Melanie (singer)

Her father, Frederick M. Safka (1924–2009), was of Ukrainian ancestry, and her mother, jazz singer Pauline "Polly" Altomare (1926–2003), was of Italian heritage.

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".

She moved with her family to Long Branch, New Jersey, and 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.

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

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.

She graduated in 1966, although she was prevented from attending her graduation ceremony because of an overdue library book.

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.

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".

Later in 1969, Melanie had a hit in the Netherlands with "Beautiful People".

She was one of only three solo female artists who performed at the Woodstock festival in 1969, and her first hit song, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)", was inspired by the Woodstock audience lighting candles during her set as well as being influenced by her following of Indian spiritual master Meher Baba.

The record became a hit in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States in 1970.

The B-side of the single featured Melanie's spoken-word track, "Candles in the Rain".

Her first top 10 hit in America was "Lay Down", which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard singles chart and achieved worldwide success.

Her later hits included "Peace Will Come (According To Plan)" and a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday".

In 1970, Melanie was the only artist to ignore a court injunction banning the Powder Ridge Rock Festival, which was scheduled to be held on July 31, August 1 and 2, 1970.

She played for the crowd on a homemade stage powered by Mister Softee trucks.

Not long after this performance, she played at the Strawberry Fields Festival held from August 7 to 9, 1970, at Mosport Park in Ontario.

She also performed at the Isle of Wight Festival, held between August 26 and 30, 1970, at Afton Down.

At the festival, she was introduced by Keith Moon and received four standing ovations.

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 was born and raised in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York City.

In June 1971, she was the artist who sang to herald in the summer solstice at Glastonbury Fayre (later the Glastonbury Festival) in England.

In 1971, she formed her own label, Neighborhood Records, with Peter Schekeryk, who was also her producer and husband.

She had her biggest American hit on the Neighborhood label, the novelty-sounding 1972 No. 1 hit "Brand New Key" (often referred to as "The Roller Skate Song").

"Brand New Key" sold over three million copies worldwide and was featured in the 1997 movie Boogie Nights.

When first released, "Brand New Key" was banned by some radio stations because some inferred sexual innuendo in the lyrics.

Melanie acknowledged the possibility of reading an unintended sexual innuendo in the song, stating: "I wrote ['Brand New Key'] in about fifteen minutes one night. I thought it was cute; a kind of old thirties tune. I guess a key and a lock have always been Freudian symbols, and pretty obvious ones at that. There was no deep serious expression behind the song, but people read things into it. They made up incredible stories as to what the lyrics said and what the song meant. In some places, it was even banned from the radio ... My idea about songs is that once you write them, you have very little say in their life afterward ... People will take it any way they want to take it."

She appeared again at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2010.

She performed again at Glastonbury in 2011, the 40th anniversary of the original festival.

Melanie left Buddah Records when they insisted that she produce albums on demand.

In a 2013 interview with music journalist Ray Shasho, Melanie elaborated on the origin of "Brand New Key":

"Of course I can see it symbolically with the key, but I just thought of roller skating. I was fasting with a twenty seven day fast on water. I broke the fast and went back to my life living in New Jersey and we were going to a flea market around six in the morning. On the way back ... and I had just broken the fast, from the flea market, we passed a McDonald's and the aroma hit me, and I had been a vegetarian before the fast. So we pulled into the McDonald's and I got the whole works ... the burger, the shake and the fries ... and no sooner after I finished that last bite of my burger ... that song was in my head. The aroma brought back memories of roller skating and learning to ride a bike and the vision of my dad holding the back fender of the tire. And me saying to my dad ... 'You're holding, you're holding, you're holding, right?' Then I'd look back and he wasn't holding and I'd fall.

So that whole thing came back to me and came out in this song.

So it was not a deliberate or intentional sexual innuendo."

She was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 2014.