Song of the Day 7/25: Chuck Mangione, “Feels So Good”

Chuck Mangione gave credit for his biggest hit to the Bee Gees. “‘Saturday Night Fever’ had saturated radio,” he once told an interviewer. “I think the top six out of 10 hits were from that album. Radio programmers couldn’t figure out what to put on instead, and when somebody edited ‘Feels So Good’ from nine minutes down to three, they instantly started playing it as an alternative.” That’s a self-effacing way to talk about his best-known composition, the title track to an album that would have been No. 1 if not for those pesky brothers Gibb.

Mangione, who died at age 84 Tuesday, could have bragged about a lot more than the rare feat of turning a jazz instrumental into a Top 10 hit. A prodigy raised in a jazz-loving household in Rochester, N.Y., he recorded three albums with his pianist brother Gap before joining Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers in 1966 and going solo in 1970. He released 30 albums, won two Grammy Awards and had his music featured at two Olympic Games. He hit his commercial peak when “Feels So Good” reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 in 1978. Grant Geissman’s guitar solo is a highlight. This is the full album version.

Millennials wouldn’t know who Mangione was if he hadn’t been the enthusiastic subject of a running gag on Mike Judge’s animated series “King of the Hill.” He played himself as the celebrity spokesman for a fictional big-box store, and didn’t mind that being a mostly forgotten name was part of the joke. His decision to do it was entirely practical.

“Eight months before ‘King of the Hill’ was on television, I received the script from them, describing my role as the spokesman for ‘Megalo-mart … My character would do things like play ‘Taps’ and switch right into ‘Feels So Good.’ I figured that since they were playing my music and to such a large audience, why not? So I jumped into the studio in New York; they would call from L.A., and then I’d see a thing that looked like me on the television screen. Many people watch that show, so it is great exposure.”

Mangione’s character appeared throughout the 1997-2007 run of the show, and sharp-eared viewers could catch strains of “Feels So Good” as background music – on a radio, being played by a marching band – in various scenes over the years. This scene illustrates how Mangione leaned into the show’s absurdist humor.

Mangione paid homage to the show with a tune he titled “Peggy Hill” on his final LP, 2000’s “Everything for Love.”