Chuck Mangione

"Chuck's time with A&M was an exciting experience. He became a tremendous success as a "cross-over" jazz artist. [The Feels So Good] album was #2 on the pop charts for four weeks just under 'Saturday Night Fever"!! His continuing success on the label was gratifying for us both since when I went to see him in a N.Y. club about joining our roster, there were only four other customers in the whole club that night."--Jerry Moss

"[A&M Records] gave us respect by giving us total artistic freedom. It's the most relaxed company I've ever seen. Everybody knows everybody, and there's no paranoia, We immediately felt at home."--Chuck Mangione, A&M Compendium 1975

"I realized that I was going to be a musician, that this is what I am going to be doing for the rest of my life."

"Every day, you've got to do musical calisthenics. A ball player, for example, may not have to practice eight hours a day, but every day he's got to loosen up. It's the same with musicians."

A&M Records executives on Chuck Mangione: "He's made his music totally accessible, as well as himself, with constant touring and personal appearances."--Bob Fead, Sr. VP Sales and Marketing.

"He came to A&M with a base of popularity, and he's built on each album. Chuck's personality has a lot to do with it. He's always been willing to work and build a following, and he's always had good product."--Jeff Ayeroff, Director of Creative Services and Product Management

"Chuck is serious about his career, and he's been working very hard on it. It's obviously very gratifying for us to have an artist do so well, but it's particularly gratifying when it's someone like Chuck...there's room for someone who isn't just going to go in and cut a formula record."--Gil Friesen, President.

Chuck Mangione signed with A&M Records in early 1975. About the Chuck Mangione Quartet and recording Chase the Clouds Away, "I consider us to be one of the few bands that's playing together today. There are a lot of groups where there is a star who stands out front and shines while three or four other people do something around him, but they're not really a team, not really a band that's making music as a unit. I've very proud of this group as a group, as a family. We've built a situation where we can react to each other. When it gets to that relaxed and comfortable place where everybody is really into it, you never count measures, and you never worry if this guy is gonna be right there. You can just lay back and let it happen....All the music was done live, in the studio. There was no overdubbing. We were playing eight and nine minute takes with an orchestra, and they were all good."

94Q Atlanta, GA: Left to Right Don Toll, Johnny Shuler, Harold Childs, Jeff McCartney (MD 94Q), Chuck Mangione, Don Benson (PD 94Q), unknown and Derry Johnson

Mangione's 1977 tour of Canada included his quartet plus 21 musicians (4 French horns, 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, 5 reeds). 

A&M Records gave Mangione "total artistic freedom." In July 1978, Gil Friesen told Cash Box, "Mangione is an immensely hard-working dedicated artist. I would certainly not want to diminish the role that A&M has played in breaking Mangione. Our people have done a sensational job here. But in concert with him, literally and figuratively, it has been a wonderful working relationship."

"Chase the Clouds Away" by Chuck Mangione was used as background music in the 1976 Olympic Games telecast.

Until the release of Feels So Good, Mangione's A&M albums sold 200,000-250,000 copies.

A&M held "Mangione Month" in July 1977. Promotional kits were titled "Informangione." Ephemera included catalogs, in-store sampler, trade ads, posters, display materials, radio spots--a full push from A&M's sales, promotion, advertising and publicity departments.

Feels So Good rivaled the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack for the No. 1 position on the Billboard album chart. In total sales, Feels So Good was second only to Saturday Night Fever. Mangione told Cash Box on July 8, 1978, "...I didn't do anything differently than I did before...I wrote some music and made a record and it seems to be the right record for the right time. And to see that many more people being introduced to the music every day is just an amazing thing to me. And when you're doing something you love and believe in and people out there are reacting to it, I just can't think of better feeling than that. And I didn't set out purposely to make a single. I've never done that."

Feels So Good was given a national primetime television advertising campaign in Canada. Almost 300 posts were booked in all Canadian markets for two weeks in July 1978. In the U.S., the promotion included radio appearances, press interviews, television ads, visits to warehouses, one-stops, retailers and others. There was also a special 12-inch recording made for AOR radio to promote the song before it was released as a single.

Vice president of promotion Harold Childs said of the single "Feels So Good" that it was "the toughest kind of single to break. It's a jazz instrumental with very little r&b in it; and with no r&b sales base, it was no easy crossover. There was out and out resistance to the song, even after it had been added to stations, but the phone response was strong enough to bring it back on after several stations had deleted it. Then it was a matter of convincing other stations, showing them that demographically speaking, Mangione appeals to all audiences and all ages."

A&M Records held a Chuck Mangione Month in 1977 that helped promote Feels So Good. In 1978, A&M held a second Mangione month to promote his A&M catalog that used an in-store mounted posted, media kit with "Chuck Mangione II" sampler, ads, new radio spots, and suggestions for retail displays.

Children of Sanchez was certified gold by the RIAA the week it was released. It was also a #1 album on Cash Box's Jazz Album chart. The music from the album had been featured in the PBS television special "Live At Wolf Trap" which aired in August.

ABC Sports commissioned Chuck Mangione to write music for the 1980 Winter Olympic Games. The music included the closing theme "Give It All You Got" that appeared on Chuck's Fun and Games album for A&M.

Mangione first toured Mexico and Latin America in late 1981.

ABC used Chuck Mangione's 'Children of Sanchez' music in its coverage of the 1979 Summer Special Olympics.

Chuck Mangione's album Tarantella had its origin in an eight-hour benefit concert that Chuck created to support victims of an earthquake in Italy.

OFFICIAL PROMOTION BY A&M RECORDS

Chase the Clouds Away New Music On A&M Records
Bellavia New Music On A&M Records
Main Squeeze New Music On A&M Records
An Evening of Magic: Live At the Hollywood Bowl press release

Official website: http://www.chuckmangione.com