Chart-topping Woodstock performer has died

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Singer-songwriter Melanie, who topped the charts in the 1970s with “Brand New Key,” died Tuesday, her family announced on Facebook.

The musician who performed at Woodstock was 76. She had been living in central Tennessee. No cause of death was given.

“This is the hardest post for us to write, and there are so many things we want to say, first, and there’s no easy way except to say it… Mom passed, peacefully, out of this world and into the next on January, 23rd, 2024,” her children, Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred, wrote on her Facebook page on Wednesday.

“We are heartbroken but want to thank each and every one of you for the affection you have for our mother, and to tell you that she loved all of you so much! She was one of the most talented, strong and passionate women of the era and every word she wrote, every note she sang reflected that.

“Our world is much dimmer, the colors of a dreary, rainy Tennessee pale with her absence today,” her children said.

Born Melanie Safka, she grew up in Queens, New York, the daughter of a jazz singer. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and performed in the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village and other New York folk hubs, according to The Associated Press.

The AP described her as a singer who could shift from high-pitched and coy to a deep soulful rasp.

In 1969, the singer-songwriter was one of just three women – Joan Baez and Janis Joplin being the others – to perform solo at the legendary 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair in upstate New York.

Safka was only 22 at the time and later told The New York Times she was petrified at the thought of performing in front of a crowd vastly bigger than the coffeehouse audiences she was used to.

That same year she had released her self-titled debut album and scored hits in Europe with “Bobo’s Party” and “Beautiful People.”

In the 70s she had a series of hits including the enduring cultural phenomenon “Brand New Key,” which hit No. 1 in the United States and other countries.

The song charmed listeners with its simplicity reminiscent of popular songs of the ‘20s and ‘30s

But it also generated controversy, The Times noted. Some radio stations were said to have banned playing the song because some people heard sexual innuendo in lyrics like “I’ve got a brand-new pair of roller skates/You’ve got a brand-new key.”

Safka told The Times that while some might interpret the words that way, that wasn’t her intent.

“I guess a key and a lock have always been Freudian symbols,” she said in an interview, “and pretty obvious ones at that. There was no deep serious expression behind the song, but people read things into it.”

Later hits included “Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma” and “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain).” Even after her popularity waned, she maintained a following and kept recording and playing live into the 2010s.

Safka married her manager and producer Peter Schekeryk in 1968, with whom she had her three children. They remained together until his death in 2010.

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