Mellissa Manchester is known for her 1980s hit songs and her stint as the mother on the NBC sitcom "Blossom." (Photo by Jennifer O. Hill)
We have known many Melissa Manchesters.
Listeners were first introduced to a stylish '70s singer-songwriter, belting out passionate ballads like "Don't Cry Out Loud" and "Midnight Blue." A new hairdo and the '80s came along, and a vamped-up Manchester copped the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance Grammy for the 1982 legwarmer classic "You Should Hear How She Talks About You."
Enter the '90s and the new century. Melissa reinvented herself again as Mayim Bialik's sitcom mom on TV's "Blossom" and co-wrote stage musicals ("I Sent a Letter to My Love") and movie and TV soundtracks ("The Trials of Rosie O'Neill," "Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure").
These days, Manchester, 67, is a music educator and avid song revivalist, with a new album, "The Fellas," that reworks gems from the songbooks of iconic warblers like Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé and Tony Bennett. "It's a big band album that pays tribute to some of the classic male singers," she says via telephone from her Los Angeles home, adding that the disc is the completion of an idea she had in 1989 with the album "Tribute," celebrating the great female vocalists.
Growing up in the Bronx, Manchester started early with singing — she was performing on commercial jingles when she was 15. It was like joining the family business (her dad played the bassoon in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra). "Music was it for me. It was just my goal to get big and get to it," she says. The singer, in all her guises, will appear at The Tin Pan on Aug. 4, the first time any incarnation of Melissa Manchester has performed in Richmond.
Richmond magazine: You made your recording debut on the "National Lampoon Radio Dinner" album. How did that happen?
Melissa Manchester: When I went to New York University, NYU, for a brief time, I met [comedians] Christopher Guest and Tom Leopold, and they knew I was a singer and they brought me onto this wild project. I was only 18. I played Yoko Ono [laughs] and contributed piano and harpsichord, and it turned out to be a classic comedy album. Those guys were hysterical.
RM: You also studied songwriting with Paul Simon at that time, right?
Manchester: Yes, he taught at NYU for six months. It was a busy time for him. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" was No. 1 all over the world. It was remarkable. Basically, in his class, you had to write a song and bring it in, and you would have to perform it in front of the class and him.
RM: What did you learn?
Manchester: He taught us how to think about lyric writing — how to be precise in what you're saying, how to use language, keep the tone consistent, as if you were writing a monologue. I retained what I learned there, and now I relay it to my students. I give master classes all over the country and taught music at the University of Southern California, USC, for four years.
RM: You caught your big break with Bette Midler. How'd that happen?
Manchester: Well, I met Barry Manilow, we were both jingle singers, and he became Bette's new music director and he introduced me to her. I was one of the original members of what came to be known as the Harlettes. It was a fantastic experience. She's a brilliant woman. At that time, she was cutting-edge, and she's always had her own vision — she's just a unique person with a unique sense of herself. It was remarkable each night to watch her take the audience to another place.
RM: You struggled for a while getting a solo career going.
Manchester: I had been trying to get a record deal for about seven years, and back then there were album labels and there were singles labels, and Bell [Records], which eventually signed me, was a singles label. But they expanded to become an album label, and I was really the first artist to do that with them, and they largely left me alone. The big stars on the label were me, Barry Manillow, and Tony Orlando and Dawn.
RM: I read that you were a huge fan of the late songwriter Laura Nyro ("Stoned Soul Picnic," "Eli's Coming")
Manchester: When Laura Nyro came along, there simply wasn't anyone who sounded like her or wrote like her. She really broke open the language and with music supporting unusual lyrics driven by poetry and ecology. Plus unusual rhythms. I got the chance to meet her a couple of times. She left us too soon.
RM: One big hit that you co-wrote was "Whenever I Call You Friend," a duet smash for Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks.
Manchester: Kenny and I kept meeting each other at award shows, and he asked if I wanted to write with him, and we met up and we knocked it out. It was great. As a writer, he knows what he wants. I'd rather be in a room with someone like that than not.
RM: You recorded the song, too. Does it bother you when someone else has the hit?
Manchester: It's fine by me. The thing about a song is that you created this world that simply didn't exist before you created it. And so to see other artists or other audiences resonate with it and love and embrace it, it's thrilling. If you hear your song being done in Muzak, or with someone else's recording, it's all kind of a miracle.
RM: You were a memorable TV mom on "Blossom," but you've never fully embraced acting. Why?
Manchester: It was an adventure that came along my path. It was great fun, but it's very different from singing, a distant cousin. It was great to work with Maylm on "Blossom." She was a fantastic kid, and I love her now on "The Big Bang Theory." I've written for movies and for theater, but it's not my specific focus. It's a different rigor, and I'm doing what I love to do now.
RM: Your sound really changed in the '80s. Was that a choice you made, or was it imposed on you by Arista, your record label?
Manchester: That certainly was imposed on me. The musical times changed so radically in the '80s because electronics were introduced, and suddenly record making was the milieu of the producer. He had toys to play with, and the voice became one of the toys. It was another adventure. Although I was never terribly interested in being au courant, I went on the adventure and it worked out well for me. I mean, "You Should Hear How She Talks about You" earned me a Grammy.
RM: Songs like "You Should Hear ..." and 1985's "Energy" were so different from the music you were making 10 years prior.
Manchester: Well, 10 years prior, I was working with [veteran songwriters] Marvin Hamlisch and Carole Bayer Sager. So, yes, I stepped my big toe in the deep end of the '80's pool and saw how far I could get with it. Today, I don't sing many of those songs. I sing "You Should Hear ..." all the time because it's a huge memory for many fans. But I didn't sing it for a while because I couldn't figure out how I could grow old with it. Now, in concert, I show those videos and dance and laugh along. It gives people a sense of the time and who I was ... it's all jolly fun now, and I'm extremely grateful for it.
RM: You no longer deal with labels. You're crowdfunding your albums now.
Manchester: I did that for the last two albums, "The Fellas" and "You Gotta Love the Life." What happened was that I was teaching at USC, and my students kept coming in with new CDs that looked professionally created, lovely photos and shrink wrap and all that. I was still in the old mindset of looking for a label, and they said, "No, no, you should crowdfund, and we will help you." I had a student of mine explain to me what crowdfunding was, and he became my project manager [on an IndieGogo campaign]. There's a new paradigm in the marketplace, and it was touching to have fans come and weigh in and be my sweet aunties and uncles and serve as my village.
Melissa Manchester performs at The Tin Pan, 8982 Quioccasin Road, on Aug. 4. 8 p.m. $50 to $55. 804-447-8189, tinpanrva.com
