Why is it called mannheim steamroller

During the holidays, it is hard to turn on a radio station or watch a Christmas-themed program on television without hearing the familiar synthesized sounds of Mannheim Steamroller. The story of the groundbreaking band is one of success that grew out of rejection from the music industry as a whole.

Here are five things you may not know about the group that we only tend to think about once a year. But it was beginning in that Steamroller found its greatest fame.

Davis released his first holiday album, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas, featuring modern contemporary interpretations of Yuletide favorites. Steamroller had now become one of the most requested Christmas music artists of all time. By the end of , 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 the plans fell through.

In they released a CD entitled Halloween. Their latest Christmas album, Christmas Celebration, was released in McCall and featured a remake of "Convoy" , and an album "Yellowstone" mixing prior Davis compositions and classical pieces by Ottorino Respighi. The current lineup of the band is: Chip Davis drums and percussion , Jackson Berkey keyboards , Almeda Berkey keyboards , Roxanne Layton percussion and woodwinds , Ron Cooley guitar and bass , Arnie Roth strings , and Chuck Pennington orchestra conductor.

The alias of composer Chip Davis, Mannheim Steamroller was among the pioneers of neo-classical electronic music, emerging as one of the driving forces behind the new age phenomenon. His grandmother was his first music teacher, giving the child his initial piano lessons at the age of four; two years later, Davis composed his first piece, a four-part chorale written in honor of his dog.

For their part, Mannheim Steamroller has observed additional holidays while also exploring inspirations spanning the music of Walt Disney films to the majesty of Yellowstone National Park. A two-year Yellowstone concert tour resulted in the highest individual contribution to the park by Davis. A committed naturalist, Davis and his American Gramaphone crew of top sound technicians have amassed a notable catalog of natural sounds, from the Tucson desert to the full sonic span of all four seasons in the Midwest.

The system contributes to faster healing by reducing stress, anxiety and other barriers to recovery via musical content and 4-channel surround sound algorithms. With co-worker Bill Fries, he created the enormously popular C. McCall character, later the figure behind the chart-topping hit "Convoy. He titled the resulting album Fresh Aire , and when no label would touch it, he founded his own company, American Gramaphone, in , creating a fictitious band named Mannheim Steamroller to better promote the project.

Davis initially marketed Fresh Aire to stereo show rooms, where his state-of-the-art sound proved ideal for demonstrating home stereo equipment; the LP became a smash hit among audiophiles, and a series of popular Fresh Aire sequels followed in the years to come. In , Davis issued Mannheim Steamroller Christmas , which shocked onlookers by selling over five million copies on the strength of a Top 40 Adult Contemporary rendition of "Deck the Halls. The environment informed 's Saving the Wildlife , the soundtrack to a PBS special, and was followed three years later by Yellowstone: The Music of Nature , which raised over half a million dollars for the National Parks Service.

Although in the early '90s Davis began recording under his own name for the first time, he continued to maintain the wildly successful Mannheim Steamroller name producing many more Christmas-themed albums, further Fresh Aire projects and even several Halloween-themed collections over the following two decades. With 19 gold records and many more platinum and multi-platinum certifications to his credit, Davis 's Manheim Steamroller along with U2, Jay-Z, and the Beach Boys is one of the most decorated artists in the entire recording industry.