Guitar Learning Journey: "Copacabana" a.k.a "Copacabana (At the Copa)" instrumental cover

Guitar Learning Journey: "Copacabana" a.k.a "Copacabana (At the Copa)" instrumental cover

recorded by Barry Manilow
written by Barry Manilow, Jack Feldman, and Bruce Sussman

"Copacabana", also known as "Copacabana (At the Copa)", is a song recorded by Barry Manilow. Written by Manilow, Jack Feldman, and Bruce Sussman, it was released in 1978 as the third and final single from Manilow's fifth studio album, Even Now (1978).

The song was inspired by a conversation between Manilow and Sussman at the Copacabana Hotel in Rio de Janeiro, when they discussed whether there had ever been a song called "Copacabana". After returning to the US, Manilow — who, in the 1960s, had been a regular visitor to the Copacabana nightclub in New York City — suggested that Sussman and Feldman write the lyrics to a story song for him. They did so, and Manilow supplied the music.

The song's lyrics refer to the Copacabana nightclub, "the hottest spot north of Havana". The story starts in the late 1940s, focusing on Lola, a Copacabana showgirl, and her sweetheart Tony, a bartender at the club. One night, a gangster named Rico takes a fancy to Lola, but he overplays his hand while trying to seduce her and is attacked by Tony. The ensuing brawl ("And then the punches flew, and chairs were smashed in two...") results in "blood and a single gunshot;" after it is initially unclear "who shot whom," it soon becomes clear that Lola has "lost her love." Thirty years later, the club has been transformed into a discotheque, but a drunken Lola, mad with grief at having lost Tony, still spends her nights at the Copacabana dressed in her glamorous showgirl attire (according to the singer, Lola "lost her youth and she lost her Tony, now she's lost her mind"). The song's final verse ends with Lola sitting at the bar and drinking herself half blind.