When Barry Manilow thinks about having a residency at Radio City Music Hall, the Brooklyn-born kid in him is no doubt singing, “Looks Like We Made It.”

“Well, having lived and been raised in New York, Radio City was the epitome of glamor and importance when it came to movies and shows,” Manilow, 81, exclusively told The Post. “I remember my family taking me to the Radio City Christmas show, and I was sitting way up in a balcony seat.”

“And now I stand on the center of the stage, and I can see the seats I was sitting in with my family. It’s really, really a very deep experience for me,” he continued. “I actually went up there one time that we were there and sat in the seats that I sat in [as a kid] and looked down onto the stage.”

Manilow will be playing to the fans in those very same seats during five shows at the storied NYC theater that began on Wednesday night and continue through Sunday.

And now, having set the record for the most lifetime concert performances at Radio City in April 2024 with 42 shows, the singer behind such ’70s classics as “Mandy,” “I Write the Songs” and “Can’t Smile Without You” connects to those in the third mezzanine as well as those right up in his face in the orchestra section.

“It’s just amazing for a New York guy to be able to play Radio City over and over,” he said. “You know, that stage, there’s nothing like it.”

It’s been a long road for Manilow to his recurring residency at Radio City, starting when he was growing up in Williamsburg and discovered his love for music.

“Williamsburg was a real dump when I grew up there,” he recalled. “Now, Williamsburg is fancy schmancy, but when I grew up there, it was not fancy schmancy. And my family always knew that I was musical. But they had no money. They couldn’t afford to get me a piano, so they got me an accordion.”

But Manilow eventually upgraded to a spinet piano that he got from his stepfather for his 13th birthday. “As soon as I hit the keys on that spinet piano, I knew where I was going to go,” he said. “I knew that it was definitely going to be music from that moment.”

Manilow became the big piano man on campus at Williamsburg’s now-defunct Eastern District High School. And he’s never looked back.

The singer-pianist became an in-demand player in the NYC music scene.

“I was the go-to accompanist in Manhattan,” said Manilow. “You needed somebody to play for you, you called Barry, because I can play anything. I can play for anybody.”

That would include such stars as Bette Midler, with whom Manilow played at the infamous gay bathhouse the Continental Baths on the Upper West Side.

“I was her conductor and arranger for three years,” he said. “And she was the most talented human being I’ve ever, ever seen in my life.”

Manilow also honed his chops in the advertising world as a jingle writer and singer.

“I did a lot of jingles,” he said. “And those jingles were very, very important, because I learned how to write pop songs by writing the jingles. And I got to work with some of the greatest musicians in New York, because they play on those jingles. And I got to learn how to be in a recording studio.”

“The ones that people do remember are State Farm, ‘Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.’ And ‘I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, ‘cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me.’ ”

But even if he didn’t know it, Manilow was destined for solo stardom.

“I thought it was a ridiculous idea,” he told The Post. “And then I started to write songs. I couldn’t afford a singer, so I sang my own demo, and I got an offer to make an album on my own as a singer.”

After releasing his self-titled debut album in 1973, Manilow scored his first No. 1 hit with “Mandy” in 1974. But it’s his second chart-topper, “I Write the Songs,” that became his signature song after it was released 50 years ago as the first single off his 1975 third album “Tryin’ to Get the Feeling.”

But Manilow wasn’t down to make the whole world sing at first — despite pressure from Arista Records president Clive Davis.

“I turned down ‘I Write the Songs’ over and over,’ even though Clive thought it was a big hit,” he recalled. “I said, ‘They’re going to think I’m singing about myself.’ I said, ‘Clive, it’s not about me, it’s about the spirit of music.’”

“But I knew that the song was strong. And so I sat down with it, and I thought, ‘OK, how do I make this good for me?’ And I made that record into an anthem to the spirit of music.”

And to this day, Manilow closes his concerts with “I Write the Songs” — even if he and the audience aren’t in sync about the meaning of the tune.

“I’m singing and thinking about one thing, and they’re thinking about it another way,” he said. “People love it, and I love doing it. It’s a wonderful way to end our show.”

As Manilow — who now lives in Palm Springs, Calif., with his manager husband Garry Kief — brings it home to Radio City, he still feels like that same New York boy at heart.

“As we drive from the airport into the city, I always tell my friends in the car, ‘I have a story for every corner in Manhattan,’ ” he said. “I know exactly what was happening on that corner.”

And after five-plus decades on the road, Manilow is embracing his final arena tour “The Last Concerts” this summer.

“It gets to the point where there’s too many hotels and too many airplanes,” he said. “We’re saying goodbye to the places that I’ve played over and over. And you know, these audiences … they’ve always been wonderful to me. It’ll be emotional, but it’ll be fun too.”

But that doesn’t mean Manilow is shutting down the “Copacabana” party.

“I don’t understand why I still can do it,” he said. “But until I can’t hit that F natural [note] at the end of ‘Even Now,’ I’m going to keep going.”