“I could not figure out how to release music in a new way,” said the woman who has been making hit music for herself and others for forty years, including “Midnight Blue,” “Though The Eyes of Love (Theme From Ice Castles)” and “You Should Hear How She Talks About You.” Melissa Manchester also collaborated with Kenny Loggins to co-write his 1978 hit duet with Stevie Nicks, “Whenever I Call You Friend.” Her recording of the Peter Allen/Carole Bayer Sager anthem “Don’t Cry Out Loud” earned her first Grammy nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance in 1979.
With the help of her students at Citrus College School of Music, where she is an honorary artist in residence, Melissa finally did figure it out. Her latest CD, “You Gotta Love the Life,” was crowdfunded on Indiegogo for an independent release.
“In the end, I think I learn more than I teach” she says of the experience. “It was my students who walked me through this new world of the independent artist. The new world to me is simply their version of normal.”
The response to her crowdfunding request was enthusiastic to say the least, from fans old and new who remember her music as well as her other projects, including playing Mayim Bialik’s mom on NBC’s Blossom in the 1990s, and being one of Bette Midler’s backup singers in the early 1970s.
“It was very touching,” she says of the Indiegogo campaign, “and surprising. My world seemed to be filled with very loving aunties and uncles who were very gently proprietary about moving forward on this path.”
The path began in the Bronx, where her artistic family encouraged her talent. Dad was a bassoonist for the New York Metropolitan Opera and mom pioneered one of the first female-owned clothing firms, Ruth Manchester Ltd.
“My sister and I were raised to pursue our dreams,” she says. “There was no Plan B, and that worked for me.”
With Plan A accomplished, and now a West Coast resident, she says, “I miss New York City in that it’s my heart’s town. There is a lot of it that I’m unfamiliar with these days. Still in all, when I hit the streets, I intuitively know where I’m going.”
A sense of direction seems to have been with her from the beginning. She found early success as a jingle writer/singer, including stints for McDonald’s and Morton’s Salt, and often crossed paths with fellow jingle artist Barry Manilow.
Eventually, her path crossed with rising star Bette Midler (Manilow was Midler’s musical director at the time of her stint at New York’s Continental Baths). She recalls, “Bette said she was getting ready to play her first concert at Carnegie Hall, and I asked her if she had any background singers. And she took a beat and asked me if I wanted to sing backup for her. I said I would love to sing instead of you but I would be happy to sing in back of you. And I was a part of what became the Harlettes, and I was in the middle for six months.”
From that middle came a giant step toward center stage, with success both behind and in front of the studio microphone. A long string of pop and adult-contemporary hits made her a radio staple. Her songs have been recorded by Roberta Flack, Dusty Springfield, Alison Krauss, Kenny Loggins, and Barbra Streisand.
Her current album gives her a chance to work with some of her idols, including a logical choice: Dionne Warwick.
“I loved Dionne since I first saw her at the Copa when I was fifteen years old in New York,” she says.
Other collaborators on her album include Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Dave Koz, Keb’ Mo’, and Stevie Wonder.
She says, “I have a history with all of these beautiful people who are alive at the same time I’m alive, and I wanted to honor them. The songs were not meant as duets, but as we were recording, it became evident that this person or that person would be such a blessing to share a vocal or to bring harmonica.”
Now that’s she’s well-situated in the digital age, with a fusion of old school and perennial talent, she’s truly loving the life.
“I live words all the time,” she says. “I’m electrified by how people need words to touch your ideas. I always pray to God to show me how to learn and achieve in my life while I have the strength to do it. That’s how I live, or am trying to live, anyway.”
Buy Melissa Manchester’s new album here:
