Terry Manning was born in Oklahoma City, and started in music in El Paso, Texas. In high school Manning showed a talent for sports, and he ran track and was all-city quarterback on the football team. He attended Memphis State University, where he served as captain of the soccer team and played junior varsity basketball. Manning began working in the music industry while he lived in El Paso, where he played guitar and sang with several local bands, including sitting in with Bobby Fuller and leading The Wild Ones.
Music career
After moving to Memphis, Tennessee, Manning worked for years at both Stax Records and Ardent Studios as an engineer and producer, recording and mixing. He was a principal part of Stax owner Al Bell's production team for The Staple Singers, responsible for such hit records as "Heavy Makes You Happy," "Respect Yourself," and "I'll Take You There." In 1970, Manning licensed release of his own solo album, Home Sweet Home, on Stax's Enterprise label, re-released with extra tracks by Sunbeam in 2006. In the mid 1980s Manning moved to London, and worked for a year at EMI's Abbey Road Studios. In 1992, he moved to Nassau, Bahamas, to partner with Chris Blackwell in Compass Point Studios, which he operated for over twenty years. Manning's newest releases as a music artist are the ECR Music Group/Lucky Seven Records releases of his albums, West Texas Skyline: A Tribute To Bobby Fuller, released in October 2013, Heaven Knows, released in 2015, Planets, released in 2016, and his newest, Playin' in Elvis' House, released in 2019.
Photography career
Manning was interested and involved in photography almost as long as music. A close friend starting in the 1960s was William Eggleston, who served as a mentor, as well as introducing young Manning to other photographers such as William Christenberry, Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander. Although Manning's favorite work is his "evocative urban landscapes," he has also photographed Chuck Berry, Procol Harum, Steppenwolf, Terry Reid, Jimi Hendrix, Dusty Springfield, Lenny Kravitz, and many other musical artists of the rock music genre, as both an independent and as a writer/photographer for New Musical Express. He worked as a photojournalist for NME and was one of the last to photograph his acquaintance, Martin Luther King, Jr., on the day before the assassination. In August 2015, Manning's photography work began showing at art galleries in several cities. Two photography books were released Scientific Evidence Of Life On Earth During Two Millennia, and Cuba Despues Del Tiempo Especial, Antes De Los Americanos, and a number of photography books and new exhibits were planned.
Personal life
Manning regularly competes in marathons, including two entries in The New York Marathon. He achieved a ranking of 19th nationally in racquetball, and worked as a racquetball instructor for several years. He is an instrument-rated pilot, and has completed Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and History. In 1992 Manning moved to The Bahamas where he worked with Chris Blackwell and Compass Point Studios. In 2017 Manning married Janet Brunton and located back to El Paso, Texas. Manning has a stepson named Cory and three children named Lucas, Michael, and Yuri.
