Life and career

Manchester was born in The Bronx, a borough of New York City, to a musical family. Her father was a bassoonist for the New York Metropolitan Opera. Her mother was one of the first women to design and found her own clothing firm, Ruth Manchester Ltd. Manchester hails from a Jewish background. Manchester started a singing career at an early age. She learned the piano and harpsichord at the Manhattan School of Music, began singing commercial jingles at age 15, and became 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 played the Manhattan club scene where she was discovered by Barry Manilow who introduced her to Bette Midler. In 1971 she became a member of the Harlettes, the back-up singers for Midler.

Manchester made a brief speaking appearance as "Yoko Ono" on the 1972 album National Lampoon Radio Dinner, on the track entitled "Magical Misery Tour", and as the background singer in "Deteriorata".

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 enjoyed 17 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The song's peak-position was #6 for the week of August 9, 1975. She also performed the song live on Burt Sugarman's television series Midnight Special in 1974. 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 for her 1979 Melissa Manchester album. She guest-starred on the CBS-TV daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow to teach a main character, who played a singer-songwriter, the essentials of the craft. In 1979, Manchester reached #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 1979, she performed two nominated songs on the Academy Awards show: "I'll Never Say Goodbye" (from The Promise) and "Through the Eyes of Love" (theme song from Ice Castles). The winning song that year was "It Goes Like It Goes", from Norma Rae.

In 1982, she released "You Should Hear How She Talks About You," which won the 1983 Grammy for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance, beating out Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John, Juice Newton, and Laura Branigan. The song itself reached #4 in Cash Box and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart as well as #10 Adult Contemporary.

Manchester continued to place singles on the Adult Contemporary charts throughout the 1980s. Another 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 1992 she sang the title song for the animated musical, Little Nemo: Adventures In Slumberland written by the Sherman Brothers and accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra.

In 2004, Manchester returned with her first album in 10 years: When I Look Down That Road. While touring to support the album, she was praised for her still "powerful voice" and for "reinventing while staying true to what made popular." She appeared as herself during 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.

Throughout 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. In 1990, Manchester could be heard performing "I Wish I Knew", played over the opening credits of the CBS television drama The Trials of Rosie O'Neill. In addition, she opened Game 6 of the 1991 World Series singing the U.S. National Anthem.

Manchester composed and recorded the soundtrack to the direct-to-video Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001).

In April 2007, she returned to theater, starring in the Chicago production of HATS! The Musical, a show to which she and Sharon Vaughn, contributed two songs. Also in 2007, she recorded a duet with Barry Manilow as a cover of the Carole King classic "You've Got a Friend" on Manilow's The Greatest Songs of the Seventies.

In 2008, Manchester released a new single, "The Power of Ribbons", to digital retailers. Proceeds of the single benefit breast cancer research.

In 2011 an independent film named Dirty Girl was released with many of Manchester's songs used throughout the film, five of which made it onto the soundtrack. Manchester made a non-speaking cameo appearance as the pianist who accompanies the lead character's rendition of "Don't Cry Out Loud".

In 2013, Manchester announced that she was recording her 20th studio album, "You Gotta Love the Life", her first since "When I Look Down That Road". She subsequently launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds to independently release the album. The album features performances by Keb' Mo', Joe Sample and Dave Koz. Highlights include a duet with Dionne Warwick and a second duet with Al Jarreau called "Big Light", which Melissa co-wrote with Grammy Award winning composer John Proulx. In an interview with NPR, Manchester talks about the crowd-funding experience and relays the back-story behind the single, "Feelin' for You". A drunk in a juke joint approached Manchester and asked if she was married, to which she replied, "Yes, very happily." The drunk replied, "Too bad, cause I got a feelin' for you." "Feelin' for You", written by Manchester and Sara Niemietz, includes a solo by Keb' Mo'. The single was released on January 9, 2015 and premiered at #2 on the Smooth jazz charts. You Gotta Love the Life was released on February 10, 2015, and hit #17 on the Billboard Magazine Jazz Albums chart for the week of February 28, 2015. A second single, "Big Light", featuring a duet with Al Jarreau, along with an accompanying music video, was released for radio on June 15, 2015.

Awards and recognitions

• In 1980, "Through The Eyes of Love" (from Ice Castles) and "I'll Never Say Goodbye" (from The Promise) were nominated for Academy Awards, Manchester holds the distinction of the first artist with two movie themes nominated in the same year.
• Grammy Award: "You Should Hear How She Talks About You" (1982) (Best Female Pop Vocal Performance).
• Manchester received the Governor's Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences for her contributions to the music & recording arts.
• Her body of work to date as a singer/songwriter was a featured exhibit at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum.
• Manchester is an adjunct professor at the USC Thornton School of Music.
• Manchester presented "The Sonic Thermal" at TEDxRiverside explaining her lifelong focus on both random and composed melodies and the back-story behind her first crowd-funded album.

