Songoftheday 6/26/12 - She's so very nice, you should break the ice....

Melissa Manchester - "You Should Hear How She Talks About You"

from the album Hey Ricky (1982)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #5 (three weeks)

Weeks in the top-40: 15

Today's Song of the Day is by singer/songwriter Melissa Manchester, who after studying under Paul Simon, was discovered by Bette Midler and Barry Manilow. She joined Midler's backup singers, the Harlettes for a year, and she released her first album in 1973. But it was 1975 that she broke through with the top-10 ballad "Midnight Blue". A few years later, her talents as a songwriter gave fruit as "Whenever You Call Me Friend" was a top-10 hit for Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks. In 1979, the Celine-ish epic "Don't Cry Out Loud" went to the top tier as well.

"You Should Hear How She Talks About You" was written by Dean Pitchford and Tom Snow, who would later go on to write the #1 hit "Let's Hear It For The Boy" for Deniece Williams from the movie Footloose. The first person to record it was Charlie Dore as an album cut on the LP that followed her top-20 hit "Pilot Of The Airwaves"...

In 1982 Melissa released her Hey Ricky album, and her version of the song was released as the first single, became her highest-charting single, making the top-5 for three weeks...

"You Should..." also made the top-10 on the adult-contemporary (soft-rock) chart in the US, and earned Manchester a Grammy Award for best Female Pop Performance. It would be the last time she would be in the top-40, however she would have a half-dozen more top-40 hits on the soft-rock list, including her top-10 version of the Bacharach/David classic "Walk On By". She's also acted, appearing on daytime soaps Search For Tomorrow and General Hospital.

But "You Should..." remains one of my favorite songs of that year, new-wave-ish but still really peppy, and so corny.

Up tomorrow: Trying on some romance with a Pennsylvania jingle writer...