Manhattan Transfer

In middle school our choir director choreographed an entire number based on Twilight Zone/Tone. No singing just a slew of uncoordinated tweens running around to the Manhattan Transfer track. It was a blast!

In the 70s I heard their covers of songs and they were ok from that aspect but I grew to love them when I heard what they really were — an exquisite vocal ensemble. Alan indeed was sex on a stick first noted in the original cast of Grease. Ilene Kristen won’t say much but her eyes light up when you mention his name.

They had a summer replacement show around 1975 right before the Cher show reboot. It was fabulous.

They were great. I saw them live in SF at a small nightclub in the 70s .

The 1989 Grammy for Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals went to the album [italic]Brasil[/italic].

The pervasive nostalgia for the sophisticated, glamorous NYC of the 20s and 30s that was so omnipresent in the late 1970s was something they really embodied.

I liked this song from the early 90s a lot. Lost track of them after this album.

I remember them but never cared for their music.

Here's an infectious, live 'Boy from New York City.' Even grandpa ( the late Tim Hauser) has got the moves, baby!

I liked them so much as a teenager. Alan Paul was dreamy.

Birdland:

That was amazing, R11.

And thank you, OP. I was an odd kid and I loved Manhattan Transfer from junior high through to the mid 1990s.

I do have to confess, I cheated on them during grad school with New York Voices

Werent they part of that Mary Tyler Moore musical abortion?

they came to my campus ,Western Washington Universtiy in 1980. I went, of course ,and loved them

The slickest of music videos.

I never cared for them, but my dad loved them. To me they're a throwback to Lambert, Hendricks and Ross(later Bavan). Anyone else think so?

Mary's Incredible Dream

I guess they're an acquired taste...

I remember liking them, but I was too young to know why. I think it was the old timey look and the weekly exposure via the tv show. I haven’t been interested enough to revisit their sound before now though.

One of my fondest memories is going to see George Carlin at Red Rocks the summer after high school graduation. We weren't going for Carlin, but for his opening act...Manhattan Transfer.

They could be great. But they were nothing without the great Gloria Huddle.

I know I've told this on here before...probably on the "Dialing the Phone with a Pencil" thread 100 years ago, but I had a dance routine when I was a kid that started with "Trickle Trickle." My mother had the Extensions album, and I thought the cover was the classiest, coolest thing I had ever seen. Yes, there was a hat and an umbrella involved. I don't think I ever performed it for anyone but the mirror in the basement, but it was quite a production number. Listening to it again has made me very melancholy.

The second number in my show was a dance rendition of Olivia Newton John's totally not a classic "Queen of the Publication," which involved a desk, typewriter and a stack of paper I would throw during the dramatic conclusion.

There was more, but thankfully, I have forgotten it all. So glad YouTube didn't exist when I was a kid.

[quote]So glad YouTube didn't exist when I was a kid.

Oh, baby. You don't know the half of that very true statement.

It's gonna take a Miracle

Manhattan Transfer featuring Bette Midler

I liked them and had their first few albums when I was young .

And I found Alan Paul sexy as well.

It all seemed like an elaborate affection.

R21, What the ACTUAL fuck is that? lol

That is the magic of Gloria Huddle, R27. Once seen, never forgotten.

R22, I love you. If I could have joined your show, I would have done my interpretive dance of Cher’s Train of Thought, with a dramatic flourish at the end when she sings “and I turned the gun around!”

Their "Boy from New York City" was the first 45 I ever bought.

Janis Siegel’s version was my introduction to this gay classic.

I first heard them on their summer replacement show. Then I saw them twice in concert. Can’t remember the first time but the second time, I happened to be visiting London and they were touring so I got to see them again. Loved them.

Miss Massé...

Their Jay Graydon produced albums were amazing.