MELANIE
Melanie (born Melanie Anne Safka; February 3, 1947) is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for her hits “Brand New Key”, her cover of “Ruby Tuesday”, “What Have They Done to My Song Ma”, and her song about performing at the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival, “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”. (More from Wikipedia)
Milan is among the most enigmatic figures in 1960’s rock music; he recorded under a number of other names and also wrote and produced songs for a number of obscure bands. Along the way he worked with several well-known figures in popular music, including the notorious music mogul Morris Levy of Roulette Records; Artie Kornfeld, the “father of Woodstock”; and Melanie’s husband, manager and producer, Peter Schekeryk.
(July 2012)
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While attracting little attention initially, the James Taylor song “Carolina in My Mind” was covered frequently not long after its release. North Carolina country music recording artist George Hamilton IV had some success with his version of “Carolina in My Mind” in 1969. Probably the best known version of the song other than Taylor’s is that of Melanie, who included “Carolina in My Mind” on her classic 1970 album, Candles in the Rain. Other recordings of the song have been made by the Everly Brothers, Evie Sands, John Denver, and Dawn (later known as Tony Orlando and Dawn). Glen Campbell and Linda Ronstadt performed a duet of the song on his TV show, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour; the song was ultimately released in the 2007 video Good Times Again.
(August 2015)
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One of the hallmarks of the bandmembers in early punk rock bands is picking new names for themselves. Not everyone did that, and most musicians perform under their own names. For the record, as best I can tell, Frank Zappa, Fats Domino, Major Lance, Kris Kristofferson, and Stonewall Jackson are using their real names (with Fats being a nickname, though Major and Stonewall are not). Grace Slick is her married name; she was born Grace Wing. Most though not all of the one-name performers are also using one of their real names, with slight spelling changes and anglicizing here and there: Madonna, Prince, Jewel, Cher, Björk, Enya, Beck, Donovan, Morrissey, Liberace, Sade, Seal, Shakira, Rihanna, Adele, Dido, Melanie, Beyoncé, etc.
(March 2017)
