# RIP Melanie Safka **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death, music\ **Created:** [January 25, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606 "2024-01-25T01:25:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606/21 "2024-01-25T22:16:57Z")
Strange how sometimes memories attached to music differ in different countries. Though I was born in 1968 and a bit too young to remember her in her prime, I always knew her song “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma” and her cover of “Ruby Tuesday”. These seem to have been her biggest hits in Germany, “Ruby Tuesday” still is regularly played on oldies stations. “Brand New Key” and “Lay Down (Candles In The Rain)” though, I’ve never heard. ETA: I just did listen to the two latter songs, and they are both awful, while I still like “Look What…” and “Ruby Tuesday”. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606/22 "2024-01-26T00:19:21Z")
“Cyclone,” perhaps? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lOXv4bpAoNE/hqdefault.jpg "Melanie Safka - Cyclone") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOXv4bpAoNE) ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606/23 "2024-01-26T00:33:49Z")
Thanks ever so for posting that, Lover’s Cross is one of my favorite songs, and I didn’t know she has done this beautiful cover. That being said, [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7CPVYtF-6I) is my favorite of hers. One of my favorite worship tracks ever. RIP Melanie. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2024, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606/24 "2024-01-26T16:09:52Z")
Yeah, that’s it. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606/25 "2024-01-29T16:08:53Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I always knew her song “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma” and her cover of “Ruby Tuesday” Yep, same here. I hadn’t heard “Brand New Key” until it was used in _Boogie Nights_, but I remember “Look What They’ve Done to My Song” really well from the 70s, and I always liked it. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/r44Ach4mXE4/maxresdefault.jpg "MELANIE Look What They've Done To My Song, Ma ('71)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r44Ach4mXE4) ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2024, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606/26 "2024-01-29T22:14:47Z")
If she ‘ruined her career and lost credibility’, that says more about the audience and her contemporaries if true. Brand New Key isn’t a novelty song. Its damn clever and a good song, and as far as what it’s trying to do, its 11/10. I know more Melanie songs off the top of my head then I do Carole King written AND sung songs. More then Joni Mitchell. More then Judy Collins. She made 32 albums. I’d say she 'did all right for a girl". ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606/27 "2024-01-30T02:28:37Z")
> [@Pavelb1](#): > > If she ‘ruined her career and lost credibility’, that says more about the audience and her contemporaries if true. And she’s in pretty good company. Remember [Chuck Berry’s ONLY #1 song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBxlsi5SYkg) ---
**Author:** ![Hermione1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d07c76/32.png) [@Hermione1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione1)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2024, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606/28 "2024-01-30T14:59:49Z")
It was [Cher’s cover of this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of5IcMWHiyc&ab_channel=MattDouglas) that I heard first as a kid. Animator John Wilson did a ton of animated music videos, many of which aired on the Sonny and Cher show. I was a little too young to remember that show, but they used to run many of these videos on HBO and Nickelodeon (before it got commercials) between programs/movies. This was one of them. I really like Cher’s vocals, the arrangement, and the cute visuals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-melanie-safka/996606.md?page=1)