Classic or Dud: Anne Murray

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Okay, now its time to take some heat!

I'll fully admit, at 22, I can clearly remember listening to Anne Murray no later than when I was 3, because she was one of the few acts my mother ever listened to... while a EXTREMELY VAST MAJORITY of her stuff is her take on gospel or pop and country "standards" she has an extremely pleasing voice. I'm not gonna go far and say she's the greatest thing to ever happen to female vocalists, BUT I've recently thought she'd sound great singing something like "Harvest Moon" by Neil Young or even getting really out there and singing "Dead Flowers" or "Wild Horses" by the Stones. If I were making a top-50 artists that I can listen to for any extended length of time, she'd most likely make the list. SO I'll give her classic.

Now its time to get ripped apart...

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Friday, 1 April 2005 07:03 (twenty years ago)

And to be fair, could you NOT see her singing any of Gordon Lightfoot's songs nearly flawlessly? Again, we'll let you decide if thats good or not...

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Friday, 1 April 2005 07:05 (twenty years ago)

Classic. Someone in my elementary school did a gymnastic routine to her cover of "Walk Right Back." And I've always loved the warmth in her voice even when the material wasn't my thing.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 1 April 2005 14:13 (twenty years ago)

Classic, I think. But I haven't heard her in like, 15 years.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 1 April 2005 14:17 (twenty years ago)

She has a very strong but soothing voice. Still, I can do without her. She'd be good as an aunt, but even if that made her records free, I still wouldn't listen to them.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 1 April 2005 14:25 (twenty years ago)

The only dud thing is that Kurt Warner's scary wife looks a bit like her.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 1 April 2005 14:46 (twenty years ago)

To me she always seemed to rise above the blandness and dudliness of her surroundings. For instance, her theme song "The Snowbird" (is this right?) seemed kind of corny but she rushed the vocal a little (in imitation of a bird flying?) in a way that made it interesting. Didn't she also do a good version of "Sideshow"?

(If my ILM experience tells me anything, it's that we are waiting on the opinion of the other potential "classic" voter, briania).

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 1 April 2005 15:02 (twenty years ago)

She did one of the great Beatles covers -- "You Won't See Me."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 1 April 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

When I was 8, my uncle and his wife took me to an Anne Murray concert at the Ottawa Exhibition. I can remember the giddy anticipation of my first concert and then the crushing disappointment.
I was expecting her to perform songs from the one Anne Murray album I owned, the legendary Hippo in the Bathtub. But instead of Teddy Bear's Picnic and my other favourites, she sang boring old people songs.
But I did get to go on some rides, so it wasn't a total loss.

― BanjoMania (Brilhante), Friday, 1 April 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

Hedwig to thread. What was the line about her?

― Sara Sherr, Saturday, 2 April 2005 00:45 (twenty years ago)

The dedication page of my college calculus textbook (written by Alan Marsden) reads: "For Anne Murray, a good Canadian." I assume this refers to the singer.

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Saturday, 2 April 2005 03:31 (twenty years ago)

Oceans of dud redeemed by a truly creamy voice and the night she dropped trou in Cedar Rapids.

― brianiac (briania), Saturday, 2 April 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

> the night she dropped trou in Cedar Rapids.

That's the night she was hung like an innocent man!

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 2 April 2005 03:58 (twenty years ago)

Vicki Lawrence, but still excelsior.

― brianiac (briania), Saturday, 2 April 2005 04:03 (twenty years ago)

Apparently Ann Murray is kd lang's favourite singer. That's got to mean something surely.

― kate/thank you friendly cloud (papa november), Saturday, 2 April 2005 06:10 (twenty years ago)

She is ultra ultra CLASSIC.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 2 April 2005 07:50 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

i need to listen to some of her stuff, have not heard it in 20 years at least!! my parents listened to this kind of stuff when i was a boy, there's got to be a few gems in there somewhere, no? anybody know of some unexpected, leftfield covers she did?

― timmy tannin (pompous), Sunday, 7 January 2007 04:00 (eighteen years ago)

As noted above, "You Won't See Me." Lennon called it the best Beatles cover.

