AceShowbiz - Barry Manilow believes that continuing to work is the secret to "staying young." The 79-year-old singer is due to mark his 60th anniversary in show business next year and explained ahead of his special Carnegie Hall concert that he "doesn't like to sit around" and has constantly got at least one project on the go.

"Well, I don't like sitting around watching television. I mean, I'm just one of the lucky guys that always has something. I've got two albums that I'm working on, then Radio City, and it just goes on and on and on. I think by keeping working, you stay young, or at least you stay vibrant and your brain is always working. And that's me - I've always got something going on," he told PEOPLE.

The GRAMMY Award-winning star - who has been married to Garry Kief since 2014 - is known around the world for hits such as "Could It Be Magic?" and "Can't Smile Without You" and insisted that he is still "so grateful" for his classic tracks as he recalled becoming a pop star without much clue about the industry.

"You would think I'd be bored with this stuff, and I'm not, because the audiences just love these songs, and I'm so grateful for it. I do love 'Could it Be Magic' because that was on the very first album," Manilow says. "I was so young. When I look back, I say, 'How did you have the guts to do something like that?'

"A song, based on a Chopin prelude, that's eight minutes long... I didn't know anything about pop music. If you want to get it on the radio, you can't get it any more than two-and-a-half or three minutes. Mine was eight. But some radio stations around the country started playing the eight-minute version of 'Could it be Magic,' and the record company edited it down, ruined it. But they did play it!"