Midnight Blue (Melissa Manchester song)

"Midnight Blue" is a title of a Top Ten hit single by Melissa Manchester which was taken from her 1975 album Melissa: Billboard magazine described the song as "a classically elegant quiet ballad about a pair of longtime lovers putting aside their aggravations until the dawn in order to try making it one more time in memory of all their old times together." [1] Background The song had been written by Manchester in 1973 as Manchester's first collaboration with Carole Bayer Sager who would be Manchester's regular lyricist over the next five years: Manchester would recall: "the songs that I wrote with Carole...all came out of conversations. Therefore the tone of the songs was very conversational. The listener always feels like they are in the moment when that first line is uttered." [2] After meeting Manchester backstage after Bette Midler's Philharmonic Hall concert of New Years Ever 1972 - Manchester then ending her tenure as a member of Midler's onstage chorale - Bayer Sager suggested she and Manchester write a song to cut as a demo, [3] the result being "Midnight Blue". Although Manchester's first two album releases: Home to Myself and Bright Eyes in respectively 1973 and 1974 would overall feature eight songs she'd co-written with Bayer Sager, Manchester herself would not record "Midnight Blue" until 1975. The demo of "Midnight Blue" was submitted by Sager and Manchester to producer Vini Poncia in hopes of having his purported client Dionne Warwick record the song: [4] instead the demo convinced Poncia to record the singer of the demo who was Manchester herself. Poncia waited for almost two years - allowing Manchester to fulfill her obligations to the producers of her two Bell Records albums - before approaching Manchester with regard to producing her. [5] In the interim Manchester had personally pitched "Midnight Blue" to Dusty Springfield according to Springfield's friend Sue Cameron who recalls Manchester visiting Springfield's Laurel Canyon home and playing Springfield the demo of "Midnight Blue" - Cameron (quote): "She told Melissa no. Melissa leaves the house. I went: 'Are you crazy?'" [6] Session Personnel Piano • Melissa Manchester Electric piano • James Newton Howard Acoustic & Electric guitar • David Wolfert Bass • Cooker LoPresti Drums, Percussion • Kirk Bruner Strings arranged by Trevor Lawrence Backing vocals • Melissa Manchester • Vini Poncia With Richard Perry as executive producer, Poncia oversaw the sessions for Manchester's debut Arista album Melissa in the first months of 1975, with "Midnight Blue" issued as the lead single that spring (the single edit trimmed 29 seconds off the album track's outro). On the original track listing for the album Melissa the track's title is spelled "Midnite Blue", a spelling which was retained for the track's single release in Australia.

"Midnight Blue" Single by Melissa Manchester from the album Melissa B-side "I Got Eyes" Released April 1975 Format 7" single Recorded 1974 Genre easy listening Label Arista Writer(s) Melissa Manchester Carole Bayer Sager Producer(s) Vini Poncia executive producer Richard Perry Melissa Manchester singles chronology "O Heaven (How You've Changed To Me)" (1974) "Midnight Blue" (1975) "Just Too Many People" (1975)

Impact

In 2012 Manchester would recall promoting "Midnight Blue": "I [had been] an album artist [with no cause] to worry about a single. Suddenly, Bell Records was absorbed into Arista Records [whose president] Clive Davis...spoke of things like singles success. [For] 'Midnight Blue' we did a really vigorous tour of radio stations and secondary markets" ^[7] - "I crisscrossed the country to break the song on college radio stations, which were very important at the time. It was right before radio went into automated playlists. Music directors and disc jockeys still had pull. Right after 'Midnight Blue', everything changed" ^[8] - "We traveled thousands of miles shaking hands and playing: when [the song] finally got from the east coast to the west coast it was so huge...I [will] never forget that first experience of playing the intro to 'Midnight Blue' [to have] people started cheering....That was the power of radio." ^[7]

"Midnight Blue" debuted at #90 on the Hot 100 in Billboard magazine dated 10 May 1975: the same issue of Billboard showed the track ranked at #22 on the magazine's Easy Listening chart where "Midnight Blue" was in its fourth week on the Easy Listening Top 50. In its sixth week on the Billboard Hot 100, "Midnight Blue" entered the Top 40 at #40 on the chart dated 14 June 1975, with the track ranked at #2 on that week's Billboard Easy Listening chart: "Midnight Blue" would spend the weeks of 21–28 June at #1 on the Billboard Easy Listening chart - eventually being cited as the #1 Easy Listening hit of the year 1975 ^[9] - while on the Hot 100 the track would ascend to a peak of #6 (8 August 1975).^[10]

The first of Manchester's fifteen Hot 100 singles, "Midnight Blue" would be the last song composed by Manchester herself to afford her a Top 20 hit as only the second and third of her seven Top 40 hits were self-penned songs neither of which enjoyed the success level of "Midnight Blue" having respective Hot 100 peaks of #30 ("Just Too Many People") and #27 ("Just You & I"): however Manchester would be returned to the Top Ten twice by "outside material" (see "Don't Cry Out Loud" and "You Should Hear How She Talks About You").

A snippet from Manchester's recording of "Midnight Blue" was one of twelve current or recent hits whose lyrics were "borrowed" to provide responses to a "roving reporter" on the scene of a shark attack played by Dickie Goodman on his novelty hit Mr. Jaws which became a Top Ten hit in the autumn of 1975.

Manchester's "Midnight Blue" was featured on the soundtrack of the 1978 film Ice Castles - for which Manchester sang the theme - and also the 2010 film Dirty Girl in which several of Manchester's songs are heard (Manchester has a cameo in the latter film but not as herself).

Chart performance

Weekly singles charts Chart (1975) Peak position Canadian RPM Top Singles 5 Canadian RPM Adult Contemporary [11] 1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100[12] 6 U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks[13][14] 1 Australia 78

Year-end charts Chart (1975) Position Canada 64 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [15] 54

Other versions

The song has also been recorded by Shirley Bassey, Cristy Lane, Johnny Mathis, Arthur Prysock, Vanessa Williams and Viola Wills. An Italian rendering: "E L'Amore Che Muore", was recorded by Wess & Dori Ghezzi for their 1977 album Insieme.

See also

• List of number-one adult contemporary singles of 1975 (U.S.)

References

1. Billboard vol • 87 #20 (17 May 1975) p. 28
2. "Interview : She knows who she is: an interview with Melissa Manchester". OutlookColumbus.com. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
3. Sarasota Journal 10 March 1976 Commercial is Not a Dirty Word Anymore (Newspaper Enterprise Assoc.) p. 8D
4. Wilmington Star-News Manchester Back Up to Standards by Hillel Italie (Associated Press) p. 3D
5. Observer-Reporter 7 January 1976 Melissa Not Blue Over Last Album by Robin Welles (Copley News Service) p. B-9
6. Bartlett, Karen (2015). Dusty: an intimate portrait of a musical legend. London: The Robson Press. ISBN 9781849548762.
7. "Melissa Manchester: Think of her as a friend". PopEntertainment.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
8. "Interview: Melissa Manchester – The Journey of an Artist". BlogCritics.org. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
9. Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 153.
10. http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1975-08-09
11. http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.3988&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=8crql7h6gf3g88062opm1ta876
12. "The Hot 100: Week of August 9, 1975". Billboard Magazine. 9 August 1975. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
13. "Adult Contemporary:Week of June 21, 1975". Billboard Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
14. "Adult Contemporary: Week of June 28, 1975". Billboard Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
15. http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1975.htm{

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics