Chuck Mangione, ‘Feels So Good’ musician and bandleader, dead at 84

Chuck Mangione, the Grammy-winning jazz bandleader and musician who scored an unlikely top-five hit in 1978 with the jazz instrumental “Feels So Good,” has died at age 84, according to a note on his official website.

Born in Rochester, New York, on Nov. 29, 1940, Mangione early on performed and recorded as the Mangione Brothers with his brother, keyboardist Gaspare “Gap” Mangione. After graduating from the prestigious Eastman School of Music in his hometown, he played trumpet with famed bandleader Art Blakey‘s Jazz Messengers, as well as with various other ensembles, including recording the album Friends & Love…A Chuck Mangione Concert with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970.

Mangione’s notoriety grew with subsequent recordings of his compositions, including the 1975 RIAA-certified Gold album Chase the Clouds Away, the title track from which was used in coverage of the 1976 Summer Olympics, and the Grammy-winning Bellavia in 1977.

But it was Mangione’s 1977 album Feels So Good and its pop radio title track hit that made him a household name. Featuring Mangione playing the flugelhorn and backed by his longtime quartet of guitarist Grant Geissman, bassist Charles Meeks, multi-instrumentalist Chris Vadala and James Bradley Jr. on percussion, the single reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, while the album peaked in the #2 position on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart – second only to the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever by the Bee Gees. Feels So Good ultimately was RIAA-certified double-Platinum for sales of more than 2 million units.

Mangione’s follow-up albums included the 1978 Gold-selling soundtrack to the Anthony Quinn film Children of Sanchez, the title track from which earned Mangione his second of two career Grammy Awards. His 1979 album Fun and Games, which also was certified Gold, featured the single “Give It All You Got,” which was used in ABC’s coverage of the 1980 Winter Olympics and scored two Grammy nominations; Mangione earned 13 lifetime Grammy nods, including his two wins.

Mangione recorded some 30 albums during his career, the last of which was the 2000 release Everything for Love. His general popularity waned following his 1970s heyday but he remained a pop culture touchstone well into the 2000s, sending up his image with a recurring voice role in the animated TV comedy King of the Hill, playing an exaggerated version of himself as he appeared on the cover of the Feels So Good album.

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