Song of the Day 1/25: Melanie, “Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma”

Melanie Safka, a coffeehouse folk singer thrust into stardom with her set at the original Woodstock Festival, has died at age 76. Her popular success lasted just a few years, from 1970 to 1974, but she started singing in her teens and remained active until her death.

Safka was singing in small New York clubs when she signed her first recording contract, and had a couple of hits in Europe before appearing at Woodstock in 1969. It was raining when she took the stage for her 11 p.m. set to a sea of candles, inspiring “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” a No. 6 hit in 1970.

She switched record companies the next year and had her biggest hit, the international No. 1 single “Brand New Key.” Her childlike delivery made it sound almost like a novelty tune, and many people interpreted it as a sexual metaphor.

She had a few more hits, but her last appearance on the Hot 100 came with a cover of “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” in 1973. She definitely had a way of making others’ songs her own. Here’s her interpretation of Jim Croce’s “Lover’s Cross,” a 1974 single that stalled at No. 109.

This 1970 song wasn’t a hit, but it got a decent amount of airplay as the B-side to her cover of the Jagger/Richards tune “Ruby Tuesday.” It might become her most lasting legacy, because its lament will be relevant as long as there’s a recording industry.

The best evidence for my theory comes courtesy of Miley Cyrus, who released it from one of her backyard sessions in 2013, then recorded it again three years later in a duet with Melanie herself.