It was a charming little song, done by a singer with a crackly, little-girl delivery. A couple years later, Rolling Stone described her new work as “still sounding like she lost her dolly.”
You darn kids! Back when we bought LPs, you typically got pictures of artists, lyric sheets, liner notes, and such. 
Last I heard, on one of those ‘Where are they now?’ shows about musicians with notably short careers, Melanie was allegedly running an antique store somewhere in New Jersey.
Insanity! Even if you don’t like that song (which was always intended to be nothing more than a cute novelty song), Melanie was/is a fantastic singer. When she came on the scene she had an unusual voice, different from the pretty voices that dominated the airwaves. Her phrasing was interesting and often quirky. Added to that, she was intelligent, witty, humble, very sweet and beautiful inside and out. 2-3 of her novelty songs got airplay so maybe she’s best known by them, but there was a whole lot more to her than “Brand New Key,” “Animal Crackers” and “Look What They’ve Done To My Song.” I mean, my god, she’s released 33 albums and you can count on the one hand her “novelty” songs! It’s like trying to define Cyndi Lauper’s entire career by “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” and “She Bop.”
I can’t turn the sound up here at work, so I can’t vouch for the audio quality, but this song was one of her most famous, and especially near the end shows off her pipes. I don’t even know if this is a live performance or the album version and can’t tell until late tonight, but I thought I’d give a link anyway. In any case, I had an album with this song on it and was always blown away by it, chills. She was the first female artist I was into, and though I haven’t really followed her career because my tastes changed, I respect the hell out of her.
Oh yeah, right. She had multiple worldwide hit singles back when someone as talented as Melanie could get played on the radio. Lack of airplay since then doesn’t indicate lack or lessening of talent. She’s doing fine with her long and still-ongoing career, and has sold over 25 million records. She is and always will be an icon.
If we can get back to keys for a minute . . . is it plausible, then, that the boy’s key might work on the girl’s roller skates? See, that’s the part that always confused me. You wouldn’t say, “I’ve got a brand new house, you’ve got a brand new key.” Because you assume that the key is unique to the house, and your key won’t work on my house.
Roller skate keys, I’m gathering, were more generic?
YouTube is blocked here…is that “Lay Down”? Because that’s the one, on the rare occasions when the oldies station here plays it, I get chills from.
Yes, look at the pictures up thread. It’s a “key” in the sense of “special purpose tool”, rather than “security device”, like the “key” to a sardine tin or a wind-up clock (more anachronisms). Of course, since the song was intended to be a sexual double entendre, we aren’t actual intended to think it through that much.
jayjay, yes, it’s “Lay Down.”
Maybe she did at one time, but she’s released albums up until 2004 and has been touring worldwide pretty steadily for the past several years (and has another worldwide tour coming up this year.
See post #21: “…any key fit all skates…”
For a good sampling of Melanie’s pipes, check out Ballroom Streets.
:raises … hand:
And the “it’s all about sex and drugs” folks of the time claimed that it was “I’ve got a (newly) functional female sexual organ and you’ve got a (newly arrived) kilo (key) of fill-in-the-controlled-substance-you-fear.”
No one took that seriously, though there was a small spate of kids making the claim to younger kids to show of how worldly they were.
And how the tiniest piece of gravel would stop the wheels dead, and the skateboarder took a header onto the pavement, resulting in the decortication of several square inches of knee and elbow.
2000 word equivelent answer for the OP:
Picture of skate key
Picture of a pair of roller skates requireing use of above key for adjustment
Warning: The second picture file is work safe, but has a name (strap_ons.jpg) that may trigger porn monitoring software.
Oh yeah? Well, my chills get goose bumps when I hear that.
Here’s another one that I always loved, that also shows off her interesting phrasing and tremendous voice: Leftover Wine. Like many of her songs (including “Lay Down”) it’s deceptive, starting out slow and timid, then gaining strength and ending up knocking your socks off (mine, anyway).
Upthread I mentioned “Look What They Done To My Song, Ma” as one of her “novelty” songs, and a lot of people treated it that way, but I just watched this live performance and was reminded that the lyrics were actually fairly serious.
Anyway, before I leave this thread I have to say that, dammit, I think the song “Brand New Key” is absolutely adorable. I loved finding this live, acoustic version on YouTube. She’s such a sweetie.
Argh, ‘Look What They Done To My Song, Ma’ was a huge earworm for my entire family when it was released - I was young, but I remember how we spent days completely unable to think of or sing any other lyrics. Eventually mum announced "Hey! I’ve got one- " and she launched into… “Look what they’ve done to my song, ma.”
And now it’s back in my head (plots some horrible retribution for Equipoise.)
I also had a pair of roller skates with the wingnut type key. They always loosened and fell off the toe of my shoe at critical moments. Hated the things.
I came in to post that - must be a Bristolian thing :).
Damn and blast. I have a fair few of Melanie’s records right beside me but NO sodding record player. I must do something about this one day. Ooh, then there will be a time of much nostalgia-music. 
Have you seen this version? Cuter!