Melanie Safka

Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (February 3, 1947 – January 23, 2024), professionally known as Melanie or Melanie Safka, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.

Melanie is widely known for the 1971–72 global hit "Brand New Key", her 1970 version of the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday", her composition "What Have They Done to My Song Ma", and her 1970 international breakthrough hit, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)", which was inspired by her experience of performing at the 1969 Woodstock music festival.

Melanie Anne Safka was born on February 3, 1947, in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City. Her father, Frederick M. Safka, was of Ukrainian ancestry, and her mother, Pauline "Polly" Altomare, was a jazz singer of Italian heritage. She had one younger sister, Stephanie. Melanie made her first public singing appearance at age four on the radio show Live Like A Millionaire, performing the song "Gimme a Little Kiss".

After her parents' divorce when she was five, she was raised by her mother in the Astoria and Bayside neighborhoods of Queens in New York City and then in Long Branch, New Jersey, where she first attended Long Branch High School. Disturbed that she was rejected by her schoolmates as a "beatnik", she ran away to California. After her return to New Jersey, she transferred to Red Bank High School in Red Bank, New Jersey. She graduated in 1964, although she was prevented from attending her graduation ceremony because of an overdue library book. She was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2014.

In the 1960s, Melanie started performing at The Inkwell, a coffee house in the West End section of Long Branch. After high school, her parents insisted that she attend college, so she studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She began singing in the folk clubs of Greenwich Village, such as The Bitter End, and signed her first recording contract with Columbia Records. Melanie released two singles on the label in the U.S. She subsequently signed with Buddah Records and found her first chart success in Europe in 1969 with "Bobo's Party", which reached No. 1 in France. Her popularity in Europe resulted in performances on European television programs such as Beat-Club in West Germany and BBC in Concert in the UK. Her debut album received positive reviews from Billboard, which described her voice as "wise beyond her years" and said her "non-conformist approach to the selections on this LP make her a new talent to be reckoned with".

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.