First of all, I’ve been having a wonderful run of luck with cover albums, songs I didn’t write. I had five pop cover albums and two Christmas albums, and they were all very successful.

Manilow is reflecting on a late-career phase in which his commercial momentum came less from new self-penned hits and more from interpreting existing material—pop standards and holiday repertoire. By calling it a “run of luck,” he frames these successes as partly serendipitous rather than purely strategic, while still underscoring a key aspect of his artistry: arranging, vocal delivery, and audience rapport can make familiar songs feel newly personal. The remark also implicitly contrasts authorship with performance, suggesting that in popular music, cultural impact and chart success can hinge as much on interpretation and curation as on songwriting.