Also Lost This Week: Jazz Legend Chuck Mangione, Dead at 84 🎺

Published July 25, 2025

Another musical icon has taken his final bow. Chuck Mangione, the Grammy-winning jazz musician best known for his smooth-as-silk flugelhorn and the timeless instrumental hit “Feels So Good,” has passed away at the age of 84.

His family confirmed the news through a press release via a funeral home in Rochester, New York, where Chuck was born and lived most of his life. He reportedly passed away peacefully in his sleep at home on Tuesday.

A Jazz Star with a Pop Culture Twist

Mangione might’ve been a jazz guy through and through, but he had one foot in the mainstream the whole time.

His 1978 instrumental hit “Feels So Good” was a rare jazz track that crossed into full-on pop territory, climbing to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and staying on the charts for 25 weeks. The full version runs nearly 10 minutes long, but even just a few seconds of that catchy flugelhorn melody is enough to transport you back in time — or at least make you feel like you’re in a movie montage.

He won two Grammys over his six-decade career, and while his music earned him respect in the jazz world, it was his quirky pop culture cameos that earned him a new generation of fans.

Yup, That Was Him on King of the Hill

If you’re thinking, “Wait... wasn’t that guy on ‘King of the Hill’?” — you’re absolutely right. Mangione had a long-running gag as himself on the animated series, often seen popping up in Arlen, Texas, toting his horn and mumbling something about how “it feels so good.” He was basically the jazz version of Where’s Waldo.