MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES - 1989 - US

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

MELANIE

A FORMER FLOWER CHILD JOINS THE ESTABLISHMENT AND GROOVES ON MOTHERHOOD

By: Daneet Steffens

1970

The Edwin Hawkins Singers recorded "Lay Down" with Melanie.

The year was 1969 and Melanie, whose look and music epitomized the peace-loving child of the Sixties, was asked to sing at Woodstock. The experience inspired her 1970 hit, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)," followed by other popular singles. Still, at age 24, she wasn't prepared for the success of her 1971 single, "Brand New Key." The song hit Number One, and she found herself caught up in a brand-new —and confounding— media blitz. "I was a very introverted person," recalls Melanie, now 42.

"I was uncomfortable with the success I had. I wondered, 'Should I be paid for this? Should I have things?' All those Sixties-type questions. It was not cool to be rich." The attention sent her packing for the anonymity of Europe in 1972.  "I didn't want people to look at me anymore," she says. "I just wanted to live in peace and grow up once and for all."

With her husband and manager, Peter Schekeryk, she travelled and performed throughout Europe (and sporadically in the U.S.) while raising their three children: Leilah, 16, Jeordie, 14, and Beau-Jarred, 9.

"There was a romanticism to living in Europe and raising avant-garde children, " she says, but she missed the comforts and opportunities back home. "I wasn't going to sing some schlocky song to get a hit record, but I never wanted to stay quiet forever," says Melanie, whose success has taken a surprising turn. After settling in Florida in 1986, Melanie now enjoys the establishment's recognition: She earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics for Beauty and the Beast. "I would never have done a song for a TV show then," she says of her flower-child days. "For who I am now, it's perfectly okay"

 

Photograph by Rich Franco

 


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