NEW YORK - It was a surreal moment for this reporter: Sitting down to chat at Sardi's with Barry Manilow, who's hits are embedded in my brain thanks to my mom playing them over and over in our apartment.

The Brooklyn-born singer songwriter is back home in New York for a 17 performance stint on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater.

"I'm happy to be back in New York because I can talk fast. Like you do. Because I can't do that on the stage when I'm in the middle of the country. I have to slow down, and you know in the beginning I didn't realize that and they couln't understand what I was saying, because I talk fast," Manilow said.

This is by no means Manilow's first time on the Great White Way. He has had three other runs since his appearance in 1977 which earned him a special Tony award. He told me even though he's played every type of venue big and small on the planet, there's something incredible about Broadway theaters, which he says have a soul to them.

"There's something very deep about walking onto that stage, bigger than any other theaters I have ever played," Manilow said.

Copacabana, is just one of Manilow's 50 Top 40 Singles, 12 went straight to number 1, 27 top 10. He has also recorded everything from showtunes to jazz over the years, but says audiences on Braodway will hear the hits.

"I am going to try and do as many maybe all of them, as I can," Manilow said.

Barry Manilow still considers himself a New Yorker, and one of the things he hopes to do while he is in town on Broadway, is go visit his old neighborhood in Williamsburg, which he has heard, has changed a bit.

"When I grew up there, it was dangerous. Taxi drivers wouldn't take me back over the bridge at night. You know, that's how dangerous it was. Now I'm told that it's fancy schmancy, so we'll see what happens," Manilow said.

As we say back in my old Queens neighborhood, Barry Manilow is a mensch. And wait until my mom see the pictures.