Grammy-award winning crooner Barry Manilow duets with some of the greatest singers in history in his new album out later this month, USA Today reports.

The newspaper reported that when Verve Music asked the 71-year-old singer to record an album of duets, he realised that the singers on his wishlist of dream duets were all dead.

They then asked a company to strip away the instrumentation from the recordings and gave him the vocal tracks of singers such as Whitney Houston, Andy Williams, Judy Garland and John Denver.

He told USA Today: "When I played Whitney Houston's voice, and it came at me, I had to back away from the keyboard. It was like she was standing right there."

He added: "I was able to redo their songs, re-orchestrate the backgrounds, take the vocals and make them into duets. Sometimes I'd change keys, sometimes I added stuff at the end. I redid the original songs into brand-new renditions."

The tracks on My Dream Duets out on Oct 27

The Song's Gotta Come From the Heart with Jimmy Durante

Goody Goody with Frankie Lymon

Dream a Little Dream of Me with Mama Cass

I Believe in You and Me with Whitney Houston

Sunshine on My Shoulders with John Denver

Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart with Judy Garland

Moon River with Andy Williams

The Look of Love with Dusty Springfield

The Candy Man with Sammy Davis, Jr.

I Wanna Be Loved by You with Marilyn Monroe

What a Wonderful World/What a Wonderful Life with Louis Armstrong