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
• 1976: Help Is on the Way - US #60
• 1977: Singin'... - US #60
• 1978: Don't Cry Out Loud - US #33
• 1979: Melissa Manchester - US #63
• 1979: "I'll Never Say Goodbye", from the motion picture soundtrack for The Promise
• 1979: "Through the Eyes of Love", from the motion picture soundtrack for Ice Castles - US #179
• 1980: For the Working Girl - US #68
• 1982: Hey Ricky - US #19
• 1983: Greatest Hits - US #43
• 1983: Emergency - US #135
• 1984: "Your Place or Mine", from the motion picture soundtrack for A Little Sex
• 1984: "Thief of Hearts", from Thief of Hearts soundtrack - US #179
• 1985: Mathematics - US #144
• 1986: "Sittin' on a Dream" from The Money Pit soundtrack
• 1986: "Let Me Be Good to You", from Disney's The Great Mouse Detective
• 1989: Tribute
• 1992: Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
• 1995: If My Heart Had Wings
• 1996: Stand in the Light, duet with Tats Yamashita on Tatsuro Yamashita-Cozy - Japan #15
• 1996: Best Selection (Japan release)
• 1997: The Essence of Melissa Manchester
• 1997: Joy
• 1998: The Colors of Christmas
• 1998: I Sent a Letter to My Love, a musical recorded by L.A. Theatre Works
• 2003: "Treasure", from Once in a Lifetime-Mayo Okamoto
• 2004: When I Look Down That Road
• 2004: Platinum & Gold
• 2007: "I Know Who I Am", sung by Leona Lewis on For Colored Girls & The Butler
• 2011: "Rainbird", original song from Dirty Girl
• 2013: Playlist: The Best of Melissa Manchester
• 2015: You Gotta Love the Life

Singles

Year	Single	Chart Positions			Album
1967	"Beautiful People"	—	—	—	Single only
1973	"Never Never Land"	—	—	—	Single only
1974	"O Heaven (How You've Changed Me)"	—	—	—	Bright Eyes
1975	"Midnight Blue"	6	1		Melissa
	"Just Too Many People"	30	2
1976	"Just You and I"	27	3		Better Days and Happy Endings
	"Better Days"	71	9
	"Happy Endings"	—	33	—
	"Rescue Me"	78	—	—
	"Monkey See, Monkey Do"	—	—	—	Help Is on the Way
1977	"Be Somebody"	—	—	—
	"I Wanna Be Where You Are"	—	—	—	Singin'
1978	"Don't Cry Out Loud"	10	9		Don't Cry Out Loud
1979	"Through the Eyes of Love (Theme from Ice Castles)"	76	13		Ice Castles (Original Soundtrack) & Don't Cry Out Loud (Single Mix)
	"Pretty Girls"	39	26		Melissa Manchester
1980	"Fire in the Morning"	32	8
	"If This Is Love"	102	19	—	For the Working Girl
	"Lovers After All"	54	25	—
	"Without You"	—	—	—
1982	"Race to the End"	—	—	—	Hey Ricky
	"You Should Hear How She Talks About You"	5	10
	"Hey Ricky (You're a Low-Down Heel)"	—	—	—
1983	"Nice Girls"	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" (Barbra Streisand's wedding song)	—	—	—
1986	"The Music of Goodbye"	—	16		Out of Africa (Soundtrack)
1989	"Walk On By"	—	6	—	Tribute
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
2011	"You've Got a Friend"	—	—	—	Barry Manilow Duets
2011	"Rainbird"	—	—	—	Dirty Girl (Soundtrack)
2013	"I Know Who I Am"	—	—	—	For Colored Girls (2010) & The Butler (2013) (Soundtracks) sung by Leona Lewis & Playlist: The Very Best of Melissa Manchester
	"Be My Baby"	—	—	—	Single only
2014	"Two Courageous Hearts"	—	—		Single only
2015	"Feelin' for You"	—	—		You Gotta Love the Life
	"Big Light"	—	—	—
	"Open Spaces & Gas Stations"	—	—	—	Single only

Guest appearances

Year	Song Title	Artist	Album
1972	"Deteriorata", "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
2010	"You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" & "What You Won't Do for Love" (not released yet)	Juice Newton	Duets: Friends & Memories

Filmography

Manchester appeared on the Blossom television series as Maddy Russo, from 1993 to 1995, she played Corrine in the feature film, For the Boys (1991) and the piano teacher in Dirty Girl (2010). In addition to live performances as herself, Manchester composes and performs songs and has done character voice in animated works.

Selected feature film titles

Year	Title	Capacity
1978	The Promise	Songwriter
1980	The Music of Melissa Manchester	Performance
1984	The Last Starfighter	Songwriter
1986	The Great Mouse Detective	Songwriter, Voice of Miss Kitty Mouse
1991	For the Boys	Actor
1992	Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland	Musical Performer
1993	Precious Moments: Simon the Lamb	Duet with James Ingram - The Brightest Star
1998	Precious Moments: Timmy's Special Delivery	Reprise of duet with James Ingram - The Brightest Star.
2001	Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure	Songwriter
2010	Michel Legrand & Friends: 50 Years of Music and Movies	Performance
2010	Dirty Girl	Actor
2010	For Colored Girls	Songwriter - "I Know Who I Am"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]