>> hal darling, george gershwin, irving berlin, leonard bernstein. want me to keep going? musician. i like the way he lives his life. i think he's a good guy. >> and this is a twitter question from p morgan, that's me. [ laughter ] >> because i'm the only one who dares say this which is what's your least favorite barry manilow song? >> do you really think i'm going to tell you that? >> yes. yes. because i've beguiled you into a sense of safety and you're ready to confess. >> you are beguiling. >> what is the song that you literally can't hear anymore? >> i would never answer that question! [ applause ] >> well, we're going to give you a break in that case because you've been such excellent company. >> thank you. >> when we company back you're going to be singing a new song called "bring on tomorrow". it's from this -- [ cheers and applause ] >> -- from this great album "15 minutes". it's been a real pleasure. >> what fun. >>> my thanks to the fabulous irrepressible barry manilow. and in a moment "anderson cooper 360." but for now barry's going to see us off with a track fr

i mean, in a way, negro spirituals were cries against racism too, and there was a song by irving berlinh talked about lynching. so technically, i suppose, it's not the first, but it was certainly the first one of its kind and the first really explicit, euphemism-free song about this topic. i mean, if you go through the lyrics of this song, as we just heard, there's no mincing words here. it's just like a slap in the face, and i know that there had never been anything like that before. which is the reason why everybody just sat up at attention when it came out. given that there had never been a song like that before, where did it come from? well, that's an interesting part of the story, actually. a lot of people think that billie holiday wrote the song or that it was written for her, and in fact, she had nothing to do with it. it was written by a fellow named abel meeropol who was a schoolteacher in the bronx, a left-wing guy, later who became very famous for having adopted, along with his wife, the two orphan sons of ethel and julius rosenberg, but that wasn't until the 1950s. he was a