We end 1971 with a cute song that seems innocent enough but came with a lot of controversy. Melanie was almost the last of the hippies. In 1971, she still dressed like they did in the Sixties and the songs she sang were all politically motivated. That is, until the day she wrote “Brand New Key.”

Melanie was born Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk in 1047 in New York City. She was the typical outcast in high school, often being kicked out of class for wearing sandals which were against the school dress code. She started singing young. She was only four when she sang on a live radio show called Live Like a Millionaire. She sang the song, “Gimme a Little Kiss.” As she grew up, the music followed and after high school, she started getting jobs singing in New York folk clubs. It was while working the Bitter End in Greenwich Village that she was spotted by a Record producer and signed to Columbia Records. It was the mid-Sixties.

Her first couple records at Columbia didn’t go anywhere and she was soon let go. She next signed with Buddah Records and in 1969, performed in Woodstock where she really got her first big break, as people saw her who could really make things happen for her. One of her first records for Buddah was “Lay Down (Candles in the Wind)” which hit number six on the pop charts.

Melanie says that she thought of “Brand New Key” one day when she was coming off of a 27-day water fast. She passed a McDonalds and even though she was a vegetarian, she couldn’t resist the smell and so stopped and got some food. As she was eating, the song came into her mind. She says the aroma of the burger took her back to her younger days of roller skating and learning to ride a bike, to a younger more innocent time in her life. She says she wrote it in 15 minutes.

Now, I remember when this song was popular. Everyone knew that the song was a metaphor about sex. After all, she was singing about a lock and a key. What else could the song be about. So many people thought that that the song was banned on several radio stations. Turns out the song is just as innocent as it sounds. Melanie never even thought about sex when she wrote it. Everyone else just interpreted it that way.

“Brand New Key” hit the Billboard charts on October 11, 1971 and took eight weeks to get to number one where it stayed for three weeks. It held the top spot for the last week of 1971 and the first two weeks of 1972. Melanie would never hit number one again.