1978 · Behind the Songs
A “Foul Play” theme, an Oscar nomination, and a dice roll that paid off.
In the summer of 1978, Barry Manilow could do no wrong. “Copacabana” was turning dance floors into nightclubs, and his ballads were a permanent fixture on adult radio. But the song that would carry him into the autumn — and very nearly onto the Academy Awards stage — came from outside his usual circle: a movie theme, written by two Hollywood craftsmen, for a comedy about murder. “Ready to Take a Chance Again” was Manilow’s gamble on the movies, and for a few shining weeks, it looked like the surest bet of his career.
Written for “Foul Play”
The song began with a film. Foul Play, the 1978 comedy starring Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, needed a romantic theme, and the assignment went to Charles Fox and Norman Gimbel — Fox writing the music, Gimbel the lyrics. Manilow recorded not one but two songs for the picture; the other was “Copacabana,” which the film used to very different effect. But “Ready to Take a Chance Again” was the designated love theme, the melody meant to carry the movie’s heart. It was a classic Hollywood setup — the pop star lending his voice to the movies — except that Manilow refused to treat it as a mere assignment.
Conceived by the singer
According to the record’s history, Manilow conceived the recording himself and supervised it alongside Ron Dante, his longtime collaborator. Cut at A&M Studios in Hollywood and released in September 1978 on Arista, the single ran just 3:01 — short, direct, and built for radio. The B-side was “Sweet Life.” What matters is the credit that rarely appears on a label: this was the singer’s vision, not just the singer’s voice. Manilow heard what Fox and Gimbel had written and shaped the session around it, treating a movie theme with the care other singers reserved for their own compositions.
The chart climb
The climb was steady and unmistakable. “Ready to Take a Chance Again” entered the Billboard Hot 100 on September 10, 1978, at number 70, and worked its way up for two months before peaking at number 11 — where it sat for two weeks beginning November 12. It spent fifteen weeks on the chart in total. The adult-contemporary numbers were even stronger: number 5 on the Billboard AC chart, number 7 on Cash Box for two weeks, and number 4 in Canada for two weeks. For a movie theme in an era when disco ruled the airwaves, it was a remarkable showing — proof that a well-built ballad could still find its audience.
An Oscar nomination
Then came the honor that set the song apart from every other single in Manilow’s catalog: a nomination for Best Song at the Academy Awards for 1978. Movie themes were Oscar bait by tradition, but few pop stars of Manilow’s stature had their film work recognized by the Academy. He did not win — the award went to Donna Summer’s “Last Dance” from Thank God It’s Friday — but the nomination itself was the story. It placed a soft-rock balladeer in the company of film music’s finest for one night, and it remains among the most prestigious honors of his recording career.
Two songs, one film
Here is the detail that makes 1978 such a remarkable year in Manilow’s story: Foul Play carried two of his songs, and they could hardly be more different. “Copacabana” was the extrovert — all brass, all theater, a three-minute nightclub. “Ready to Take a Chance Again” was the introvert — hushed, strings-first, a song that holds its breath. That one film, in one year, asked Manilow to be both the showman and the confessor, and he delivered both without breaking stride. It is the clearest possible demonstration of what made him a star: not just the voice, but the range of feeling he could put behind it.
The morning after
Win or lose, the nomination rewrote the song’s biography in a single morning. From then on, “Ready to Take a Chance Again” would always be introduced as the Oscar-nominated theme from Foul Play — three words that lifted it out of the weekly chart churn and into the permanent record. Nominations do that: they tell future listeners that something here was built to last. Nearly fifty years of oldies radio have proven the Academy’s instincts right.
What the trades heard
The trade papers heard a hit immediately. Cash Box described the record’s architecture precisely: a “somber beginning” that builds “to soaring end.” Record World called it “a romantic ballad enveloped in a lush and lovely production.” Both reviews caught the song’s essential trick — it starts in near-whisper and dares the arrangement to catch up, which it does, gloriously. In an era of four-on-the-floor certainty, here was a record that asked the listener to wait for the payoff, and rewarded the patience.
What to listen for
Listen for the build the trades promised. The opening is all restraint — Manilow nearly speaking the lyric over a hushed bed of strings — and then, measure by measure, the record opens its hands. Notice how the vocal never shouts to match the swelling arrangement; the power comes from control, not volume. And listen to the lyric’s central metaphor with fresh ears: taking a chance, rolling the dice on love again after being hurt. The title is the thesis. It is a song about courage disguised as a love theme, which may be why the Academy noticed — and why it still plays.
Nearly fifty years later, “Ready to Take a Chance Again” remains the great what-if of Manilow’s catalog — the night Hollywood almost handed pop’s showman its biggest prize. He took the chance. The dice, for once, came up just short of gold — but the song has outlasted the ceremony, and that is its own kind of win.