The band’s name came from Mannheim, Germany where Mozart lived. Mannheim Steamroller is the name for an 18th century musical technique known as the crescendo.
Mannheim has sold over 41 million albums, outselling artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and Billy Joel, making them one of the top 50 best selling artists during the past two decades.
If you lined up all the CDs sold, they would stretch from New York to Los Angeles and then into the Pacific Ocean — more than 3000 miles. If you stacked up the CDs, they would be taller than the Willis Tower in Chicago — 645 times taller.
Chip formed the American Gramaphone record label in 1974 when no label would take on his music. Today, American Gramaphone is one of the most successful independent music franchises in history. The music industry told Chip, “Don’t do a Christmas album because that will signal the end of your career.” Mannheim Steamroller Christmas went on to sell five million copies after Chip produced it himself — and changed the sounds of Christmas music forever.
Mannheim Steamroller is the #1 Christmas music artist of all times, selling over 31+ million albums. The second highest Christmas artist is Elvis Presley with 17 million albums.
Mannheim Steamroller’s music styling, dubbed “18th Century Classical Rock”, is largely credited with establishing the genre of New Age music.
Since 1984, Mannheim Steamroller has traveled more than 40 million miles, hung more than 4 million square feet of video screen and booked more than 60,000 hotel rooms in eight time zones for its annual Christmas tour.
Chip has created two traveling troupes for the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Tour to meet continuing popular demand even as the tour approaches its 35th Anniversary this year.
