- 1 year ago
Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and actress Melissa Manchester's voice and music have touched generations. From hits like 'Midnight Blue' and 'You Should Hear How She Talks About You,' to Oscar-nominated movie themes and collaborations with legends like Dolly Parton and Kenny Loggins, Melissa Manchester's career has been nothing short of legendary. Her songs have also been recorded by greats such as Barbra Streisand, Roberta Flack, Dusty Springfield, Alison Krauss, and more. Recently, she starred in the national tour of Broadway's Funny Girl as Mrs. Brice--earning critical acclaim--and made her debut as a classical composer with AWAKE! , her first concerto for piano and orchestra. Her latest album, RE:VIEW features duets with some of her famous friends on previously unreleased songs, as well as fresh takes on several of her classic hits. She joined us in studio to tell us all about it...This is a LifeMinute with Melissa Manchester.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, this is Melissa Manchester, and you are so lucky to be watching Life Minute TV.
00:08Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester's voice and music have touched generations.
00:14From her original hits to Oscar-nominated movie themes and iconic collaborations,
00:20her career has been nothing short of legendary.
00:23Recently, she starred in the national tour of Funny Girl as Mrs. Bryce,
00:27earning critical acclaim, and made her debut as a classical composer with Awake,
00:32her first concerto for piano and orchestra.
00:36Her latest album review features duets with some of her famous friends on previously unreleased songs,
00:42as well as fresh takes on several of her classic hits.
00:45She joined us in studio to tell us all about it.
00:48This is a Life Minute with Melissa Manchester.
00:51It's been a wonderful busy time.
00:53I just finished a wonderful run at 54 Below,
00:58and I just finished the premiere of a concerto that I composed July 19th at the Corning Museum.
01:06During COVID, I was scrolling through, watching whatever,
01:11and one day I saw just the hands of the pianist playing on his piano.
01:17I couldn't see him, and then he leaned over when he was done and explained the name of the piece
01:22and what it was about, and his name was Jeffrey Beagle.
01:26And I started to watch his salons that he was sharing,
01:29and I put a comment in, and he responded.
01:33He said, are you the singer?
01:34I said, I am.
01:35And we started a conversation, and then a few months later,
01:39I was backstage getting my makeup ready for a concert,
01:43and he said, would you consider composing a concerto for piano and orchestra?
01:49And I thought, would I?
01:51And I said, yes.
01:52And it took me about a month to write it.
01:55It's about 15 minutes long, and it's five movements, and it's called Awake.
02:00And I submitted it to him four days before I started rehearsals on Funny Girl for the national tour,
02:07which just ended last April.
02:09The first national tour of Funny Girl was very important to me personally
02:28because I had seen Barbra Streisand on Broadway when I was a young girl in 1964,
02:34and that role of Fanny Bryce made her a star.
02:37And I knew the music by the great Julie Stein, the lyrics by Bob Merrill,
02:43and they had tried to do a national tour before over the years,
02:47and it just never happened.
02:50And when it was announced that this was actually going to happen,
02:53I said to my manager, I just need to audition.
02:56I just need to at least try to audition for the role of Rose Bryce, her mother.
03:01I went to the audition.
03:02I was prepared, and it was on Broadway.
03:05Lea Michele had taken over the role, and Tova Feltcher was playing Rose Bryce.
03:09And then my manager forwarded the email that said,
03:14we would love you to be part of the national tour.
03:17And I had just become a grandma for the first time.
03:20And I thought, ugh, missing all those firsts in that first year, I don't know.
03:24So I checked in with my kids, and they all said,
03:28you have to go on this adventure.
03:30We will make this work.
03:31And indeed we did, through the miracle of FaceTime.
03:34We played 556 performances in 51 cities.
03:39It was just the greatest adventure I'd ever been on.
03:42It was incredible to be part of this beautiful village,
03:45this exquisite production.
03:48And it was so interesting how it resonated with audiences.
03:53I mean, most people never saw it on Broadway.
03:55And children loved this show.
03:57Nine-year-olds just loved the story of this woman's triumphant will.
04:03And the company was happy and talented and excited to be there.
04:10And it was just a spectacular experience, really.
04:14In the midst of all of that, while I was on the road,
04:17my 25th album, Review, was released.
04:21And I couldn't really support it.
04:23I was doing eight shows a week.
04:25But it was released to wonderful reviews, thankfully.
