Barry Manilow "paid no attention" to his finances until he was declared bankrupt.

The "Copacabana" hitmaker discovered in 1980 that mismanagement of his fortune had resulted in his millions being squandered away to the point where he had "absolutely no money", and while he was forced to start all over again, the legendary singer can now "smile" about the experience.

He said: "There was a point in my career where I had absolutely no money. I was not prepared for all that cash that came at me, I paid no attention to it.

"I hired somebody and I trusted people, but I looked up one day after all those hits, after I wrote all those songs and I had just $11,000 in the bank. After all over those hits, I had to start all over again.

"I can smile about it now."

Despite his previous money worries, the 68-year-old singer -- who has sold more than 80 million records worldwide -- is now using his fame to help schools improve their musical education.

Barry added in an interview on UK TV show 'This Morning': "My biggest ambition in life is to get musical instruments into the hands of a lot of schools that can't afford them any more.

"It's just killing me that they're not being able to give music classes to kids in many schools in America so I'm trying to do all I can do to change that."