Melanie
Melanie, who became the voice of an era in one magical instant onstage at Woodstock, has been putting the pieces in order. Pieces of a career, scattered by the winds of experience and assembled again by the force of love into the most personal and brilliant moments of her musical journey. Melanie is poised to enlighten new generations about what it means to sing with both passion and eloquence, to write at once with intelligence and emotion, and to inspire through song… and nobody does this better than Melanie.
Others learned this that night at Woodstock, where as a New York kid barely known outside of the coffeehouse circuit in Greenwich Village, she sang her song "Beautiful People" and inspired the first panorama of candles and cigarette lighters ever raised at a concert event. That, in turn, moved the young singer to write "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain"), which sold more than one million copies in 1970 and prompted Billboard, Cashbox, Melody Maker, Record World, and Bravo to anoint her as female vocalist of the year. Her single "Brand New Key," an infectious romp about freedom and roller skates, topped the charts in 1971. She also performed at the Friends of Chile concert in 1974, together with dave van Ronk, Arlo Guthrie and Bob Dylan (of whom she covered many songs).
And so her story began. With guitar in hand and a talent that combined amazing vocal equipment, disarming humor, and a vibrant engagement with life, she was booked as the first solo pop/rock artist ever to appear from the Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera House, and later opened the New Metropolitan Opera House in New York, the Sydney Opera House, and in the General Assembly of the United Nations, where she was invited to perform on many occasions as delegates greeted her performances with standing ovations.
The top television hosts of all time -- Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, and Dick Cavett -- battled to book her. (After her stunning performance on his show, Sullivan goggled that he had not seen such a "dedicated and responsive audience since Elvis Presley.")
Accolades rolled in, from critics ("Melanie's cult has long been famous, but it's a cult that's responding to something genuine and powerful -- which is maybe another way of saying that this writer counts himself as part of the cult too," wrote John Rockwell in The New York Times) as well as peers ("Melanie," insisted jazz piano virtuoso Roger Kellaway, "is extraordinary to the point that she could be sitting in front of us in this room and sing something like 'Momma Momma' right to us, and it would just go right through your entire being.") In the years that followed Melanie continued to record, continued to tour.
UNICEF made her its spokesperson; Jimi Hendrix's father introduced her to the multitude assembled for the twentieth anniversary of Woodstock. Her records continued to sell -- more than eighty million to date. She's had her songs covered by singers as diverse as Cher, Dolly Parton, and Macy Gray. She's raised a family, won an Emmy, opened a restaurant, written a musical about Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane…
Source: Melanie's website (Written by Robert L. Doerschuk)
Born To Be
1968
Mr. Tambourine Man
My First Album
1970 - Repackage of “Born To Be”
Mr. Tambourine Man
The Good Book
1972
Sign On The Window
Garden In The City
1972
Lay Lady Lay
The Four Sides of Melanie
1972 - his compilation has been reissued many times with different artwork and sometimes different titles. Some abridged CD reissues delete "Sign On The Window." Shown is the 2009 re-mastered CD by the UK label BGO.
Mr. Tambourine Man
Sign On The Window
Lay Lady Lay
As I See It Now
1974 - Mr. Tambourine Man was used as a B-side of singles in France and the UK and appears on many Melanie compilations
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
The Best of
1976 - 2xLP compilation - US
Mr. Tambourine Man
The Best of
1988 - CD compilation - US
Mr. Tambourine Man
Lay Lady Lay
Precious Cargo
1991 - US
Mr. Tambourine Man
Freedom Knows My Name
1993 - US
Mr. Tambourine Man
Shine On - The Latest and Greatest
2000 - Germany
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Silence Is King
1993 - Germany
Mr. Tambourine Man
Peace Will Come Acoording To
2015
Mr. Tambourine Man
Let It Be Me
2015
Mr. Tambourine Man Remix Version
The Prophet
2015
Mr. Tambourine Man
A hard Rain's A-Gonna Falll