Manchester played the Manhattan club scene, where Barry Manilow, a friend and fellow singer of jingles, introduced her to Bette Midler.

[4] Manchester made a brief speaking appearance as "Yoko Ono" on the 1972 album National Lampoon Radio Dinner, on the track titled "Magical Misery Tour", and as the singer in "Deteriorata".

Two years later, her album Melissa produced her first top-ten hit, "Midnight Blue", which enjoyed 17 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

[6] In 1974, she performed the songs "O Heaven" and "Home to Myself" on the pilot episode of Ms. magazine's television show, Woman Alive!, a feminist program.

It has since been covered by several other artists including Captain & Tennille, Rosemary Clooney, Vic Damone, Eydie Gorme, Shirley Horn, Cleo Laine, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Jane Olivor, Liza Minnelli, Barbara Cook, Mel Torme, and Diana Ross.

[2] Manchester appeared with Richie Havens, Melanie, and Frankie Valli as a contributor and performer in the 1977 NBC special documentary How the Beatles Changed the World.

In 1979, Manchester reached #10 with her version of Peter Allen's "Don't Cry Out Loud", for which she received a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance.

In 1982, she released the smash "You Should Hear How She Talks About You", which won the 1983 Grammy for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance,[4] beating out Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton-John, Juice Newton, and Laura Branigan.

In 1992 she sang the title song for the animated musical Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, written by the Sherman Brothers and accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Manchester alternated recording with acting, appearing with Bette Midler in the film For the Boys, on the television series Blossom,[4] and co-writing (with bookwriter-lyricist Jeffrey Sweet) and starring in the musical I Sent a Letter to My Love based on the Bernice Rubens novel of the same name.

In 1990, Manchester could be heard performing "I Wish I Knew", played over the opening credits of the CBS television drama The Trials of Rosie O'Neill.

Manchester made a non-speaking cameo appearance as the pianist who accompanies the lead character's rendition of "Don't Cry Out Loud".

[27] A second single, "Big Light", featuring a duet with Al Jarreau, along with an accompanying music video, was released for radio on June 15, 2015.

This was Manchester's second independently produced studio album, which featured accompaniment by the Blue Note Orchestra from Citrus College in Glendora, CA, where she is artist-in-residence.

[citation needed] During the pandemic of 2020, Manchester kept busy working on her 24th album, RE:VIEW, a re-envisioned and reworked compilation of several of her previous hits.

[35] Live albums 1998: I Sent a Letter to My Love, a musical recorded by L.A. Theatre Works Manchester appeared on the Blossom television series as Maddy Russo, from 1993 to 1995.