Melanie: Singer of "Brand New Key"

She could be wry and wistful all at once.

From the youtube comments for Any Guy:

I was middle-school aged (male) when Melanie was at her late 1960's peak, and quickly decided that listening to her music was, maybe, toxic for my soul. Playful, warm, and intensely feminine (and very very cute), she stole my heart. So completely insightful and honest with her own emotions, she made me feel totally shallow and immature and unworthy. She made relationships seem complicated and hurtful but she never lost her willingness to enter the next one. She seemed to know how to play a male heart like she played her acoustic guitar. She could wail like a kitten so that I would move heaven and earth to want to comfort her. She teased and flirted and sometimes acted irresistibly silly, and then would reveal a heart that believed and hoped in the absolute best for all humanity. She drove me crazy. There was no musician like Melanie Safka.

Any Guy.

Steppin'.

A shell of casual indifference and layers of hurt underneath - before she realizes that the true tragedy is that she that she really doesn't need him.

Ils ont changé ma chanson, Ma Ils ont changé ma chanson, Ma

I always thought she was a caterwauling cunt of the hippie persuasion.

lay it down was great

"Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" really captures the spirit of protest and activism for me, from the anti-war era up until the beginnings of the AIDS crisis. I'll always love Melanie.

Her whole "Gather Me" album is very enjoyable, especially the fun and spiritual "Ring the Living Bell".

I'm Back in Town.

The joke's on Melanie. Funny and sad.

"I guess I was wrong, so I'll be goin' home..."

Reply 7 thats what i thought. wish i would have been a teenager in the 60s

Dylan's Mr. Tambourine Man.

She finds melancholy at its heart.

Some Say(I Got Devil) was wonderful.

I saw her in concert in a small venue about '82. She was great.

Ari Shapiro just admitted to a love of Melanie this past Sunday on All Songs Considered. Ari is a little more feminine in person than when he's delivering the news, which is not a bad thing, in my head.

Cover of Cheryl Wheeler's Arrow.

More Melanie melancholy.

Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields got her to record on his 6ths album. He taps into the often overlooked sadness of her voice.

He also adds a touch of insanity with the toy piano.

and though I feel like I got no skin /

I got New York and the winter wind

Love. Her.

So she finally earned enough in royalties to be able to afford a last name?

Acoustic cover of Elton John's eighties hit I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues.

No. She sang off-key. Some things are best left in the past, OP.

Here I Am.

Composed after her mother's death and dedicated to her.

Lost and adrift.

Millennial here, bump cuz I just discovered her. I'm intrigued by her bone-dry, spooky, stray-cat voice - it's got a chatty, brassy, exhausted quality that gives it depth despite the twee instrumentation. It would have been cool to hear her sing in the 60s and 70s rock scene (like for another Heart or Fleetwood). As it is she just seems like the younger, more chill little sister of Janis.

Also, it's hard to find a bio on her. Any elder know what she was like, personality-wise? Or what her creative process/relationship with her work was? Was she private or what? Uber-fans cite her 'sweet' and 'funny' but that's not much to go on.

Saw her first show St. Patrick's Day 1972 at Westbury Music Fair.

Wow her mr. tambourine man is gorgeous. I never would have thought..

Love her cover if Ruby Tuesday

Thanks for posting this, OP. I've been wanting to post a link to this version of "Lay Down" for a while.

First of all, it's a great song. Secondly it's like finding a time capsule. The audience looks really weird with their grey hair and cat eye glasses. Secondly the black backup singers have the cheapest wigs I've ever seen. I couldn't help but wonder what their lives were like.

Melanie is a libertarian according to her wiki page.

True hippies didn't wear false eyelashes.

I love her. Always have. Always will.

Best concert I ever experienced, spoiled me so I could never again go sit in an audience with some pea-head singer 500 miles away or up on a monitor. 2006 or so in Austin, TX at a coffeeshop on the UT campus, tickets $25 but only 50 people or so could fit. Like listening to her in one's living room -- AND we had her to ourselves afterwards to sign albums, etc. It was bliss. And she was a sweetheart. AND sounded great.

I worked in Europe and go exposed to her later work too, fortunately. A lot of it is really great. Find her rendition of Cheryl Wheeler's "Arrow" for starters. "Window Pain" too. That whole CD with the purple cover, think it's "Freedom Knows My Name".

(Sorry, R14 beat me to "Arrow". Glad it's there. Love this whole thread actually. THANK YOU to whoever posted her cover of "That's Why They Call It the Blues" above. Had no heard it and it sounds great).

R2 That's what Bernadette Peters would sound like if she did pop. And couldn't sing.

You have a way with words, R21.

And Melanie's wonderful and got screwed over by the suits for her royalties. That would make anyone a libertarian.

