Melanie, Long Branch singer who became star at Woodstock, dies
Melanie, the Jersey Shore native whose performance at Woodstock made her a star, passed away Tuesday, Jan 23, her family announced Wednesday, Jan 24, on social media.
She was 76.
Her hits included “Brand New Key,” “What Have They Done to My Song Ma,” “Beautiful People” and “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” but she was largely an unknown when she played at Woodstock in the summer of 1969.
Her mom drove her up to the fest from her home in the Elberon section of Long Branch.
“It was just me and my mother,” said Melanie, aka Melanie Safka-Schekeryk, to the USA Today Network New Jersey in 2018. “I didn't have a band. I didn't have a roadie. I didn't have Peter (Schekeryk), my husband, manager and who was my producer. I was relatively unknown, especially in America.”
Melanie's “Beautiful People” was generating a bit of underground buzz at the time. “Someone came up to me and said ‘Melanie, we're going to go up to the helicopter,' ” Melanie said. “So my mother and me and my guitar start running toward the helicopter. My guitar wasn't even in a case. It was hung over my back. We get to the helicopter door and the guy in change says ‘Who's she?' I said, ‘Oh, it's my mother.' He goes ‘No mom, sorry mom, bye mom,' and it was just me and I got into the helicopter.”
Melanie went on a few hours later at 11 p.m. Her set included “Beautiful People.”
“People really connected quickly with me and it instantly resonated with 500,000 people at that one moment,” Melanie said. “I walked on the stage an unknown person and walked off a celebrity.”
Melanie, who attended Long Branch and Red Bank high schools, lived in Tennessee and had taken a hiatus from the Jersey Shore music scene for several decades. She became a more regular presence in the area after being inducted into Red Bank Regional High School's “Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame” in 2015.
Jersey Shore singer Karen Mansfield posted a cover version of Melanie's “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” with the Asbury Park Love Contingent during the COVID lockdown.
“It wasn't up a day or two before I received a message from Melanie herself through (Facebook) Messenger complimenting me on our rendition of her song!” Mansfield said. “That was just epic!”
Mansfield as a child accompanied her uncle, an electrician, when he did contractual work on Melanie's home in Lincroft.
“There were lots of female artists to inspire me, but there was only one Melanie,” Mansfield said. “Her being from around these parts and being exactly who she was, an independent artist through and through, her whole vibe —that is more than a major inspiration.”
Melanie's children — Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred — said that information about a celebration of life would be forthcoming on the Wednesday post announcing her passing.
“She was one of the most talented, strong and passionate women of the era, and every word she wrote, every note she sang reflected that,” said Melanie's children. “Our world is much dimmer, the colors of a dreary, rainy Tennessee pale with her absence today, but we know that she is still here, smiling down on all of us, on all of you, from the stars.”
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Contact Chris Jordan at @chrisfhjordan; cjordan@app.com