This Day In Music History: Anne Murray and You Needed Me

On this day in music history #1 song in the country on November 4, 1978 was one of my favorites. It was You Needed Me sung by Anne Murray, written by Randy Goodrum and produced by Jim Ed Norman. It was the biggest hit song of Anne Murray’s career and at that time she had just came back off a two year retirement from show business. She took the time off to have a family. She gave birth to her son William and daughter Dawn during that time. A few years ago Anne recorded and preformed with her daughter. In one of my postings on the 70’s I tell of what Mr. Goodrum was told by publishers when they refused it. Thankfully someone did accept it as Anne recorded it on Capitol Records. Anne was born in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada. As a young girl she took piano and voice lessons. When she attended College she auditioned for a TV series called “Singalong Jubilee.” She was rejected but that turned out to be the longest wait for a call back any performer has had. It was two years later when she was called back to join a summer edition of the series. One of the producers of the series was William Langstroth. He would later become her husband. After college she taught high school but kept hearing from Brian Ahern, the musical director of the series. He kept offering to record her. Anne said, “I thought they were crazy. Singing was something you did in the bathtub and around bonfires. I felt there was no security in singing.” This was coming from the woman who paved the way for Céline Dion, Sarah McLachlan and Shania Twain. The woman, who would eventually sell millions of records, was one of Elvis’ favorite singers and whom John Lennon said that her version of "You Won't See Me" was the best Beatles cover ever. She even helped give validation to fans of the Monkees when she had a top 10 hit with her remake of Daydream Believer in 1979. Throughout the 70’s you weren’t cool if you liked the Monkees. When someone else had a hit with a remake of one of their songs showed the world what Monkees fans knew for years. The songs were good.

She finally gave in to Mr. Ahern’s persuasion and he got her a recording contract with a small label called Arc Records. This led to her getting a recording contract with Capitol where she had her first of many hits when she recorded the song Snowbird. Many of her songs were hits on the Pop, Country and Adult Contemporary charts. However, You Needed Me was her only one to reach #1 on the Pop charts.

In 1981 Anne had many hits with ballads. It was taking a toll on her as she yearned to record other material. She told Billboard “I’m sick of ballads…Everybody thinks I want to do ballads because that’s all I’ve ever done, and I’m not saying that I want to do rock…just something uptempo. Nobody ever sends me other kinds of material.” Over the years I have lost track of Anne’s career. I know she is still recording. I hope she has been able to record the more uptempo songs she wanted to.