Melanie (b. 1947) passed away a week ago. I’d already planned a post for her birthday, which is today, so I thought I’d save the obit and let this one, regrettably, do double duty.
Melanie Safka was born in Astoria, Queens and raised by her single mom, jazz singer Polly Altomare, in seaside Long Branch, New Jersey. As a kid she was taught to love the music of Billie Holiday, Edith Piaf, Kurt Weill, and Lotte Lenya, and others, which informs the quirky, eclectic, and theatrical nature of her style and repertoire, which mixed elements of folk, soul, gospel, jazz, and straight up pop. Half Ukrainian and half Italian, she studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and began performing at Village clubs in the mid to late ’60s.
Melanie’s earliest hits were in Europe, where audiences were better primed for her sophisticated sensibility. Her American breakthrough came when she was drafted at the last minute to perform at Woodstock when The Incredible String Band refused to perform in the rain. She had the great good fortune to perform her set in between Ravi Shankar and Arlo Guthrie, performing such things as a cover of Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”, and her own adorable and funny “Animal Crackers”. The audience called her back for an encore. Along with Janis Joplin and Joan Baez, she was one of only three female solo acts to play the festival.
Melanie’s rousing 1970 song about the experience “Lay Down” was her first U.S. hit, rising all the way to #6. At around the same time The New Seekers had a #4 hit with her composition “What Have They Done to My Song, Ma“, which is surely the version I was thinking about when I wrote this earlier piece about her, though I like Melanie’s original better, with its Weimar energy, the accordion and so forth. That chick had some incredible pipes! Sounded a bit like Marianne Faithfull, but with a lot of range and power. Her best known song today, 1971’s “Brand New Key” (so ingeniously employed by P.T. Anderson in Boogie Nights) is a great illustration of both her sense of humor and her vocal ability.
It was her high point; after this her chart success began to dwindle, though she continued to sell LPs through most of the ’70s, and for many years she could be seen on TV programs like The Tonight Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, The Midnight Special, The Johnny Cash Show, and even The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. In 1987 she won an Emmy for her lyrics to “The First Time I Loved Forever”, the theme song for the show Beauty and the Beast starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton.
Melanie was married to her producer Peter Schekeryk from 1968 until his death in 2010. Her last years were spent in the Nashville area.
(Travalanche) 
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