She first came to notice in the UK with her 1970 cover of the Rolling Stones song Ruby Tuesday, which I featured here.
Her biggest UK hit was Brand New Key, parodied by The Wurzels as The Combine Harvester.
I’ve chosen her second UK hit (no 39 in 1970) What Have They Done to My Song Ma (aka Look What They’ve Done to My Song Ma) partly for the verse in French but also since I always wanted to write a parody of it entitled Look What They’ve Done to My Team Ma. (By ‘team’ I meant the mighty Sons of the Rock.) I never got round to that of course.
Melanie: What Have They Done to My Song Ma
Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (Melanie): 3/2/1947 – January 23/1/2024. So it goes.
Pedant’s corner:- Both of the song’s titles surely ought to have a comma after ‘Song’ and the ‘what’ one, a question mark at its end.
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, never really one to seek the limelight so it’s a bit ironic he was a member of one of the biggest entertainment acts of the last 60 years, has died. He was a key contributor to that act’s sound.
I was of course aware of The Rolling Stones from frequent TV appearances before 1966 but that was the year my family finally got a transistor radio and I could listen to the radio on my own. As a result Let’s Spend the Night Together was the first Stones track that really made an impact on me.
This is a clip I remember vividly from Top of the Pops and shows Mick Jagger’s ability to sell a song. He’s moving around so much that the cameraman’s close-up fails to keep him in shot. Charlie drum rolls on this are delicious, though, and make the track.
As I recall some DJs and radio stations in the US objected to the implication in the song’s title and demanded it be changed to Let’s Spend Some Time Together.
The Rolling Stones: Let’s Spend the Night Together
That single’s double A-side, Ruby Tuesday, features some more signature drumming by Charlie.
The Rolling Stones: Ruby Tuesday
Charles Robert (Charlie) Watts: 2/6/1941 – 24/8/2021. So it goes.
Another one from 1970 but this is one of the great cover versions. A Jagger-Richard composition, Melanie (Safka) invests Ruby Tuesday with much more emotion than Jagger ever could.
