Melanie, the hoarse-voiced singer and songwriter who was one of the surprise stars of the Woodstock music festival in 1969 and had a No. 1 single two years later with the disarmingly childish “Brand New Key,” died Tuesday. She was 76.
Her death was announced on social media by her children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred. Neither the cause nor the location were mentioned.
Melanie, born Melanie Satka in 1947, was only 22 years old but already a presence on the New York folk scene when she performed at Woodstock. She was one of only three women to perform unaccompanied at the festival – and as she later recalled, she was petrified at the thought of performing in front of a crowd far larger than the coffeehouse audience she was used to.
It began to rain before she took the stage, and she later said that the sight of people in the crowd lighting candles inspired her to write “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” which she adapted to gospel -Backing music recorded by Edwin Hawkins Singers. Released in 1970, it was her first hit, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Their biggest hit, “Brand New Key,” charmed listeners with its simplicity, but caused controversy – and was reported to have been banned by some radio stations – because some people heard sexual innuendo in lyrics such as “I have a brand new pair of roller skates.” /You have a brand new key.” She acknowledged that the words could be interpreted that way, but insisted that was not her intention.
“I wrote 'Brand New Key' in about 15 minutes one evening,” she told an interviewer. “I thought it was cute; some kind of old song from the 30s.
“I guess a key and a lock have always been Freudian symbols,” she continued, “and pretty obvious ones at that. There was no serious expression behind the song, but people read something into it.”