full-length, two-act stage musical that ran at the Prince of Wales Theatre on London's West End for two years prior to a lengthy tour of the UK. An American production was later mounted that toured the US for over a year. Over 200 productions of the show have since been mounted worldwide.

  • This song is played as a cassette tape by the penguins in the movie Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
  • A parody cover version "Star Wars Cantina" was performed by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine.
  • Philadelphia DJ/Comedian Big Daddy Graham recorded the parody cover version "Senile Casino".
  • Liza Minnelli performed and danced to the song on The Muppet Show.
  • Sung by Barry Bostwick, as Mayor Randall Winston on "Spin City" with altered lyrics, at Paul's wedding, from Season 2 Episode 22, "The Paul-bearer".
  • Sung by Jennifer Aniston, as Rachel Green on NBC's hit show Friends, at the wedding of Rachel's ex-fiance Barry to her former bridesmaid Mindy, from Season 2 Episode 24, "The One With Barry and Mindy's Wedding".
  • A Jamaican steel drum band that only knew how to play "Copacabana" made a number of appearances on The Super Dave Osborne Show, always replacing the never seen Super Dave Band, who were always at a bar mitzvah on their scheduled day to appear on the show.
  • Shirley Bassey also covered the song in 1979, on the double A-side single "This Is My Life".
  • In 1980 Rex Gildo covered the song in German.
  • John Pinette makes a brief appearance in the movie Duets in order to sing a cover of this song as part of a karaoke competition.
  • French singer Amanda Lear recorded an English-French language cover version of the song in 2005.
  • A parody cover version, "Kopa koopavond", was performed by Annie de Rooy, a fictional female character portrayed by male Dutch comedian Paul de Leeuw. Koopavond means "late night shopping" in Dutch.
  • In 1999 the German DJ Hell released remixes by Ian Pooley, Abe Duque, Phats & Small, and himself.
  • A cover was used in the video game Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore.
  • Kylie Minogue performs the song on her KYLIEX2008 Tour.
  • Colt Cabana used this song as his entrance music in Ring of Honor. He later used a remix of the song by Kidd Russell.
  • Kelly Ripa and husband Mark Consuelos named their daughter Lola after the showgirl in the song.[citation needed]
  • The song is referenced in the song "Squeeze Me Macaroni" by Mr. Bungle from their self-titled album. Part of the Mr. Bungle song states: "Bananarama or ramabanana, F*&%in' Barry Manilow on the Copa Cabana".
  • Comedian Denis Leary references the song on his No Cure For Cancer album in a song called "Voices in My Head".
  • On WWE, The Rock wanted Jonathan Coachman to sing Copacabana if the crowd cheers. After cheering, Coachman briefly sings it but The Rock ends up criticizing him. (Before his criticism, The Rock accidentally unplugged the microphone after using excessive force.)
  • In the Red Dwarf episode "Terrorform", the robot Kryten is briefly knocked offline after surviving a space ship crash. His CPU plays him a musak version of "Copacabana" to entertain him until his body comes back online.
  • A parody of the song can be heard on The Simpsons entitled "Island of Sirens".
  • Hudson and Pepperdine sing a parody as the theme tune to The Hudson and Pepperdine Show.
  • The UK Supermarket chain the Co-Operative parodied the song in a television commercial in which animated sheep sang the song as "At the co-op."
  • A loosely-translated Danish version, called "Istedgade", was recorded by Danish singer Peter Belli in 1978.[2] The song features the same melody and lyrical theme.
  • Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt) is seen and heard singing the song in the bathroom while putting toiletries or cosmetics in a cosmetic bag when her husband Paul(Paul Reiser) enters the room. This scene takes place in the beginning of the first episode of season 4 of "Mad About You" titled, "New Sleep-walking PLUS".
  • It's played by many different bands or emsembles around the world, an example would be the 2009 UBC Summer Music Camp

References

  1. ^ ""Copacabana (At The Copa)"". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 2009-03-03.
  2. ^ http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istedgade_(K%C3%B8benhavn)
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