04:28So now I'm out and about performing in support of that.
04:38Review is really a thank you to the fans.
04:41It is the re-recording of several of my charted hits
04:45with certain harmonic tweaks, with no fade endings.
04:51They all come to an end.
04:53Because that's what you do on stage.
04:55Things come to an end.
04:56And I really love that, about implementing that per song.
05:02Because it made sense.
05:04The song has a beginning, middle, and the end.
05:06We have one new track on there of a very old song of mine
05:11that I'd never recorded before called Confide in Me.
05:15Confide in me.
05:18Rely on me.
05:21I wrote it with Stan Schwartz many years ago.
05:24It had been recorded by Diana Ross.
05:26And Raquel Welch sang it to a Muppet on The Muppet Show.
05:30But I'd never recorded it.
05:31So I finally found the samba pocket that I really wanted it to live in.
05:38And we did a beautiful video of it.
05:40And it ended up being my most viewed video.
05:43But also, I re-recorded my first hit, Midnight Blue,
05:48in duet with Dolly Parton.
05:50Midnight Blue.
05:55She's a queen.
05:57She deserves to be a queen.
05:59People pull their cars over in Nashville and yell her name.
06:02There was a scene in the video towards the very end
06:07where we filmed this in Nashville.
06:11And we just drove out of the parking lot,
06:13made a right and a right and a right and a right around the block.
06:17And there happened to have been a tour bus
06:20as we were driving down one of the streets.
06:24And when the people saw her,
06:26they just started to drip out of the side of the bus,
06:29screaming her name.
06:31She's charming and brilliantly talented
06:35and just the smartest person in the room.
06:38She's just incredible.
06:40And I finally did record the song I wrote with Kenny Loggins,
06:44Whenever I Call You Friend.
06:46See love blow at almost every night
06:49I know forever we'll be doing it right
06:54We recorded that.
06:56We'd been trying to record together for about 45 years.
07:00It didn't work out over the years
07:03because of scheduling bumps or budgetary concerns.
07:08And with Review, I thought,
07:10you know, I'm just going to put this album together.
07:13If he can be part of it, that's great.
07:16And if he can't, that's fine too.
07:17But I wanted to create a new take on the song
07:22because the song is so solid.
07:24But I didn't want to recreate his version
07:26of the hit he had with Stevie Nicks.
07:29It's a very layered track.
07:31Lots of vocals and stuff like that.
07:33Some of the chords have been changed.
07:36And I sent the track with my working vocal.
07:41He said, I'm in.
07:41This is fantastic.
07:43I'm based in LA and he's up in Santa Barbara.
07:46So we drove up there
07:47and recorded his vocal performance,
07:50which is such a specific sound.
07:52I mean, his voice is just remarkable.
07:55And we filmed the video up at his studio
07:58and it was just joyful.
08:00He was so happy with this chapter of the song,
08:04this iteration.
08:06So it was really, really lovely.
08:08And I'm told that he's including a clip
08:11of my version of our song in his documentary,
08:15which is really nice.
08:17Do we remember who we are?
08:21Do we remember who we are?
08:26Do we remember who we are?
08:27I wrote that while I was on the road with Funny Girl
08:29and I had no access to a keyboard.
08:32It was just in my hotel room.
08:35So I kept beating it out on my thighs
08:37as the words and the melody came to me.
08:40I wrote it in response to the election
08:44that was about to take place.
08:47And it was an idea that I had read about in literature
08:50in a couple of different books,
08:52the idea of you will know what your answer is
08:56when you remember who you are.
08:58And I thought that's such a powerful concept to me.
09:01And I wanted to sort of answer my call to this moment
09:07because we are in the midst of a deep history
09:10that's unfolding.
09:12And so I wrote the song and I had about five days off
09:17in between two legs of the tour
09:19and went into the studio and recorded it
09:23and put the voices on it.
09:26And we had a very talented videographer
09:28put the video together to really respond to the moment
09:33and the squeeze of what we are on trial to get through.
09:38And I was very honored that Speaker Merida Nancy Pelosi
09:43used the song to display all of the women in the House
09:50and in Congress and in the Senate.
09:52So that was thrilling.
09:53It speaks across party lines.
09:56I mean, that's my intention.
09:57And it is literally about remembering who we are as a nation
10:00and the freedoms we hold dear that have been fought for.
