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Fact Sheet
| Country | USA |
Mannheim Steamroller actually began as an alias for record producer/composer Chip Davis. Before the fame of Steamroller, Davis had been best known for creating the country music character "C.W. McCall" (of Convoy fame) for his partner Bill Fries. And even before Davis "made" McCall a star, he produced an unusual album of classical music performed entirely by Davis using electric bass and synthesizers. Since no major label would handle its distribution, Davis founded his own music label, American Gramaphone, to release the album on. The result, "Fresh Aire", was released under a pseudonym Davis himself created, Mannheim Steamroller, in the hopes of the album being a best seller.
Later, Davis collaborated with guitarist/composer Mason Williams for a remake of the 1960s instrumental Classical Gas (no alterations were made so as to be true to the original arrangement).
But it was beginning in 1984 that Steamroller found its greatest fame. Davis released his first holiday album, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, featuring modern contemporary interpretations of yuletide favorites. This was followed by A Fresh Aire Christmas (1988) and Christmas In The Aire (1995). Steamroller had now become one of the most requested Christmas music artists of all time.
By 1997, Davis had assembled a hand-picked group of musicians to go on tour to promote their Christmas albums, and thus Steamroller finally became a real band. By the end of the year, they had released a live album of Christmas music, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Live.
Steamroller had also developed a full-length theatrical motion picture based on their Christmas albums, but such plans fell through. Instead, the following year, they collaborated with Olivia Newton-John for yet another Christmas album, a mostly spoken-word recording called The Christmas Angel: A Family Story. Their latest Christmas album, Christmas Extraordinare, was released in 2001.
In addition to their Fresh Aire and Christmas collections, Steamroller has released an album of Disney music (1999's Mannheim Steamroller Meets The Mouse), and one celebrating our American heritage (2003's American Spirit, which reunited Chip Davis with C.W. McCall and featured a remake of Convoy).