Melissa Manchester

Singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester launched her career performing commercial jingles at age 15, then secured a staff-writing position at Chappell Music during her enrollment at the High School of Performing Arts. After completing a songwriting course at New York University under Paul Simon, she moved into the Manhattan club circuit, where Bette Midler and Barry Manilow spotted her and brought her on as a backup singer in 1971. Her debut album, Home to Myself, appeared in 1973, featuring numerous co-writes with Carole Bayer Sager. The 1975 follow-up Melissa yielded her first Top Ten single, “Midnight Blue,” and established the straightforward, polished MOR-pop approach that defined most of her output. She partnered with Kenny Loggins on his 1978 duet with Stevie Nicks, “Whenever I Call You Friend,” then returned to the Top Ten herself the next year via “Don't Cry Out Loud.” In 1980 Manchester became the first vocalist to earn simultaneous Academy Award nominations for two film themes, Ice Castles and The Promise; two years later she reached her peak Billboard singles position at number five with “You Should Hear How She Talks About You,” which earned a Grammy for Best Female Vocal Performance. Across the 1980s and 1990s she balanced sporadic recording with screenwriting and acting, sharing the screen with Bette Midler in For the Boys and portraying the birth mother of the title character on the series Blossom. In spring 2004 she issued her first collection in a decade, When I Look Down That Road, featuring collaborations with Beth Nielsen Chapman and Keb' Mo' and marking her initial proper release on Koch. In 2017 Manchester delivered Fellas, a tribute to the male vocalists who shaped her style and a counterpart to her 1989 album Tribute, which had honored leading female singers.