Melanie, the husky-voiced singer and songwriter who was one of the surprising stars of the 1969 Woodstock music festival and two years later scored a No. 1 record with the endearingly infantile “Brand New Key,” died Tuesday. She was 76.
Her children, Leilah, Jeordie, and Beau Jarred, took to social media to announce her death. Neither the cause nor the location were specified.
Melanie, born Melanie Safka in 1947, was just 22 years old but had already established herself on the New York folk scene when she performed at Woodstock. She was one of only three women who performed alone at the festival, and she later admitted that she was terrified at the prospect of performing in front of a throng far larger than the coffeehouse crowds she was used to.
It began to rain before she approached the stage, and she subsequently stated that seeing people in the audience lighting candles prompted her to write “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” which she recorded with gospel-style accompaniment by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. It was released in 1970 and became her first hit, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
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Her biggest song, “Brand New Key,” captivated listeners with its simplicity but sparked controversy — and was claimed to have been banned by certain radio stations — because some people perceived sexual connotation in lyrics like “I’ve got a brand-new pair of roller skates/You’ve got a brand-new key.” She admitted that the phrases may be construed in that manner, but emphasized that this was not her intention.
“‘Brand New Key’ I wrote in about 15 minutes one night,” she told an interviewer. “I thought it was cute; it sounded like an old 1930s tune.
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“I believe a key and a lock have always been Freudian symbolism,” she said, “and very apparent ones at that. There was no profound serious expression behind the music, yet people read meaning onto it.”
One of the compositions she authored was “What Have They Done to My Song, Ma?” This track, originally titled “Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma,” achieved Top 20 status with the New Seekers in 1970.