Melaniethe singer-songwriter who rose in the New York folk scene, performed at Woodstock and had a string of 1970s hits, including the song Brand New Keylater.
Her publicist, Billy James, told The Associated Press that Melanie died on January 23. She was 76 years old and lived in middle Tennessee. The cause was not revealed.
Our world is much duller, the colors of a gloomy and rainy Tennessee pale with his absence today, said his children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred, in a post on his Facebook page announcing his death.
Melanie’s success
With a voice that could go from high-pitched and timid to deep and soulful, Melanie wrote and performed hits like Look What Theyve Done to My Song Ma y Lay Down (Candles in the Rain).
His most famous song was Brand New Keya theme from his 1971 album Gather Me about a girl who rides a bike and skates in front of the house of a boy she likes. It became a number one hit in the United States and several other countries.
With echoes of popular songs from the 1920s and 1930s, it combined youthful simplicity with adult sophistication in its chorus: I’ve got a brand-new pair of roller skates, you’ve got a brand-new key, I think that we should get together, and try them on to see (I have a new pair of skates, you have a new key, I think we should get together and try them on to see).
In later interviews he said that he did not necessarily intend a sexual innuendo in the song, but those who heard it were not necessarily wrong.
“I probably have a peculiar way of writing, and I think I was misunderstood,” she told the newspaper. Tennessean in 2014. I had this smiling, cherubic look, and I think that worked against me. The girls with guitars who were relevant were full of angst and had angular faces.
The song had new versions in the following decades. He figured prominently in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Boogie Nights (Pleasure Games) from 1997 and Jimmy Fallon made a pantomime of singing it in The Tonight Show in 2016.
Beginnings in New York
Her given name was Melanie Safka, her mother was a jazz singer. Melanie grew up in Queens, New York. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and performed in Greenwich Village coffeehouses and other New York folk venues.
He released his self-titled debut album in 1969 and had successes in Europe with Bobos Party y Beautiful People.
That summer, she was one of only three female solo artists, along with Joan Baez and Janis Joplin, to perform at the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in upstate New York.
The candles that the audience held during their performance on the opening night of the festival inspired their first hit in the United States, Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), in 1970, which reached number six on Billboard’s Hot 100 list. That same year came Look What Theyve Done to My Song Mawhich would be covered by artists from Ray Charles to Miley Cyrus and adapted for commercials for decades.
People in the Front Rowa dance song by Garden in the City from 1971, was prominently included in the most recent season of Black Mirror.
In the mid-1970s, his popularity waned, but he would maintain a following and continue releasing albums and performing live until the 2010s.
Melanie was married to her manager and producer Peter Schekeryk from 1968 until his death in 2010. They had three children together.
FUENTE: AP
