Booking Mannheim Steamroller

Mannheim Steamroller Biography

Over the years, Mannheim Steamroller has become famous for its New Age-style recordings of Christmas music. Founded by Chip Davis, Mannheim Steamroller burst onto the music scene in 1984 with their contemporary rendition of “Deck the Halls,” a chart-topping hit which sold five million copies. From there, Mannheim Steamroller has gone on to enjoy enduring success and popularity.

Chip Davis, the group’s founder, was born in Ohio to a musical family. His mother was a trombonist and his father was a high school music educator, and it was Chip’s grandmother who gave him his first piano lessons at the age of four. Davis went on to join the boys’ choir and to later attend the University of Michigan. He joined the Norman Luboff Choir after graduating in 1969, but after a few years working with them, he opted instead to teach music in public schools. Following his teaching job, he served as arranger for a Nebraska production of Hair, and then after that opted for a job writing jingles for ads.

Around the same time, Davis began recording synthesized rock versions of some classical and traditional pieces, and eventually created what would become his debut album, Fresh Aire. In 1974, he founded American Gramaphone to release the album, and simultaneously created Mannheim Steamroller to give it greater credibility.

Mannheim Steamroller’s Fresh Aire was largely promoted and marketed alongside stores selling state-of-the-art home stereos and sounds, and inadvertently the album became a huge hit. A series of Fresh Aires followed, until 1984, when Mannheim Steamroller Christmas was released, with its iconic version of “Deck the Halls.” ?A Fresh Aire Christmas followed four years later to equal success.

Since that time, Mannheim Steamroller has released the additional albums: A Saving the Wildlife (1986), Yellowstone: The Music of Nature (1989), Christmas in the Aire (1995), Christmas Live (1997), and Christmas Angel: A Family Story (1998), American Spirit (2003), Tis the Season (2012), Christmas Symphony II (2013), 30/40 (2014), and two live and compilation albums in 2015.

In recent years, Mannheim Steamroller has appeared as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade performances, delighting audiences with their hit version of “Deck the Halls.” Thus far, Mannheim Steamroller has gone on to sell more than twenty-eight million albums in the United States, and continues to delight fans each season with broadcasts, performances, and new material.