Brand New Key (1971)

Performer: Melanie Safka                                    Writer: Melanie Safka
Highest US Chart Position: #1                             Label: Neighborhood Records
Musicians: Melanie, Roger Kellaway, Don Payne, Buddy Saltzman and Johnny Pacheco

I have very little memory of pop music before 1973, but the songs from then that are still lodged in my memory remain very distinct. One of those is “Brand New Key” by Melanie Safka, which was a huge number one hit in the fall of 1971. And while this particular memory has nothing specific attached to it, I clearly remember being conscious of the song at the time. Looking back, it’s easy to see why. Though the obvious double entendre of the title is no doubt responsible for the early popularity of the song, there’s a lot more going on that accounts for its chart longevity than just a childish song about sex. The most obvious thing is the deceptive nature of Melanie’s voice. While she seems to chant the lyrics in a childlike sing-song, the quality of her voice is anything but childish. There’s a plaintive cry to her vocals, accompanied by a distinctive vibrato that augurs much more than a playground rhyme set to music. As the song progresses her voice seems to get stronger and more assured, and when she makes the declaration that she’s “done all right for a girl” it seems to be a naked reference to the women’s movement that was already in full swing by this time. And yet she is still able to convey an inescapable truth when she sings at the end of the last verse that, “I’m okay alone, but you’ve got something I need.”

The tune begins quite simply, with Melanie’s guitar playing a very light, almost syncopated beat. After one bar Roger Kellaway’s piano enters in the upper register and then plays a heavy ascending bass run for three beats, along with Don Payne’s bass, hitting the downbeat of the third bar on one where, a beat later, Melanie begins her vocals. The rather simple sounding accompaniment is actually fairly dense with percussion, particularly the brushed snare drum of Buddy Saltzman, along with a cabasa, a guiro. and Johnny Pacheco’s congas. But all of the instruments are playing in a percussive manner, Kellaway’s piano most of all. He provides a sort of upper register dissonant counter melody on the chorus that gives the effect of a child’s toy piano without being so obvious as to use one, and it’s an impressive effect. The lyrics that Melanie wrote and sings on the chorus, of her brand new pair of roller skates and her anonymous second person boy with his brand new key has to be one of the best hooks of the decade. The second verse is supported by a chorus of backup singers, primarily male, which is another interesting wrinkle, and instead of a second chorus they set up a rhythmic chant while the band comps and Melanie sings a wordless vocal over the top, which leads into the third verse. The third verse and chorus are filled out with the backup singers alternating long held notes with the rhythmic pattern from the pseudo bridge, and after the final chorus is it just the percussion that is left to fade the song to the end.

The song debuted in the Hot 100 at number 87 on the day before Halloween in 1971, and began a steady climb up the charts hitting number two six weeks later in the middle of December. On Christmas day it reached the top spot and stayed there for two more weeks. But what is most impressive about the song is not the three weeks it stayed at number one, but that it held the number two spot for three more weeks with only Don McLean’s “American Pie” keeping it out of a longer run at the summit. And it still only dropped to number three the following week before its inevitable fall. Even with that, however, Melanie’s song stayed on the charts for thee more weeks until the end of February 1972. The B-Side of the single is “Some Say (I Got Devil),” a minor key ballad featuring strings and the guitar work of Sal DeTroia, who played on the entire album. I had no idea of the adult nature of the song when I heard it in grade school, but hearing it again as an adult makes it clear that it was that aspect that accounted for its incredible popularity. Though “Brand New Key” can obviously be interpreted as sexual innuendo--and some stations banned the record because of it--as is often the case that was not Melanie’s intention when she wrote it. Nevertheless, it is one of the most distinctive songs of the era, as well as my own childhood.