About the song

Some songs feel like they were written in that quiet space between night and dawn — when love is fading, but the heart hasn’t quite accepted it yet. Barry Manilow’s “Leavin’ in the Morning” is one of those songs. It’s not loud or showy; it doesn’t need to be. It’s a soft confession, a whisper between two people who know that the moment they open their eyes, everything will change.

Released during one of Manilow’s most emotionally rich creative periods, the song captures that familiar ache of parting — not with anger, but with understanding. There’s no shouting, no blame, just that heavy silence that comes when love quietly runs its course. Manilow, known for his gift of storytelling through melody, delivers this one with such tenderness that you can almost see the early morning light slipping through the curtains as he sings.

The arrangement is classic Manilow: smooth piano lines, gentle strings, and a vocal delivery that trembles just enough to let you feel the pain behind the words. His voice, warm and human, carries the kind of honesty you can’t fake — that bittersweet mix of acceptance and regret. It’s the sound of someone who knows he can’t make love stay, but still wishes he could.

For listeners who grew up in the 1970s and ’80s, this song feels like stepping back into an era when pop ballads were written straight from the heart — before music became so polished, before heartbreak had to sound perfect. “Leavin’ in the Morning” belongs to that beautiful Manilow tradition of storytelling — where even goodbye sounds like poetry. It’s a quiet masterpiece for anyone who’s ever watched love slowly pack its bags and walk away with the dawn.

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