10:04And the sound of rusting hands going backwards
10:08are those evildoers who are trying to rescind rights
10:14that have been fought for.
10:15So that's what I can do,
10:18is to write, you know, capture a moment.
10:20I glibly refer to my mind as my pet.
10:25So it's always sniffing around for inspiration.
10:28And I know how my mind works at this point.
10:30It took me a while.
10:31But I know it just is sort of,
10:33if something is interesting
10:34and then it just sort of glums on, you know,
10:36a dog with a bone.
10:38When that happens and my curiosity sort of bites into an idea,
10:44what is happening is that an idea is insisting on being expressed.
10:51I just have to find the language and the setting,
10:55the musical setting to best express it.
10:59What I know to be true is that language sings
11:02and you just have to, you have to sort of get out of the way of it
11:08so it can inform you the tune it is singing.
11:14And I have the demo on my phone of when I first wrote
11:19until we remember who we are.
11:20And you hear me banging away on my thighs
11:23and you hear the melody as it was showing up.
11:27And it was really interesting.
11:28I tried to write away from the piano
11:30because what happens is your body memory
11:34will get your fingers to play chords
11:37from the last three songs you wrote.
11:40And what I want to do is make sure
11:42that the melody is intact first
11:44so that what I'm accompanying is new.
11:48I hadn't written a lot because I was busy, you know,
11:51doing my shows and working on my character and all that.
11:54But when this crept up in me,
11:57I just made a pot of coffee,
11:59stayed in my pajamas and just let it show up.
12:05I was raised in a very creative family.
12:08My mother was a pioneer in the fashion business.
12:11She was one of the first women
12:12to own her own design and manufacturing firm,
12:15Ruth Manchester Limited.
12:17She's actually in the New York Public Library
12:19under Who's Who.
12:21And my father was a bassoonist
12:23with the Metropolitan Opera for many years.
12:26And so my sister and I were raised by two black sheep.
12:30The message we got was,
12:32go for it, you know, follow your curiosity.
12:35Which I think is important
12:37because, you know, a lot of times
12:38kids are given the message,
12:41follow your passion.
12:42Well, you don't really know what your passion is.
12:44But you can follow your curiosity
12:46and that will lead you to a passion if it sticks.
12:50And so being raised in the Bronx and in Manhattan,
12:54it was the perfect place for me to have
12:57unbelievable adventures as a teenager.
13:01The New York Department of Parks was very active
13:05with teenage theater workshops at the time
13:08to keep us busy during the summer.
13:10I was in street theater.
13:11I was a gopher during the first season
13:14of Sesame Street at the Children's Television Network.
13:17I parked cars for a little theater company
13:19on the east side.
13:21They didn't ask me if I knew how to drive
13:22and I thought it best not to offer that I did not.
13:25But nobody got hurt.
13:27And that's the important part.
13:28I was a jingle singer,
13:30so I made a really good living
13:31and I was able to pay for the demos
13:34that I was constantly sending to record companies
13:36and I was being constantly rejected.
13:39It took me seven years.
13:41But I met Barry Manilow along the way
13:43and I met Bette Midler
13:44and eventually I became a harlette for Bette
13:46and I worked for her for about six months.
13:49And then I put out my first record,
13:51I think, in 1973.
13:56I studied songwriting with Paul when I was 17.
13:59I'd gone to NYU School of the Arts
14:01on East 7th Street for one year
14:03and my acting teacher was Olympia Dukakis.
14:07She was fantastic.
14:08The school was nutty,
14:09but she was just incredible.
14:11And she wanted me to return
14:13at the end of that one year
14:14and I said,
14:15oh no,
14:17you'll do fine without me.
14:18And I went back to work singing jingles.
14:21But I had two friends,
14:23the playwright Jeff Sweet
14:24and our other friend Brett Mitchell
14:26who stayed at NYU.
14:28And they called me one day
14:29because they were young songwriters.
14:31And in those days,
14:33this is long before social media,
14:34so there was just a scrap of paper
14:36on the bulletin board
14:37that said,
14:38songwriting taught by Paul Simon.
14:40And we thought,
14:41what would he be doing on 7th Street?
14:44Bridge over troubled waters
14:45is number one all over the planet.
14:47And it was indeed Paul Simon
14:49of Simon and Garfunkel at the time.
14:51And he auditioned everybody.