― A Radio Picture (Rrrickey), Sunday, 7 January 2007 05:05 (eighteen years ago)

I envision that South Park character - I'm not sure of the name, but you know that song where they say "big fat.." whatever it is. Well I want to hear the song where the South Park characters sing "Anne Murray is a dud/a big fat dud/..." etc.

― Good Warlock of the West (Bimble...), Sunday, 7 January 2007 05:12 (eighteen years ago)

my favourite is "Talk It Over In The Morning", written by roger nichols and paul williams.

i remember her horrible CBC christmas specials from when i was young. "soft favourite" radio stations are full of her bland covers of big american songs - she's a cancon hero. with good material i like her voice a lot, but she's often just really dull.

― derrick (derrick), Sunday, 7 January 2007 21:43 (eighteen years ago)

six years pass...

just discovered her, love her voice. I can see how she could get a bit samey though.

― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Monday, 11 March 2013 02:51 (twelve years ago)

I kind of have a thing for easy listening/soft rock. While a lot of it is bland, it tends to be a source of great arrangements, solid songwriting, good voices, skilled studio musicians, etc.

― space phwoar (Hurting 2), Monday, 11 March 2013 02:55 (twelve years ago)

nothing reminds me of childhood like anne murray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2sKQReBgdI

― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Monday, 11 March 2013 03:14 (twelve years ago)

also "inchworm" is extreeeeeeemely creepy

― and that sounds like a gong-concert (La Lechera), Monday, 11 March 2013 03:21 (twelve years ago)

Anne Murray's new memoir blows the lid off her image as the fresh-faced all-Canadian singing sensation.
In a fast-paced and revealing autobiography, the 64-year-old superstar from Springhill, N.S., will surprise some when she announces that she was having an affair with her now ex-husband, Bill Langstroth, while he was still married to his first wife.
Murray also admits that she smoked marijuana -- again, at odds with her long-standing, wholesome, girl-next-door image.
She also admits that she was once so inebriated that she peed on famous composer and jazz trumpeter Herb Albert's pants while sitting on his lap in a cab in the Bahamas at the start of her show business career.

― buzza, Monday, 11 March 2013 03:59 (twelve years ago)

Murray has always attracted a strong lesbian fan base but insists she has never swung that way herself. One of her gay female admirers told her that gay women were looking for strong, independent, approachable women as role models, and "I definitely fit that bill."
Her singing idol was the late Dusty Springfield, who came on to her and then drunkenly scratched Langstroth's face after Anne spurned her.

― buzza, Monday, 11 March 2013 04:01 (twelve years ago)

two years pass...

New Wave Anne Murray three years too late (but covered by Hazell Dean anyway):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frf2H8qV0uw

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 March 2015 12:17 (ten years ago)

seven years pass...

my favourite is "Talk It Over In The Morning", written by roger nichols and paul williams.
― derrick (derrick), Sunday, January 7, 2007

Mine too, easily--very much in that late-'60s, Bacharach-with-French-horns mode.

This picture of her signing autographs yesterday showed up on my FB wall. Her centre is a non-profit: "All of the revenue generated from the operation of the Centre is used to provide employment for local people and for the ongoing maintenance of the Centre."

https://annemurraycentre.com/

https://phildellio.tripod.com/murray.jpg

― clemenza, Sunday, 31 July 2022 19:11 (two years ago)

Missed that Herb Alpert anecdote from 9 years ago. That is beautiful.

― Josefa, Sunday, 31 July 2022 21:59 (two years ago)

You put me high upon a pedestal
So high that I could almost pee eternally
You made me pee, you made me pee

― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Sunday, 31 July 2022 22:12 (two years ago)

Spread your tiny wings and fly away
And take your pee back with you
Where it came from on that day
The one I love forever is untrue
And if I could you know that I would
Pee your pants for you

― maf you one two (maffew12), Sunday, 31 July 2022 22:23 (two years ago)

anyway, that Anne Murray / Wet Leg collaboration is going to be one for the ages. it will put “Justified and Ancient” to shame.

― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Sunday, 31 July 2022 23:06 (two years ago)

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