Barry Manilow, whose legal name is Barry Alan Pincus, is a 70-year-old

Here is the OE:

This difficult sentence contains many confusing modifiers. Without using the slash-and-burn technique, it is unlikely that you will be able to figure out which choice contains an allowable structure. In (A), the correct answer, the sentence is really this: Barry Manilow is a 70-year-old musician, a genial man with a face and voice known around the world. Everything else (particularly the “among others” which makes it so confusing!) is garbage that should be removed. This type of appositive modifier at the end of the sentence (even after getting rid of all the garbage) is fairly unusual but shows up sometimes in language. Consider another example sentence with this structure: In 1986, John fell 50 feet in the Grand Canyon, an accident that changed his life forever. This structure is employed when you want to use an appositive phrase to give more information about the sentence as a whole. The other four answer choices all contain fatal flaws. In (B) the semicolon is incorrect as what follows is not a complete sentence. In (C) and (E) the “among others” is illogically placed. The “among others” must immediately follow the list of people that he has played with. (C) and (E) suggest somehow illogically that he is a genial man “among others” Also, this part of the sentence at the end is not a separate additional fact added on to the fact that he is a 70-year-old musician. Rather, it is giving more information (modifying) what type of 70-year-old musician he is (a genial one with a voice and face known around the world.) (D) is wrong for that exact reason but is even worse because it uses the improper contrasting conjunction “but” to link the thought at the end. Answer is (A).