| Melissa Manchester | |
|---|---|
 Manchester in concert on 28 October 2009 (Annapolis,
Maryland, U.S.)
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| Background information | |
| Born | February 15, 1951 |
| Origin | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Vocal, adult contemporary |
| Occupations | Singer, actress |
| Years active | 1971 – present |
| Labels | Arista, Bell |
| Associated acts | Barry Manilow, Bette Midler, Harlettes |
| Website | http://www.melissa-manchester.com |
Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Beginning in the 1970s she has recorded a series of albums featuring her own compositions and those of a variety of other songwriters, generally in the adult contemporary genre. She has also appeared as an actress on television, in films and on stage.
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Manchester was born in the Bronx area of New York City, New York to a musical family of Jewish descent. Her father was a bassoonist for the New York Metropolitan Opera. Manchester started a singing career at an early age, learning the piano and harpsichord at the Manhattan School of Music and Arts, singing commercial jingles at age 15, and becoming a staff writer for Chappell Music while attending Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.
She studied songwriting at New York University with Paul Simon. Manchester then appeared on the Manhattan club scene, where she was discovered by Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, who took her on as one of the Harlettes in 1971.
Her debut album, Home to Myself, was released in 1973; Manchester co-wrote many of its songs with Carole Bayer Sager. Two years later Manchester's album Melissa produced her first top ten hit, "Midnight Blue", which peaked at #6 on the Billboard charts. Manchester collaborated with Kenny Loggins to co-write Loggins' 1978 hit duet with Stevie Nicks, "Whenever I Call You Friend". She would later record this herself for her 1979 Melissa Manchester album. At this time, she guest-starred on the CBS-TV daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow to teach a main character, who was a singer-songwriter, the essentials of the craft. In 1979 Manchester made #10 with her version of Peter Allen's "Don't Cry Out Loud", for which she received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance.In the Friends episode titled "The One With All the Jealousy", Chandler advises Ross to "keep it inside. Learn how to hide your feelings! ... Don't cry out loud", a reference to the song. [1] In 1979 she performed two nominated songs on the Academy Awards show, "The Promise", and "Through The Eyes of Love" (theme song from Ice Castles). The winning song that year was "And So It Goes," from Norma Rae.
Two years later she had her biggest hit, "You Should Hear How She Talks About You," which won a Grammy for Best Female Vocal Performance and peaked at #5 on the Billboard charts. It was her last Top 40 Pop hit, but Manchester continued to place singles on the Adult Contemporary charts during the 1980s. Her last top 10 entry on the AC chart was a 1989 updating of Dionne Warwick's "Walk on By". The single was pulled from album "Tribute," which honored some of the singers that influenced her style.
In spring 2004, Manchester returned with her first album in 10 years: When I Look Down That Road. While touring to support the CD, Manchester was praised for her still "powerful voice" and for "reinventing [herself] while staying true to what made [her] popular."[2] She played herself on a two-day guest appearance on the ABC-TV daytime soap General Hospital, to sing the song for Robin Scorpio and her AIDS-afflicted boyfriend Stone Cates.
Through the 1980s and 1990s Manchester alternated recording with acting, appearing with Bette Midler in the film For the Boys, on the television series Blossom, and co-writing (with bookwriter-lyricist Jeffrey Sweet) and starring in the musical I Sent A Letter To My Love based on the Bernice Rubens novel of the same name. She also composed and recorded the score to the direct-to-video Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001). In April 2007, Manchester returned to theater, starring in the Chicago production of HATS! The Musical, a show to which she had, with Sharon Vaughn, contributed two songs. Also in 2007, she recorded a duet with Barry Manilow on a cover of the Carole King classic "You've Got A Friend" on Manilow's The Greatest Songs of the Seventies.