14:53He chose 10 of the most disparate types
14:57of young songwriters.
14:59We studied with him
15:02for about six months.
15:05It was a very simple class,
15:07two hours a week.
15:08You had to come in with an idea
15:10or a verse or a finished song,
15:12including him.
15:15And he would talk about
15:16his experience as a songwriter
15:19and what it's like to be on tour
15:21and what it's like to be in competition
15:23with the Beatles, for instance.
15:24The nugget of what he taught, really,
15:28is that all of the stories
15:29have been told.
15:31It's the way you tell the story
15:32that's what separates you out.
15:34It's the way you use language.
15:36It's the way you use metaphors.
15:38It's the rhythmic quirks
15:40that make something interesting
15:42and pop that will separate you out.
15:45And it was invaluable and true.
15:51It remains true to this day.
15:54It is for lovin', lovin' is the key.
16:01I created the character of Maddie Russo
16:03on the series Blossom
16:04when Mayim Bialik was a young teenage girl.
16:08And I knew at that point
16:10how brilliant she was.
16:11I mean, she was raised really well.
16:13All of the kids on that set
16:15were lovely.
16:16They worked very hard.
16:18It was interesting to play
16:20a woman who had left her children
16:25and her husband
16:26to pursue a career in Paris as a singer.
16:29It was not a sympathetic character,
16:32but I had to find something lovable
16:35about her to make her live.
16:39It was very touching.
16:40It was very touching to be a part
16:42of this series
16:44that had already been established.
16:46It was very touching to work
16:48with the late Bill Bixby,
16:50who was directing it.
16:52And everybody knew
16:53that he was very ill
16:55and wouldn't be with us long.
16:59But it was lovely.
17:01And it was hard work
17:02because when you're
17:04not in front of an audience
17:06and you're trying to land an idea,
17:09it's hard to know
17:10if you did good or not.
17:13And it was also interesting
17:14to learn dialogue.
17:17You know, dialogue is sort of
17:19a distant cousin from singing.
17:21It's not really the same.
17:23So you're looking for different clues
17:27and sharing space with another actor.
17:30You're hoping that they're good
17:32and they're giving you
17:33enough juice to play with.
17:36Whereas singing songs
17:37that I've been singing for so long
17:39do become living monologues.
17:42One of the things I teach,
17:44it's called
17:45The Art of Conversational Singing.
17:46It's not a very sexy title,
17:48but it's the truth.
17:49It's just,
17:50why would you be singing this song?
17:51Well, if you think of yourself
17:52in conversation with somebody
17:54where the song,
17:56the first line of the song
17:57needs to happen,
17:58it makes the whole thing
18:00start to come alive.
18:01But working with,
18:03once again,
18:04with Mayim,
18:05I mean,
18:05at 14,
18:06she could have just run
18:07the whole show.
18:08She wasn't pushy.
18:09She just was always incredibly
18:11and impeccably prepared.
18:13She had an incredible countenance
18:15about her.
18:16As a young kid,
18:17she was very joyful,
18:18but there was something
18:20very deep and wide
18:22in her spirit.
18:24And so the fact
18:25that she became
18:26a neuroscientist
18:27didn't really surprise me.
18:29She's just truly brilliant
18:30and she happens to have
18:31this interesting gift
18:33as a comedian.
18:34It's beautiful.
18:35I have written for Disney
18:44a couple of times.
18:46I first wrote a song
18:47for The Great Mouse Detective,
18:48which was very interesting.
18:50Hey, fellas,
18:51Disney was known
19:00for their exquisite
19:01animated films,
19:03Snow White,
19:04Peter Pan,
19:04Alice in Wonderland,
19:05and they all had
19:07fantastic songs
19:08come out of them.
19:10I don't know
19:11who was in charge
19:12of the period
19:12where they stopped
19:13putting songs
19:14in the animated films.
19:16Somebody thought
19:16that was a good idea.
19:17They thought,
19:18I don't know what they thought.
19:19So The Great Mouse Detective
19:21was going to reintroduce
19:23a song in the film.
19:25And this was,
19:26I was the third writer
19:28brought in to try
19:29to write this,
19:30what they call
19:31a standalone song
19:32for this character,
19:34Kitty Mouse.
19:35She was a dance hall mouse
19:37and she wasn't part
19:38of the plot.
19:39She was just entertaining
19:41all of these mice
19:42in a bar.
