Midnight Blue (Melissa Manchester song)
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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" [1] - "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" [2] - "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." [1]
"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 [3] - while on the Hot 100 the track would ascend to a peak of #6 (8 August 1975).[4]
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
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Year-end charts
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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
References
- ^ a b "Melissa Manchester: Think of her as a friend". PopEntertainment.com. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- ^ "Interview: Melissa Manchester – The Journey of an Artist". BlogCritics.org. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 153.
- ^ http://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/1975-08-09
- ^ http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/rpm/028020-119.01-e.php?&file_num=nlc008388.3988&type=1&interval=20&PHPSESSID=8crql7h6gf3g88062opm1ta876
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary:Week of June 21, 1975". Billboard Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ^ "Adult Contemporary: Week of June 28, 1975". Billboard Magazine. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ^ http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1975.htm{