I'm sure most people on here know this already but Melanie hates (or maybe just hated) "Brand New Key". Hijacked her career from cool Woodstock hippie chick to cutesy girl singer. She says that she resented it so much, she would sing a truncated version in concert or skip it altogether. Maybe she eventually came to terms with it. Wonder how much she gets for it from movies like "Boogie Nights"?

My favorite

A million Melanies were named after her. Like all the Michelles from the Beatles song. And a bazillion "Dawns" after the Four Seasons song.

I'm surprised "Cher" was never a big name. There were some, but not many.

I only just discovered today she's now a scientologist....goodbye Melanie, I loved you so

No! [R36] NYET! Jamais de la vie!

Yes she is..there is still Mia Farrow..

Classic performance.

The New Seekers had hits with 2 of her songs, "Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma" (a favorite) and "The Nickel Song).

An alternate, more acoustic version of "Lay Down"

Melanie back in the day.

She said she resented that people thought that she sang songs to cows in meadows - but what's wrong with that?!

Melanie today. She's 71.

R42 Calling all cows - Melanie is ready to sing. And they're a great audience!

Hey Mom, can we go hear Melanie sing this afternoon?

I'm not crying, R39, YOU'RE crying.

What did you guys think of the audience and background singers in r39? Totally a different era.

I loved her the most.

She's still cute today! But the Stevie Nicks hair doesn't work. She needs to dye it back to its regular brown.

Her "Ring my Bell" is cray cray. In a good way.

And no, not Ring the Living Bell but the disco hit.

Really? I need to track that down.

I once had her on a 60s mix tape playing in a car full of people and, near the end of "Beautiful People", they all started screaming at me to turn her off. I guess she is an acquired taste, a taste I am glad I got to experience like Leonard Cohen or Joni or any of the other non-traditional singers I love.

I spent around 30 minutes online trying to find proof absolute that she's a $cientologist. Nothing. Except that she stayed at their hotel in San Fran or someplace and you have to be a party member to do that. It's weird I couldn't find anything to prove or disprove that she belongs to the church.

She should do a video where she sings to cows in a meadow.

She was unique. That strange creaky voice of hers! And she obviously had a sense of humor, what with songs like "Animal Crackers" and her big hit "Brand New Key." I thought she was a good, if eccentric, song writer. And her song "Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) is a classic and boy she sure sang the hell out of it.

R24: Has Cyndi Lauper ever mentioned Melanie being a musical influence?

I haven't thought of "The Nickel Song" in ages.

[quote] What did you guys think of the audience and background singers in [R39]? Totally a different era.

A little context. That was a music television show in the Netherlands in 1970. Most of the audience was probably born during WW2 and didn't understand enough English to really grasp the song. I've kept a copy of the video on my computer for more then a decade, I've always loved their confused expressions in addition to her performance.

For the Sonny and Cher show they did a special video of Brand New Key.

James Blunt feels the same way about "You're Beautiful". Thinks it ruined his career by making him out to be a sad sack sap.

She looks like Kathy Bates on Disjointed.

This was a minor hit single by Melanie in 1972. "Together Alone". Got it in a thrift store the other day for just 49 cents. Priceless.

Friend of mine was her manager for a brief time a couple of years ago. He ran real fast in the opposite direction after no time at all. You do the math.

She explains the scientology thing on her FB page

"Explains" meaning sends you to a major Scientology link. I am baffled, actually, never seemed her thing. And she is far from rich enough to make them much money. Unless that is where all her residuals went.

I have an idea that her husband sold off the rights to her songs without her knowledge and then went and died on her, so she doesn't get any royalties from covers, use in ads etc. I was a big fan back in the day and from time to time check out her website. A couple of years ago, after her husband had died, she wrote some post about how General Motors or someone was using Brand New Key in an ad but she didn't get any money from it and how they could at least have her website URL on the bottom of the screen. It was all a bit sad and delusional. Still enjoy some of her music though. Beyond the hippy flower girl image and cutesy novelty songs she also wrote some lesser known ones that have stood the test of time.

Great duet w/ Miley Cyrus on Look What They've Done To My Song

Why would a songwriter thinking they deserve royalties for the use of their song be "delusional," R64?

When they don't own the song rights, r66.

My parents had a few of her albums. I thought she was so pretty!

Mostly I remember “I Don’t Eat Animals”.

"The voice of offended innocence"

It amazes me sometimes that a very old thread which died within an hour of when it began - is revived years later and is suddenly quite popular. haha

Thanks to whoever revived this thread. I always thought Brand New Key was as perfect a pop song as ever there was. I love it to death and have never grown tired of it.

It's just dumb, fun and joyful.