19:44And I met with the supervisor,
19:46music supervisor,
19:47and he was explaining
19:48to me
19:48what the scene
19:50was about
19:50and I said to him,
19:51but this is family fair.
19:53You don't,
19:53you don't want me
19:54to write a stripper number
19:56like Let Me Entertain You.
19:57He said,
19:57no, it's family.
19:58So I submitted a song
20:00and,
20:00and,
20:01you know,
20:02he sort of liked it
20:03and he was hemming
20:04and hawing
20:05and I finally interrupted him
20:06and I said,
20:07would you like me
20:08to write Let Me Entertain You?
20:09And he said,
20:10yes, please.
20:11So I wrote
20:11a little strip song
20:12called Let Me Be Good to You,
20:15which my young cast members
20:17and Funny Girl loved
20:18because they had all seen
20:19the film,
20:20they grew up with the film.
20:22And then I wrote the score
20:23with the late Norman Gimbel
20:25for Lady and the Tramp 2
20:26and that was just gorgeous
20:28because that was a real
20:29theater score.
20:31I mean,
20:31six songs
20:32and it was beautiful.
20:32I want to collaborate
20:41with Gaga.
20:42I think she's just remarkable.
20:44I always want to collaborate
20:46with Michael McDonald.
20:47I just think he is singular
20:49and I would love to collaborate
20:52again with Bernie Taupin.
20:54I had the great privilege
20:55of working with him
20:56and he's,
20:57he's just on a whole other strata.
20:59Now that I'm finally away
21:02from Funny Girl,
21:03you know,
21:04I'm with my family
21:05and my grandkids
21:06and my friends.
21:08I cook a lot.
21:09I do laundry.
21:11I, you know,
21:12tend to mundane stuff
21:13because,
21:14because reestablishing
21:15your roots
21:16in your community
21:17is a major part
21:18of coming home
21:19off of a long tour.
21:20It took me a very long time
21:28to understand
21:30how my mind worked
21:32because talent
21:33is something
21:34other than
21:35your mind working.
21:37It's a sweet spot
21:38in your mind.
21:39But the actual
21:40how to talk with people,
21:44how to resolve issues,
21:46how to not only
21:47see a red flag,
21:49but stop trying
21:50to make it
21:51into a lovely red shawl,
21:52that took me
21:53a long time to learn.
21:55Understanding that life
21:56really takes courage,
21:58probably for everybody,
22:00but definitely
22:00to walk the artist's path
22:02because as,
22:04as an artist,
22:05you make a living
22:05by living your life.
22:07That's not easy
22:08and I feel extremely fortunate
22:10that I've been able
22:11to do that.
22:12But it took me
22:13a very long time
22:15to really understand
22:18how my mind worked
22:20in terms of decision making
22:22and that I needed
22:24a lot of help
22:25to understand
22:26that there were questions
22:27to be asked.
22:28There is a neutral act
22:30of gathering information
22:32and to stop assigning shame
22:35to that.
22:36I'm not sure
22:37if that's gender specific,
22:39but I just was not taught
22:41any of this in my house.
22:43It was a very loving house,
22:45you know,
22:45a very supportive house.
22:47I just never saw examples
22:49of how to talk
22:51to the point of resolution.
22:53I never saw in business
22:55how to talk
22:56to the point of resolution.
22:59I never was shown
23:01how to ask again,
23:04explain it to me again.
23:05Again, I still don't understand it.
23:07Explain it, use crayons.
23:08I still don't understand.
23:09Find a way
23:10to help me understand it.
23:11I just never saw that.
23:14And so, like many artists,
23:15I signed stupid contracts
23:17that I didn't understand
23:18or got into relationships
23:20with people
23:20that were just,
23:22took too much help.
23:24And I thought my job
23:25was to help fix people.
23:27And when I finally saw
23:29that that was not
23:31within my boundary,
23:33you know,
23:34life started to make sense
23:36beyond just my talent.
23:38And so,
23:39peace and serenity
23:41was mine to claim.
23:43But it took a long time.
23:45At last,
23:45I can speak about that
23:46with a little bit
23:47of authority
23:48and share that.
23:50To hear more
23:51of this interview,
23:52visit our podcast,
23:53Life Minute TV
23:54on iTunes
23:55and all streaming
23:56podcast platforms.
23:57� of this is the
24:21podcast.
Comments