Davis of Mannheim Steamroller Makes the Most of Holidays

More than 8,000 people packed Anaheim’s Arrowhead Pond two weeks ago to see the self-proclaimed No. 1 Christmas artist of the decade. From children to senior citizens, the throng was led into the arena by costumed snowmen and gingerbread men. By the second half of the show, artificial snow fell from the rafters. For this wasn’t just another pop concert--it was a Mannheim Steamroller extravaganza.

Named after an obscure 18th century orchestra and led by a scruffy 51-year-old who looks more like a computer nerd than a rock star, Mannheim Steamroller is an unlikely pop sensation. Chip Davis’ holiday-themed albums have become a yearly soundtrack for office parties and family gatherings, and he’s now branching out into books, skating tours and television production.

The music isn’t everyone’s cup of tea--it’s sort of New Age meets Classical Lite, mixing synthesizer sounds and orchestral arrangements. But it’s been popular enough to sell 18 million Christmas albums and make Davis a millionaire.

Unlike most artists, Davis owns his entire operation--from the recording studio to the record label. He owns his own publishing rights and also keeps the profit that the record label would normally take after an artist gets his $1 or so royalty per album. It’s allowed him to control his own destiny, and live where he wants--in Omaha. E! Entertainment Television once called him New Age music’s answer to Bill Gates.

The jovial drummer-songwriter says he learned about business and marketing out of necessity. “When I started touring as Mannheim, everybody went, ‘Who?’ ” recalled Davis. “So I had to learn how to rent theaters and promote concerts myself.” He admits he confused legendary San Francisco concert promoter Bill Graham with evangelist Billy Graham when he first started preparations for touring.

Davis was more steeped in the music business than most people. His father was a high school music teacher in Ohio, his mother a former trombone player with Phil Spitalny’s All Girl Orchestra. By the early 1970s after stints as a touring musician and a junior high school music teacher, Davis decided to try turning his songwriting hobby into a career, initially as a jingle writer for an Omaha ad agency.

He ended up hitting pay dirt with a series of local TV and radio commercials for Old Home Bread. The commercials’ main character was C.W. McCall, who become so popular he went on to record albums. In 1975, McCall’s second album produced the novelty hit “Convoy,” a trucker’s song, written by Davis. The single sold millions, spawning a movie and seven other McCall albums.

Meanwhile, Davis had been laying the groundwork for his own venture. In addition to jingle writing, he became the music director of an Omaha recording studio, taking some of his pay in free studio time.

The resulting album was “Fresh Aire,” the first Mannheim Steamroller record. It combined classical composition and instruments with rock rhythms and synthesizers. Davis shopped it to the major record companies.

“They said, ‘We like the music, but we can’t sell it because it doesn’t fit any category,’ ” Davis recalled. Undeterred, Davis partnered with the owner of the recording studio to found his own label. (Davis bought out his partner 10 years later.) He named it American Gramaphone, a play on the venerable German classical label Deutsche Grammophon. The misspelling of gramophone was unintentional, a mistake made by the art director on the album cover. It stayed.

Lacking traditional distribution, Davis made a tiny pressing of a few hundred albums and distributed them to stereo showrooms as demonstration recordings. Requests started pouring in, quickly leading to orders for 20,000 more. That’s small by rock standards, but a big hit for albums in the lesser-selling genres of classical and jazz.

Davis had no problem finding distribution for his following albums, sequels “Fresh Aire II,” and “Fresh Aire III.” Attractively packaged and premium-priced, the albums took on a cachet among audiophiles and college students.

“The first few Fresh Aire albums were higher-priced [than other albums], but they sold a ton to the college crowd,” said Marc Geiger, co-chief executive of Encino-based music management firm Artist Direct, who then owned a small record store near UC San Diego. “He built value in terms of really creating a different product, and packaging it uniquely.”

Today, Geiger helps other artists such as the Backstreet Boys emulate Davis’ marketing success. Geiger said, “People talk about Ani DiFranco [a young artist who founded her own label], but Chip and the Grateful Dead were way out in front with running their own businesses and marketing themselves.”

As a marketer, Davis has started to extend his Mannheim Steamroller “brand.” Of course, he has his own Web site (https://www.amgram.com). His American Gramaphone mail-order catalog now peddles everything from collectible water globes signed by Davis ($75) to wassail mulling spices ($20), in addition to the entire American Gramaphone recording catalog (CDs are priced from $10 to $17). He’s published a children’s pop-up book, “My Little Christmas Tree” ($30), which comes with its own Mannheim Steamroller CD. And on Saturday, Davis will debut Mannheim Steamroller’s first TV skating special on NBC.

The TV show is based on Davis’ latest CD, “The Christmas Angel.” Narrated by Davis and Olivia Newton-John, the CD has been on the Billboard Top 100 album chart for several weeks, reaching No. 27 this week. The album is also supported by a 13-city skating tour, featuring recorded music from Mannheim Steamroller--letting Davis, in effect, do two tours at the same time.

Davis bought the hour of TV time from NBC and says his own company quickly sold out all the ad inventory.

Davis says he’s not worried about interlopers such as the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, a group that has scored big recently with its own New Age albums. “They’re the first group that’s really tried to copy me,” Davis said. “But the Mannheim name has been around a long time. We have a real reputation built up.

“Besides,” he added, “nobody can arrange like I do.”

But he is concerned about being pigeonholed as only a Christmas artist. One step in this direction will come in March, when Davis releases an album of Streamrolleresque Disney tunes titled “Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse.” He’s also working on an “armchair travel” series he hopes to release on digital videodisc, tentatively called “The Seven Natural Wonders of the World.”

And in Nebraska, Davis has just broken ground on a 200-acre performing arts park. A children’s music camp is also planned at the site, to encourage music education.