Peter Keepnews

Melanie, Singer Who Made a Solo Splash at Woodstock, Dies at 76 Just 22 when she charmed the festival crowd, she went on to enjoy success with songs like 'Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)' and 'Brand New Key.  The singer and songwriter Melanie in an undated photo. She was one of only three women who performed unaccompanied at the Woodstock festival in 1969. Credit...Universal Images Group via Getty Images Melanie, the husky-voiced singer and songwriter who was one of the surprise stars of the Woodstock music festival in 1969 and two years later had a No. 1 single with the disarmingly childlike 'Brand New Key,” died on Tuesday. She was 76. Her death was announced on social media by her children, Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred. Neither the cause nor the location were cited. Melanie, born Melanie Safka in 1947, was only 22 but already a presence on the New York folk scene when she appeared at Woodstock. She was one of only three women who performed unaccompanied at the festival — and, as she later recalled, she was petrified at the thought of performing in front of a crowd vastly bigger than the coffeehouse audiences she was used to. It started to rain before she took the stage, and she would later say that the sight of people in the crowd lighting candles inspired her to write 'Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)', which she recorded with gospel-style backing from the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Released in 1970, it became her first hit, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her biggest hit, 'Brand New Key', charmed listeners with its simplicity but generated controversy — and was said to have been banned by some radio stations — because some people heard sexual innuendo in lyrics like 'I've got a brand-new pair of roller skates/You've got a brand-new key.' She acknowledged that the words could be interpreted that way, but insisted that this was not her intention. A correction was made on Jan. 24, 2024 An earlier version of this obituary misstated Melanie's surname. It was Safka, not Satka.