Barry was born in The Bronx and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. His epiphany about music occurred in 1956 at an Alan Freed Rock and Roll show at the Brooklyn Paramount where many future hall of famers performed including Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Frankie Lymon and The Teenagers, The Drifters, The Coasters, etc. But it was tenor sax players King Curtis, and Little Richard's bandleader, who he later learned was Houston's own Grady Gaines, who served as his inspiration.

Barry convinced his family to buy him a tenor sax and within three months, he came in second in a talent show with his first group. Two years later he cut an instrumental record on the "Jeff" Label called "Swerv," But his first real break came in 1961. Thanks to a new dance sensation called "The Twist" rock musicians were in demand and Barry joined "The Royal Teens" who were famous for a huge hit called "Short Shorts," recorded a few years before Barry joined the group. So, Barry went to college by day, and played Alan Freed's Camelot Club in Manhattan at night.  But his dream was to write and produce hits for a record company. He recorded his second song "The Rooster" with the Golden Tones, and then began writing and serving as an independent music producer while still playing a wide variety of clubs in New York and New Jersey. He often served as a back-up musician for rock stars such as Gary U.S. Bonds and the Coasters. His band's recording of "Everybody's on Strike (which Barry wrote, produced, sang and played sax on) was released originally on Cobblestone and then again on Buddah Records with moderate success. What should have been his big break occurred in 1968 when he wrote and (debatably) produced the smash hit "Moonflight." Royalty checks proved much smaller than he hoped, and Barry made the difficult decision to switch careers.

Barry entered the advertising field thinking he could use his talents to write jingles for television commercials, which did not occur until much later in his career. He became an account executive with the Diener and Dorskind ad agency. It was there that he met the person that would indirectly introduce him to Bobbie, his future wife, who was a drummer at the time. When his employer went out of business, Barry landed with Bernard Hodes Advertising (now Bernard Hodes Group) with whom he has remained for 35 years. Eventually, after what Barry calls the toughest sale he ever made, he did marry Bobbie. After the birth of Debbie, their first child, the couple gave up the music business for a more traditional lifestyle.  They moved to Houston where Barry started a branch office for Bernard Hodes Advertising. Shortly thereafter they had another daughter, Niki. 

Barry's career prospered through the recession of the 1980's and he was promoted to Sr.Vice President and Regional Manager of Southern Operations in 1983, founding a division called Recruitment Enhancement Services in 1984.  As a result, twenty years later, the publication "Human Resources Outsourcing Today" named Barry the founder of Recruitment Process Outsourcing, and one of the superstars of Human Resources Outsourcing.

In 1991, Barry was asked to help to recruit young people from minority communities to become police officers.  A tough task, yet Barry convinced Houston's mayor, Police chief and City Council that a rap song would get the job done.  Barry hadn't picked up his sax in about 15 years and he knew nothing about rap music, so he set out to hire a group to put the music together. Coincidentally, he happened to turn on MTV to see an interview with M.C. Hammer, a rap superstar at the time. To Barry's amazement, M.C. Hammer explained that all his background music was taken from James Brown—an artist who's music Barry and, his wife, Bobbie knew well.  So, they opted to write and produce the music video for the Houston Police Department themselves. It was a huge success due in part to having George Foreman as the spokesperson.

Career success followed.  In 2001, Barry became president of Bernard Hodes Group's Interactive and Staffing Solutions practice, a position he still holds today. His first book, "The Keys to Successful Recruiting and Staffing" was published in 2002.  That was the same year that his daughter Debbie's wedding would once again nudge he and his wife back into the music spotlight.

Grady Gaines was booked to play the wedding and Barry and Bobbie ended up playing with the band to the delight of many a wedding guest.  In fact, two members of the band, Brother Michael Spencer and Luke Wayne Richards (a.k.a. Kool Hand Luke) encouraged them to keep playing.  They did not, due to demanding schedules, until three years later at the wedding of their second daughter, Niki.

The same scenario played out for the Siegels.  Guests were astonished at their talent, asking where they could go and hear the Siegels play.  This time, Barry and Bobbie decided to keep practicing.

They started going to clubs to hear live music and ran into Brother Michael who asked Barry to listen to some of his original spiritual music. Barry really liked what he heard. Simultaneously, Barry and Bobbie had also started watching Rock and Doo Wop revival shows. This was when the light bulb went off— Barry realized that many of these old timers were making more money now than they had when their material was selling in the millions. But he thought it just didn't make sense for these performers in their 50's and 60's to sing about the problems they had growing up. Barry and Bobbie talked about it, and came up with the idea to go back to the recording studio and re-record some of the old hits with updated lyrics.  They asked good friends Brother Michael and Kool Hand Luke to join them, as well as to record some of Brother Michael's originals.

Then they ran into Dean Scott and realized that, with Dean's help, this project really had potential.  Deja Boom was born and the Siegels returned to what first brought them together…music.