Jazz musician Chuck Mangione, a two-time Grammy winner known for his ubiquitous ‘70s hit “Feels So Good,” has died. He was 84.
Mangione died at home in his sleep on Tuesday, July 22, a spokesperson for the star confirms to PEOPLE.
With more than 30 albums under his belt and 14 Grammy Award nominations, Mangione was a prolific musician who played the flugelhorn and trumpet. He also had a notable recurring role on the animated sitcom King of the Hill, where he played himself as a Mega Lo Mart celebrity spokesperson.
Mangione was born and raised in Rochester, N.Y., and grew up listening to his father’s jazz records alongside his brother Gap. On the weekends, the family would head into the city to listen to stars like Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan.
"Feels So Good" was released as a single in early 1978, which reached number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in June of that year[4] after spending a week atop the Billboard easy listening chart in May.[5] The recording was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Record of the Year at the ceremony held in 1979, losing out to Billy Joel's "Just the Way You Are".
_________________ "Every day a little sadder, A little madder, Someone get me a ladder."
ELP
“You can't have everything. Where would you put it?”—Steven Wright
I wasn’t feeling well (still battling something), but I am feeling better today. I was saddened to learn yesterday that Chuck Mangione had passed. Eighty-four years is a good run, though. I didn’t post a comment on Facebook, just one briefly noting that Hulk Hogan had also died.
Born completely deaf in one ear, I struggled as a child to hear, understand, and pronounce words. Kindergarten and first grade were often nightmarish, marked by mocking ridicule before I learned to focus on conversations, always positioning myself on the left side of others. I became analytical, listening more than talking, silently predicting the most likely words to come next so that I could actually hear them.
I never learned sign language because no one in Waterville used it, as far as I knew. While I didn’t become a skilled lip-reader, I studied facial movements to anticipate what might be said if I missed it. My intense observation of faces unnerved some. Being one of the youngest in my class didn’t help my social skills either.
What does this have to do with Chuck Mangione?
Until the Music Television era, I couldn’t watch singers’ lips for cues. Without those inviting visuals, I shied away from music—unlike my friends who often raved about chart-topping hits. That began to change in 1977, while shopping for Christmas at Waseca’s Ben Franklin. I stumbled upon Chuck’s album, Feels So Good. The word “Instrumental” caught my eye. At 14, working after school and weekends at the Red Owl grocery store, I had a little money. I bought the LP as a gift to myself. With Chuck’s flugelhorn, I could close my eyes and just listen—no lyrics to mishear, just pure, melodic sound.
Mangione’s music was my gateway to a broader musical world (but mine is still pretty selective). His theatrical, horn-driven style, discovered through Feels So Good, resonated with my love for 1970s British comedies on PBS and sparked a passion for melodic, narrative-driven music. It led me to explore new wave, ska, and prog-folk, genres and artists I might never have embraced otherwise.
Through Columbia House and BMG Music clubs, I discovered Jethro Tull’s storytelling in Aqualung. Much later, I bought new releases like Chris de Burgh’s musical adaptation of the novel, "Moonfleet." MTV’s visuals introduced me to Madness’s brassy ska in "One Step Beyond," Eurythmics’ synth-heavy Sweet Dreams, and ABC’s big band energy in The Lexicon of Love. Emotive female voices—Annie Lennox’s depth, Cyndi Lauper’s vibrato, Enya’s calm, and Dolores O’Riordan’s lilt with The Cranberries—cut through my one-sided deafness with clarity. Horns and flutes, from Rindy Ross’s saxophone in Quarterflash’s "Harden My Heart" to Ian Anderson’s flair in Jethro Tull, echoed Mangione’s influence, tying my eventual tastes to his instrumental spark.
Anchored in the 1970s and 1980s, my musical world grew from Mangione’s flugelhorn to a blend of nostalgic, synth- and horn-fueled sounds, shaped by MTV and my sensory experience. My college roommates loved DEVO, Kansas, and Prince, but I often misheard their lyrics and preferred my own substitutions—a quirk I owe to navigating dialogue and sheer arrogance.
Chuck’s work taught me to trust the melody when words failed, a lesson that shaped my connection to every artist and person I came to love. Rest easy, Mr. Mangione, and thank you. Your music was in the right place at the right time, opening my ear—and my prefrontal cortex—to a world of sound. I may not have a left ear that works, but you helped open up the language-based creativity of my left hemisphere.
I love "Feels So Good," but might love his "Give It All You Got" a little more. I had it on a vinyl 45 that I played over and over on my portable record player when it came out.
Rest in peace, Chuck. (And thanks, IMWAN Man, for sharing your tribute to the man.)
I love "Feels So Good," but might love his "Give It All You Got" a little more. I had it on a vinyl 45 that I played over and over on my portable record player when it came out.
Rest in peace, Chuck. (And thanks, IMWAN Man, for sharing your tribute to the man.)
Thanks, I don't venture often in ICE territory because my musical tastes were shaped by specific circumstances early on, and I have no great understanding of music or when one artist is better at his craft than another at hers. I just know that I like brass, and more classical or big band music, and lyrics that I "hear" right, and hopefully the first time. The lyrics obviously don't have to be simple, and preferably not.
But my musical tastes never broadened after the early 1980s. I followed only the artists that I already liked and (heh, put up) with their changes in musical and lyric direction (more the former than the later). Occasionally I may hear someone new that I think I like, but they have almost no chance of me signing on.
Is there a general-purpose ICE thread where ICErs discuss mostly lyrics? I could trying browsing those. I like lyrics far more the instruments (which I shouldn't admit in Chunk's thread. I never even converted from I had of his to CD). I looked yesterday, and his early material on CD isn't cheap, even used. I'll check again in a week or two to see if people just jacked up the price on the opportunity. Obviously I was drawn to buy out of respect and nostalgia. Others would be looking as well.
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