Mannheim Steamroller released the seventh album in their Fresh Aire series, Fresh Aire 7, in November 1990. It reached #77 on the Billboard album charts but on February 25, 1992, Chip Davis brought home the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.
Louis "Chip" Davis, Jr., born September 5, 1947 in Hamler, Ohio, is the founder of the new age group Mannheim Steamroller. He studied music at the University of Michigan and worked with an ad agency in Omaha, Nebraska where he co-invented the fictional character C. W. McCall. Remember Convoy?
Davis founded Mannheim Steamroller in 1974 to concentrate on fusing modern music and classical music techniques. He released Fresh Aire in 1975. In 1984, he released Mannheim Steamroller Christmas and changed the face of holiday music forever.
I was introduced to Mannheim Steamroller at a Kappa Kappa Psi keg party, where Mere Image from Fresh Aire III was playing. Fraternity bro Tammy Stewart told me about the group and so I went looking for their albums. I couldn't find Fresh Aire III so I bought Fresh Aire IV which featured one of my favorite songs of all time, Dancing Flames.
Convoy, by C. W. McCall (Bill Fries and Chip Davis [of Mannheim Steamroller fame]), about a trucker who goes on a nation-wide rampage, reached #1 on both the country and pop charts January 10, 1976.
Convoy was made popular because of the trucking/CB mania that America was enjoying during the mid-70s. It's this kind of fun that made the 1970's one of the best decades. The website history.com introduces its article on the song that claims it celebrates the "exploits of a rebellious trucker with a reckless disregard for human life and highway safety codes".
Judgmental much? Name a current tune that has this much excitement without bad language and/or sex.
Although it was a flash-in-the-pan, it inspired Sam Peckinpah's movie Convoy. Rolling Stone magazine listed the song as 98th among the 100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time.
Mannheim Steamroller released Fresh Aire 8, the final album in their Fresh Aire series, August 22, 2000. Chip Davis composed all the songs, which are based on the topic of infinity.
Here is the video for "Leonardo (The Infinite Thinker)":
