Melissa Manchester

Melissa Manchester (2009)

Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951 in New York City ) is an American singer, songwriter and actress . She had her greatest successes in the 1970s and early 1980s.

Life

Discovered by Barry Manilow and Bette Midler , Manchester belonged to the new generation of women in pop music, most of whom wrote their own songs. Artists like Joni Mitchell , Laura Nyro and Carole King preceded her. She received compositional support from her friend Carole Bayer Sager , who had already written some hits in the 1960s (e.g. Groovy Kind of Love ) and later became the wife of Burt Bacharach . Manchester's first albums for the Bell label, Home to Myself (1973) and Bright Eyes (1974), were notable successes, but did not bring the hoped-for breakthrough. It was only when she switched to Arista Records in 1975 and made her sound more commercial that she posted her first super hit: the ballad Midnight Blue (USA No. 5). Although she was unable to repeat this hit in the following years, she was still represented in the top 40 in the USA with her regular singles such as Just Too Many People (1975) or Just You and I (1976). In Europe she had no success. In 1978 she achieved another top ten success in the United States with a cover version of the soul ballad We Don't Cry Out Loud (Original: The Moments , Manchester omitted the "We" when it was recorded). The song became a very popular title over the years, with versions by Rita Coolidge , Elkie Brooks and Shirley Bassey also enjoying success. She also wrote the song Whenever I Call You "Friend" for Kenny Loggins , who celebrated his first top ten hit as a soloist. For the harmonies he did not chose Manchester from, but at the time slightly more famous Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks .

In 1979 Manchester recorded two pieces for feature films: Through the Eyes of Love for Ice Castles (USA 76) and I'll Never Say Goodbye for The Promise . Neither title was a big hit, but both were nominated for the 1980 Oscar for “best song”. A novelty at the time - two titles by a singer have never been nominated in one year. However, Manchester had not written any of the songs. With Pretty Girls (1979), Fire in the Morning and a duet with the soul singer Peabo Bryson , Lovers After All , she had other minor successes before her third hit in 1982: You Should Hear How She Talks About You (USA No. 5 ) was awarded a Grammy the following year for “the best female vocal performance in pop”. Most of all, Manchester's sound had changed. Less singer / songwriter, but more dance pop and light new wave sounds. The accompanying album Hey Ricky , which received a gold award, was also very successful .

Manchester's Greatest Hits , as well as the single Nice Girls 1983, sold quite solidly, while the subsequent studio album Emergency flopped. The single No One Can Love You More Than Me stayed at # 78 in the US. In the following year, Manchester could only book a modest place 86 in the USA with Thief of Hearts from the film of the same name, but the number was well received in the discos. In 1985 she moved from Arista to MCA. The label debut Mathematics , like the two predecessors, contained a lot of typical computer-dominated synthi-pop music of the 80s. Fans of her old, rather intimate style had little use for it: the single Mathematics only came to number 74 on the US charts.

1986 looked promising: together with Al Jarreau , she sang the love theme of the hit movie Out of Africa , The Music of Goodbye . Since the title was not included on the soundtrack, and the promotion was relatively low, the ballad was only placed at number 16 in the US adult contemporary charts - the hit list for "light fare". After a three-year break, she placed herself there for the last time with a remake of the Dionne Warwick hit Walk On By . The accompanying album Tribute contains a selection of well-known classics that have long been close to Manchester's hearts.

After that, Manchester turned temporarily to acting: In 1991 she played a small role alongside her old friend Bette Midler in the Oscar-nominated film For the Boys , which flopped at the box office. From 1993 she played the mother of the main character of the successful television series Blossom for five episodes .

With the ballad-heavy CD If My Heart Had Wings , Manchester heralded the musical comeback in 1995, but largely met with the disinterest of the buyers. Another album followed in 1997 with Joy - a collection of well-known Christmas carols. After many years of hiatus, When I Look Down That Road was the album that can be seen as a real comeback, especially from an artistic point of view. The reviews were positive, because Manchester finally turned back to their roots on this work: All lyrics were self-written, musically between folk, blues and the sounds of the singer / songwriter movement of the 70s. In 2007 she recorded the duet You've Got a Friend with Barry Manilow for his album Greatest Songs of the Seventies .

Her last studio albums You Gotta Love the Life and The Fellas were released in February 2015 and September 2017, respectively.

Manchester has been married to Kevin De Remer since 1982 and has two children. Her first marriage was to the music manager and later film producer Larry Brezner .

Discography

Albums

• 1973: Home To Myself (US # 156)
• 1974: Bright Eyes (US # 159)
• 1975: Melissa (US # 12)
• 1976: Better Days And Happy Endings (US # 24)
• 1977: Help Is On The Way (US # 60)
• 1977: Singin (US # 60)
• 1978: Don't Cry Out Loud (US # 33)
• 1979: Melissa Manchester (US # 63)
• 1980: For The Working Girl (US # 68)
• 1982: Hey Ricky (US # 19)
• 1983: Emergency (US # 135)
• 1985: Mathematics (US # 144)
• 1989: Tribute
• 1995: If My Heart Had Wings
• 1997: Joy
• 2004: When I Look Down That Road
• 2015: You Gotta Love the Life
• 2017: The Fellas

Compilations

• 1983: Greatest Hits (US # 43)
• 1984: The Many Moods of Melissa Manchester
• 1997: The Essence Of Melissa Manchester
• 2001: Midnight Blue: The Encore Collection
• 2004: Melissa Manchester Platinum & Gold Collection

Web links

Commons : Melissa Manchester  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (English)
• Melissa Manchester in the Internet Movie Database (English)