Name	Melissa Manchester
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	February 15, 1951
Place of Birth	The Bronx, New York, USA
Famous for

Manchester was born in the Bronx area of New York city to a musical family of Jewish descent. Her father was a bassoonist for the New York Metropolitan Opera. Manchester started a singing career at an early age, learning the piano and harpsichord at the Manhattan School of Music and Arts, singing commercial jingles at age 15, and becoming a staff writer for Chappell Music while attending Manhattan`s High School of Performing Arts.

She studied songwriting at New York University with Paul Simon. Manchester then appeared on the Manhattan club scene, where she was discovered by Bette Midler and Barry Manilow, who took her on as a backup singer in 1971.

Her debut album, Home to Myself, was released in 1973; Manchester co-wrote many of its songs with Carole Bayer Sager. Two years later Manchester`s album Melissa produced her first top ten hit, "Midnight Blue". Manchester collaborated with Kenny Loggins to co-write Loggins` 1978 hit duet with Stevie Nicks, "Whenever I Call You Friend". She would later record this herself for her 1979 Melissa Manchester album. At this time, she guest-starred on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow to teach a main character, who was a singer-songwriter, the essentials of the craft. In 1979 Manchester made the top ten with her version of Peter Allen`s "Don`t Cry Out Loud", for which she received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance.

In 1980 Manchester became the first singer to have two movie themes nominated for an Academy Award: "Through The Eyes Of Love" from the film Ice Castles and "I`ll Never Say Goodbye" from the film The Promise`.

Two years later she had her biggest hit "You Should Hear How She Talks About You", which won a Grammy for Best Female Vocal Performance. It was her last Top 40 Pop hit, but Manchester did well on the Adult Contemporary charts the rest of the 1980s. Her most recent big Adult Contemporary hit was a 1989 updating of Dionne Warwick`s "Walk on By".

In spring 2004, Manchester returned with her first album in 10 years: When I Look Down That Road. While touring to support the CD, Manchester was praised for her still "powerful voice" and for "reinventing [herself] while staying true to what made [her] popular."