Anymore it’s rare to find a bona fide grassroots success story. But once in while, a guy with a big dream and a great product can hit the big time. In the case of the musical icon Chip Davis and his band Mannheim Steamroller, that is exactly what happened.
As the type of person who turns adversity into opportunity, Davis took the rejection of every major record and turned it into a launch pad for his own label, American Gramaphone—the modest beginning of a musical empire.
Today, nearly thirty years later, American Gramaphone stands as one of the most successful independent music franchises in history. From his unlikely base of operations in Omaha, Nebraska, Davis has sold nearly 40 million records and produced hundreds of Mannheim Steamroller concerts that sell out around the world.
The success of Mannheim Steamroller and American Gramaphone is testament to what can happen when widespread "word-of-mouth enthusiasm" collides with a deliberate series of innovative marketing techniques. Davis’ fan base is so immense, he consistently hits the platinum sales level by leveraging his own marketing company, a label distribution network, and a savvy mail order/online operation.
Born in Sylavnia, Ohio as Louis Davis, Jr., he was nicknamed Chip and the name stuck. Chip came from a musical family, and learned piano from his grandmother. Davis' father was a high school music teacher, while his mother performed with Phil Spitalny's All Girl Orchestra. By the time he graduated from the University of Michigan he was prolific classical musician, trained to mastery in bassoon and percussion.
After a stretch as a music teacher himself, Davis worked as a jingle writer for a thriving Omaha, Nebraska advertising agency. While there, he and one of the agency’s ad execs, Bill Fries, dreamed up a fictional truck driver named CW McCall for a series of commercials for The Old Home Bread company.
The radio commercials were so popular that stations began fielding requests from listeners to play the spots as if they were pop records. Eventually, the Nashville A&R community came calling and Davis and Fries negotiated a record deal to produce recordings for under the name of CW McCall. The first song, a single called "Convoy" blew open the popular CB radio craze of 1975. Within two months, 10 million record buyers were singing along and two years later Kris Kristofferson starred in the hit movie by the same name. With the money he made from the record and the film, Davis left the agency and recorded an album called Fresh Aire, which he dubbed "18th Century Classical Rock". Though Davis was literally a one-man-band at that point, he released that first album under the name Mannheim Steamroller (based on a musical term meaning "crescendo").
Fresh from those two huge hits, Davis did not anticipate complete and total rejection from the established record industry—but that’s what he found. "Everyone passed on it," said Davis, "so, I figured out how to distribute and sell it myself." The first step: to start his own record label, named American Gramaphone.
The next few years meted out lesson after lesson about business, marketing and artistic integrity. Not able to break into traditional music stores, Mannheim Steamroller snuck in through the side door—by becoming the recording artist of choice for high-end hi-fi dealers. Says Davis: "Showroom customers would say, ‘Gee, I like this stereo system, but I really love the record you’re playing. Who is that?’" Before long Mannheim Steamroller titles were among the best selling independent releases in the U.S. and Europe. Finally, Davis had earned the respect of the music business; today he is largely credited with helping to create the popular "New Age" genre.
In 1984, Davis decided to create a Christmas album. That’s when everything exploded.
In 1984, Christmas music wasn’t popular. It was generally the last stop for an artist before the end of a career, it was most often overtly religious, and it typically did not sell well. "I came at it differently," says Davis and soon Mannheim Steamroller Christmas hit Top 40 radio led by it’s modernized, electronic version of "Deck The Halls," and five million copies flew off the shelves. Davis assembled a bunch of his friends--classically trained (but rock loving) musicians, and took to the road. Still on the road, he and the band bring the magic of Christmas to major American markets throughout the holiday season.
Mannheim Steamroller has long since crossed over into the traditional record media and retail outlets, and continues to be a favorite choice for "bumper music" on talk radio shows throughout the world. Radio personalities such as Delilah, Jim Bohannon, and the enormously popular Rush Limbaugh, have long been fans. Limbaugh is credited with introducing a large audience to the various Steamroller Christmas albums. Says Davis: "Rush Limbaugh started playing us on his show in December about 12 years ago. One time, I sent him an advance copy of a new Christmas album and he played one of our Christmas recordings in August. So, yeah, I guess you could say he is a fan."
Since the groundbreaking success of Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, the band has released five more Christmas albums, including the brand new CD Christmas Song, which the record industry predicts to be another blockbuster. Several of the carols on the new release were selected by long-time Mannheim Steamroller fans, who were invited to vote which carols should get the "Mannheim treatment". The album’s name, Christmas Song, is actually the correct title for the tune we all think of as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire." The album also features guest appearances by Johnny Mathis, Olivia Newton-John, and jazz legend Paul Winter.
In addition to group’s new Christmas release, Davis and Mannheim Steamroller are also releasing a new non-holiday album entitled: Music of the Spheres. Inspired by Davis’s deep interest in space exploration and his close alliance with NASA, Music of the Spheres will be the basis of the group’s new and extraordinary stage show, designed to simulate the experience of space travel for the audience. Proceeds from the album and subsequent two-year tour are designated to benefit the Space Foundation.
Davis is a man of wide ranging interests and talents. His love of nature, wildlife, and holidays of all types has spurred him to create a remarkably varied body of work: Davis has written, arranged and recorded over 35 albums, including eight in the "Fresh Aire" series; six Christmas albums; two releases specifically for Halloween, and many to celebrate special (and not so special) occasions. His current overwhelming passion is the exploration of how music mixed with his proprietary algorhythm "tricks" the mind. He calls this endeavor "Ambience Medical", and is currently working with several major medical centers to prove that his system can reduce pain and anxiety by mitigating a patient’s feeling of confinement.
With his musical empire now mature, Davis is now working on getting back to his artistic base. "I am starting to spend a lot more time being the creative artist again. I like the business aspect and I find it interesting, but my real desire is to work as an artist. I don't enjoy all the financial issues and the challenges that go with that. Now I have people who do most of that. From here on out, I can focus on my two great loves-- the music and my family."
~http://www.mannheimsteamroller.com/ « hide
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