In 2008 she released a new single, "The Power of Ribbons," to digital retailers. Proceeds of the single benefit breast cancer research.
| Year | Single | Chart Positions | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US AC | |||
| 1967 | "Beautiful People" b/w A Song For You | — | — | Single only |
| 1973 | "Never Never Land" b/w Be Happy Now (From Home To Myself) | 101 | — | Single only |
| 1974 | "O Heaven (How You've Changed Me)" b/w Inclined | 101 | — | Bright Eyes |
| 1975 | "Midnight Blue" b/w I Got Eyes | 6 | 1 | Melissa |
| "Just Too Many People" b/w This Lady's Not Home Today | 30 | 2 | ||
| 1976 | "Just You and I" b/w Sing Sing Sing | 27 | 3 | Better Days and Happy Endings |
| "Better Days" b/w My Sweet Thing | 71 | 9 | ||
| "Happy Endings" b/w Better Days | — | 33 | ||
| "Rescue Me" b/w Happy Endings | 78 | — | ||
| "Monkey See, Monkey Do" B/w So's My Old Man | — | — | Help Is on the Way | |
| 1977 | "Be Somebody" b/w Dirty Work | — | — | |
| "I Wanna Be Where You Are" b/w No One's Ever seen This Side Of Me | — | — | Singin' | |
| 1978 | "Don't Cry Out Loud" b/w We Had This Time (Non-LP track) | 10 | 9 | Don't Cry Out Loud |
| 1979 | "Theme from Ice Castles (Through The Eyes Of Love)(Single Edit)" b/w Such A Morning | 76 | 13 | Ice Castles (Soundtrack) |
| "Pretty Girls" b/w All In The Sky Above | 39 | 26 | Melissa Manchester | |
| 1980 | "Fire In the Morning" b/w Lights Of Dawn | 32 | 8 | |
| "If This Is Love" | 102 | 19 | For the Working Girl | |
| "Lovers After All" | 54 | 25 | ||
| "Without You" | — | — | ||
| 1982 | "Race to the End" b/w Long Goodbyes (Non LP Track) | — | — | Hey Ricky |
| "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" b/w Long Goodbyes (Non Lp Track) | 5 | 10 | ||
| "Hey Ricky (You're a Low-Down Heel)" B/w Come In From The Rain (1982 Version) | — | — | ||
| 1983 | "Nice Girls" b/w Hey Ricky | 42 | 22 | Greatest Hits |
| "My Boyfriend's Back" | — | 33 | ||
| "No One Can Love You More Than Me" | 78 | 34 | Emergency | |
| "I Don't Care What the People Say" | — | — | ||
| 1984 | "Thief of Hearts" | 86 | 18 | Thief of Hearts (Soundtrack) |
| 1985 | "Mathematics" | 74 | — | Mathematics |
| "Energy" | — | — | ||
| "Just One Lifetime" | — | — | ||
| 1986 | "The Music of Goodbye" (with Al Jarreau) | — | 16 | Out of Africa (Soundtrack) |
| 1989 | "Walk on By" b/w To Make You Smile Again (1989 Version) | — | 6 | Tribute (Soundtrack) |
| 1995 | "In a Perfect World" | — | — | If My Heart Had Wings |
| "Here to Love You" | — | — | ||
| 2004 | "After All This Time" | — | — | When I Look Down That Road |
| "Bend" | — | — | ||
| "Angels Dancing" | — | — | ||
| 2006 | "My Christmas Song for You" | — | — | Platinum Christmas, Vol. 3 |
| 2008 | "The Power of Ribbons" | — | — | Single only |
| Year | Single | Artist | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | "Magical Misery Tour" | National Lampoon | Radio Dinner |
| 1977 | "They Never Met" | Martin Mull | I'm Everyone I've Ever Loved |
| 1978 | "A Half Hour of Heaven (And Eight Hours of Sleep)" | Martin Mull | Sex & Violins |
| 1990 | "Making Every Moment Count" | Peter Allen | Making Every Moment Count |
| 1996 | "Stand In the Light" | Tatsuro Yamashita | Cozy |
| 2000 | "A Mother and Father's Prayer" | Collin Raye | Counting Sheep |
| 2002 | "Never Let Me Go" | Michael Feinstein | Livingston & Evans Songbook |
| 2008 | "You've got A Friend" | Barry Manilow | Greatest Songs of the 70's |
  | Andrew Druckenbrod, Music Review: Melissa Manchester's reinvented music still true to her early work - Music Review: Melissa Manchester's reinvented music still true to her early work |
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