[ad_1]
Melanie Safka, the American singer-songwriter known as Melanie who had a global hit with Brand New Key, has died aged 76.
Her children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred announced her death on social media, describing her as “one of the most talented, strong and passionate women of the time and every word she wrote, every note she sang reflected that.” She has not been given any cause of death.
Born and raised in Queens, New York, Melanie made her way in the late 1960s after a stint in the folk clubs of New York’s Greenwich Village. In tune with the rise of singer-songwriters, her bright but raspy voice appealed to both pop and counterculture fans, and she signed to the Buddah label which released her debut album Born to Be in 1968. She first found success in Europe, With the album he reached the Top 10 in France and the Netherlands.
Along with Janis Joplin and Joan Baez, she was one of only three female soloists to perform at the Woodstock festival in 1969: “an incredibly terrifying day,” she later said. “I never even felt like a hippie, I didn’t like the term. In any case, I was the beat generation: the people of the Village expressed themselves in many ways, without being pigeonholed.”
She showed off her vocal range with the gospel-tinged single Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), a Top 10 hit in the United States (it was inspired by the sight of the Woodstock crowd lighting candles), and the accompanying 1970 album, Candles. in the Rain. gave it increased attention, peaking at number 5 in the UK. Her cover of the Rolling Stones’ Ruby Tuesday was also a hit in the United Kingdom that year, and she recorded a concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall for a successful live album.
But 1971 would be their biggest year yet, with the album Gather Me and its lead single Brand New Key. With its upbeat, upbeat beat, twinkling backdrop, and Melanie’s mellifluous nursery rhyme melodies, it had enormous cross-generational appeal, although her lyrics about skating seemed to be a metaphor for sexual experimentation. “I suppose a key and a lock have always been Freudian symbols,” she said, “and pretty obvious ones at that. There was no deep, serious expression behind the song, but people read things into it.” It reached No. 1 in the US, Canada and Australia and reached the Top 5 in the UK; A version with different farming-focused lyrics by comedy group The Wurzels, The Combine Harvester, reached number one in the UK in 1976.
Brand New Key would be his last big hit, although he returned to the UK Top 40 with his cover of the 60s pop standard Will You Love Me Tomorrow? in 1973. Melanie continued to release a steady stream of albums, reaching a total of 28, the most recent being Ever Since You Never Heard of Me, in 2010. She developed a cult following, including notable musicians such as Morrissey, who made a cover of his Gather Me. of her song Some Say (I Got Devil) and Jarvis Cocker, who performed it on stage in London in 2007.
In 1968 she married Peter Schekeryk, who was also the producer of all her major releases. They had three children together and their marriage lasted until her death in 2010.