That Eric Alper

Melanie, the beloved and trailblazing artist who made history as the first solo performer to have three singles simultaneously on the Billboard chart, and known for her songs including 1971’s “Brand New Key,” her appearance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival and an extensive catalog of works released over the course of an uncompromising five-decade career, had always wanted to release an album of children’s songs. Lullabies From Heaven – a new album decades in the making and composed of previously unreleased recordings, will be released on April 25 (Cleopatra Records). With songs that Melanie recorded dating back to the mid-1960s, and only first discovered after her passing in 2024, this collection of lullabies is a revelation and opportunity to revisit the career of a pioneering artist. Her three children, also musicians, along with grandchildren and great grandchildren, lent their voices and additional instruments to these recordings as a love letter and parting gift to her.

Following Melanie’s passing, her manager set out to locate every tape he could find, and in the process discovered tapes that went back to the mid-60s, recorded by Melanie when she was a teenager, prior to her career as a recording artist. Six of those recordings are featured on Lullabies From Heaven, as well as additional songs recorded in the ‘70s and more recently. Melanie’s children Beau Jarred, Leilah and Jeordie went into the studio last year to sing and add instrumentation to some of the recordings, and her grandchildren and great grandchildren can be heard singing on the album as well: four generations of Melanie’s family, singing together. Beau Jarred is credited with producing the album as well.

Lullabies From Heaven is a charming collection featuring a number of classic lullabies, including “Puff The Magic Dragon,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and “Teddy Bear’s Picnic.” But it also includes a number of original songs written by Melanie: “Skinny Bone Jones” (co-written with her daughter Jeordie), “Ring Around The Moon,” and “Garden In The City.” The version of “Alexander Beetle,” featured on the album and adapted by Melanie from AA Milne’s “Forgiven” poem published in 1919, is from the mid-60s tapes that were discovered. Melanie would record and release “Alexander Beetle” on her 1970 album Candles In The Rain, and would go on to perform the song on the Ed Sullivan Show in ‘71. The album’s bonus track is a different version of “Alexander Beetle” from an unidentified 1970s recording session.

Many of the songs have deep meaning amongst Melanie and her children. She would sing songs like “Puff The Magic Dragon” and “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” to them while they were little; for her children to hear these early recordings of these songs was a powerful experience. “These songs are all so special and all have their own place in my heart,” says daughter Jeordie Schekeryk. “Momma was always such an inspiration and incredible craftswoman of songs. All these songs have had a unique place in our hearts & especially now. We are excited to share these with everyone .. from our family to yours.” Daughter Leilah Schekeryk adds: “I love singing with my family! There were so many little magical moments I really felt mom’s spirit with us. Just truly special!!” Melanie’s son Beau Jarred says “I remember mom singing my sisters and I to sleep with Teddy Bears Picnic. I’m beyond glad we got to do that one for her.”

Cleopatra Records has re-issued nearly 30 albums featuring Melanie’s works over the past year; her catalog had never previously been available all at one time.

Melanie – she has always been known by her first name alone – needs no introduction.

An unexpected star of the Woodstock Festival in 1969, Melanie was the first rocker (and, in some instances, the first woman) to perform at the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall; the first solo performer to have three simultaneous singles on the Billboard chart; the first, too, to launch her own record label; a major hit at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, and the artist selected to welcome the rising midsummer sun at the 1971 Glastonbury Festival.

She dominated British, American and European music press readers polls during 1971-1972, and her music has been covered by acts as far apart as Morrissey, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand and Dolly Parton.

Other admirers include Keith Richard and the Rolling Stones, who invited her to open their 1976 European tour; Jarvis Cocker, who persuaded her to perform at the 2007 Meltdown Festival; Morrissey; Miley Cyrus; and Jim Morrison. “Jim and I were going to do a rock version of Othello at Madison Square Garden,” she recalls. “I backed out – call me crazy.”

More than that, however, Melanie epitomized the “flower child” imagery of the late 1960s and early 1970s, at the same time as writing songs that tore apart the societal conventions of the day regarding what a young woman (she was barely 20 at the time) should say, think, or do.

This dichotomy continued for the remainder of her career, and the forty plus albums she released before her passing on January 23, 2024. For some listeners, she remains the devastatingly beautiful “hippy chick” who sang songs about beetles, Christopher Robin, love, peace and candles in the rain. Her biggest British hit, “Brand New Key,” is remembered as “the bicycle song,” and was later covered by the Wurzels as “Brand New Combine Harvester.” Another Melanie classic, “Look What They’ve Done To My Song, Ma” gave the New Seekers their first hit single in 1970.

For others, however, she is remembered for “Bo Bo’s Party,” about a woman haunting the back room at parties, in search of the attention her impotent husband cannot provide; for songs of darkness and despair; for ripping the sticking plaster off the festering wounds of Vietnam-era America. And for fighting – not always successfully, but resolutely regardless – against the engrained attitudes of the male dominated music industry of the age. A single line in “Brand New Key” encapsulates her fury – “some people say I’ve done alright for a girl.”

Her first battle, aged just 20, was with Clive Davis, the legendary (and legendarily combative) head of Columbia records. When he refused to countenance her first LP until she accepted his “guidance” on how she should present herself, she walked off the label.

Other industry kingpins, too, tried to shape and mold her, and they too lost the battle – Buddah (and later Casablanca) Records chief Neil Bogart, Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records, Clive Davis again at Arista. And, though she was warned, again and again, that her single-mindedness was losing her more friends than she was winning, she didn’t care. This was her career, and it was going to follow the course that she designed, come what may.

She continued to do so for the remainder of her life.

Today, Melanie’s career is enjoying the spotlight once more. Across the year or so before her death, Melanie and manager Dave Thompson, worked together to create what they considered the ultimate Melanie collection – deluxe reissues of her entire album catalog, plus a series of additional releases spotlighting crucial live performances and unreleased studio sessions. The first of these was released by Cleopatra Records in early January 2024, just weeks before her death. Since that time, 30 more albums have shed new light upon, and opened fresh ears to, her music and career, while a six CD box set, Neighbourhood Songs (Easy Action Records) dug deep into Melanie’s broadcast and concert archive.

Melanie might be gone, but she is also here to stay.

Track List – Lullabies From Heaven:

1. Alexander Beetle
2. Puff The Magic Dragon
3. Animal Crackers
4. Hobo’s Lullaby
5. Skinny Bone Jones
6. Teddy Bear’s Picnic
7. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
8. The Riddle Song (Child 46)
9. Rain Rain Go Away Medley
10. Garden In The City
11. Ring Around The Moon
12. Fly Me To The Moon
13. Duck Bottom Boat
14. Alexander Beetle (Reprise)

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