Rest In Power To The King of The Flugelhorn, Chuck Mangione. (Bonus - The Best Songs Featuring Horn, Sax, and Brass Instruments Ever Debate)

Variety - Jazz musician Chuck Mangione, who had one of the biggest pop-jazz instrumental crossover hits of all time with “Feels So Good” in the 1970s, died Tuesday at age 84.

The death was reported by multiple news outlets out of his native Rochester, NY. The city’s WROC-TV reported that the Bartolomeo & Perreto Funeral Home said the musician died in his sleep at home on Tuesday.

The flugelhorn and trumpet player won two Grammys, out of 14 nominations, in a career that spanned 30 albums. Beyond his musical success, the musician was also familiar to millions for his recurring role playing himself on the animated series “King of the Hill.”

Though you may not be familiar with the name Chuck Mangione, you better believe you're familiar with his hit song "Feels So Good". 

A ubiquitous hit in 1978, “Feels So Good” reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammys.

Mangione felt the success of the tune was partly due to counterprogramming. “I think ‘Feels So Good’ was such a hit because of the Bee Gees,” he said in an interview with the Celebrity Cafe. “‘Saturday Night Fever’ had saturated radio; I think the top 6 out of l0 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 to what were the current top songs.”

We did it, folks. We killed jazz. Chuck Mangione, the man who managed to make the flugelhorn sound sexy, has played his final note. 

He died peacefully in his sleep at 84. Which, for a jazz legend like Chuck is basically like living to 200 in regular human years. God couldn’t even keep up with Chuck’s groove. 

"Feels So Good" isn’t just a song, it’s a national treasure. Don’t believe me? Go ask any dentist office in America. They'll tell you.

That song has kept more people calm than Xanax. 

It charted at No. 4 in 1978, a year when the Bee Gees were holding radio hostage and polyester was giving America a collective yeast infection. DJs, desperate for something that didn’t sound like three Aussie brothers cooing about the night, grabbed Mangione’s nine-minute jazz odyssey, lopped off six minutes, and accidentally invented the concept of “music for people who want to feel like they’re gliding through clouds of pure optimism.”

Chuck once said he wished he’d written the song in a different key, because the high D was a bastard to play. That’s humility you can’t buy anymore. Every hack in pop music today writes three-note melodies and has the balls to call it “art,” while Chuck was up there cracking his knuckles and melting faces with a brass instrument most people can’t even pronounce.

He noted, “I do not mind having written the song at all. I just wish that I had written it in a different key, as the high D is hard to play. I am glad that I wrote something that brought joy to millions of people.”

You want accolades and hardware tough guy? Try two Grammys, 14 nominations, 30 albums, and a theme song for the 1980 Winter Olympics.

But Chuck didn’t just dominate the airwaves, and every bedroom sex soundtrack of the 80s. He did what every jazz musician dreams of- he became a cartoon character. King of the Hill turned him into the smooth-talking, hat-wearing, Mega Lo Mart pitchman America never knew it needed.

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Not for nothing, but it appears the guy was also a lady-killer.

Ron Galella. Getty Images.

The best thing I read about Magione to help write this is that he never stopped giving back. In his later years, he returned to his hometown in Rochester, NY, to the Eastman School of Music as a teacher, mentoring the next generation, proving that you can be a genius and not a jerk (again, a lost art in modern music). The guy played for Olympic athletes, cartoon hillbillies, and middle-aged men who just want to feel something during their lunch break.

So RIP Chuck Mangione, aka The Man Who Made America “Feel So Good” we never got over it. You will be missed.

p.s. - I’ve been sitting on this for years, but I need to write a long overdue blog about all the best songs ever that feature saxophone or horn solos. Seriously overdue. 

Go through the history of music and you’ll find a criminally underrated trend- some of the greatest songs of all time, and I mean, of all time, period, are defined by some face-melting, soul-crushing, time-stopping horn solos.

It’s a lost art. We used to have entire generations that waited for that three-minute sax or trumpet interlude to hit them right in the feels. Today you’re lucky if you get more than three notes of AutoTuned dogshit on the radio. It’s honestly time for a comeback, and I want everybody's help.

Send me your picks, your deep cuts, your “you have to hear this one, trust me” gems. 

I want the stuff that makes you stop whatever you’re doing, close your eyes, and air-solo along like a maniac. 

Think “Baker Street,” 

“Careless Whisper,” 

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anything by Springsteen’s E Street Band, or hell, even the horn break in “Sir Duke.” 

Let’s put together the ultimate horn-section playlist and give the people what they really want- goosebumps, nostalgia, and a reminder that music used to be made by people, not by robots with laptops.

Drop your favorites in the comments, DM me, or just start blasting them outside my house. This is Chuck Mangione’s world, and we’re just living in it.