Brand New Key

Album: Gather Me (1971)
Charted: 4 1
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  • I rode my bicycle past your window last night
    I roller skated to your door at daylight
    It almost seems like you're avoiding me
    I'm okay alone, but you got something I need

    Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates
    You got a brand new key
    I think that we should get together and try them out, you see
    I been looking around a while, you got something for me
    Oh, I got a brand new pair of roller skates
    You got a brand new key

    I asked your mother if you were at home
    She said, "Yes", but you weren't alone
    Oh, sometimes I think that you're avoiding me
    I'm okay alone, but you got something I need

    Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates
    You got a brand new key
    I think that we should get together and try them out, you see
    I been looking around a while, you got something for me
    Oh, I got a brand new pair of roller skates
    You got a brand new key

    I ride my bike, I roller skate, don't drive no car
    Don't go too fast, but I go pretty far
    For somebody who don't drive I been all around the world
    Some people say she done alright for a girl

    Oh yeah, oh yeah
    Oh yeah yeah yeah
    Oh yeah yeah

    I got a brand new pair of roller skates
    You got a brand new key
    I got a brand new pair of roller skates
    You got a brand new key
    I got a brand new pair of roller skates
    You got a brand new key Writer/s: Melanie Safka
    Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 37

  • Larry Winfield from Houston TexasThat background chorus adds a lot to the song. Who were those guys?
  • Shawn from AzI first heard the 45 record of this song in the earlier months of 1971. The claim that it was released in October has to be incorrect unless it was October 1970. By October 1971 I was living in a different town making the scenario which I first heard it an impossibility.
  • George from Vancouver, Canadapretty sure this is a double entendre sex song. Roller skates = freshly of age; key = penis. From salon.com: Melanie's innocent little girl vocals aren't necessarily all that innocent. And if you think she didn't mean it, remember that for somebody who doesn't drive, she's been all around the world. Also, dshje compasres herrun around nsature to that associated usually only with boys.
  • Oliver Clothesoff from Over There I guess Melanie's spirit voice was Ronald McDonald.
  • Loretta Livengood from Cincinnati 64 and still roller skate
  • Mary Odell from Rural Michigan As a 77 year old music lover I was so happy to stumble onto Melanie’s wonderful song. Somewhere in this rambling farm house I have the Album! Also I did skate with the heavy steel skates and we wore our keys around our necks on a string and occasionally we would lose them and we would have to buy a new key!
  • Davy from OaklandGetting a brand new pair of roller skates makes sense, but why would someone get a brand new key?
  • Yo! from Philly... And don't forget the big hit song: "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll" By Vaughan Mason And Crew. It's still popular in rollerskating rinks today!...give it a listen and roll back to the '80s, when people actually wore roller skates in the night clubs...it was awesome!
  • Susan from Atlanta, GeorgiaI normally don't comment about songs I don't particularly care for and don't even seek them out, but since this song seems to be universally loved except by me, I thought maybe I was missing something and came here to gain enlightenment about it. Nope, nuthin'. I just don't get the attraction. Sorry.
  • Ekristheh from HalathWow, speculations galore, although not as many as Hotel California! Here's my impression: Melanie wrote many songs about a woman pursuing a man who was not interested, a woman who can't seem to find the right guy, or who returns from a trip to find her husband or boyfriend in bed with another woman. "Any Guy," "I'm Back in Town", "I Really Loved Harold" and "Take Me Home" come to mind. So I think we can be reasonably sure that's what's going on here, along with the 1930s style theme which many of her songs have. Often a jaunty, upbeat or carousel sound accompanies the saddest and loneliest lyrics.
  • Seventhmist from 7th HeavenA sadly departed friend of mine loved to playfully spoof songs and her take on this one was "You've got a brand new box of condoms and I've got an IUD...I think that we should get together and try 'em out, you see. Maybe we'll just have a good time, or maybe I'll have a bay-bee, cuz you've got a brand new box of condoms and I've got an IUD..."
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn October 24th 1971, "Brand New Key" by Melanie entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart at position #87; and eight weeks later on December 19th, 1971 it peaked at #1 {for 3 weeks} and spent 18 weeks on the Top 100...
    It also reached #1 in Australia; and the record it knocked out of the top spot, "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)" by Benny Hill???
    Between April 1970 and December 1973 she had nine Top 100 records; with two reaching the Top 10, her other Top 10 record was "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), it peaked at #6 in 1970...
    Melanie Anne Safka will celebrate her 68th birthday in four months on February 3rd {2015}.
  • Paul from Wilton, CtInteresting,

    Melanie was a Folk Favorite in New York City, but never played the Fillmore East.

    Promoter Bill Graham had said that Melanie was 'perfect' for outdoor festivals and Hippie gatherings, but not the wilder concert hall venue's.

  • Brian from Slacks Creek, AustraliaI have an album of Melanie's - acoustic blue- which is live recordings and on it she speaks about Brand New Key. She expresses disappointment about how the song turned out but goes to lengths to explain that the key (pardon the pun) to the song was the line "some people say I've done alright for a girl". You can draw your own conclusions from this.
  • Paul from Southern Pines, NcUnfortunately for Melanie, this song turned her from an 'Earthy Hippie/Folk-Rock' musician, into a 'Novelty Act by 1972.

    The 'Hippie Movement' was fading by mid-1971, after it hit it's 'pinnacle' in 1970.....and Melanie was a 'lost' Folk-Rock Musician.
  • Paul from Southern Pines, NcFor the person who said Melanie was using Leon Redbone's style.

    You are way off.

    Leon Redbone was born in 1949, and wasn't playing Clubs until 1974/1975.

    Melanie recorded this song in July 1971 for her 'Gather Me' Album which was released in October 1971.

    Melanie heard many of these 1930's 'catchy' Pop Tunes while she was playing her Folk Music in the small
    Club Scene in Lower New York from 1968 thru 1972.

    Though the song was a 'commercial success', and her best selling record, 'Brand New Key' didn't sit well with
    her loyal 'Hippie and Earthy' fan base, who felt that she sold out to 'The Man' with a 'Pop Single'.
  • Paul from Southern Pines, NcMelanie herself stated, that the song had nothing to do with sexual innuendo.

    The song was a fastly written 'light-hearted tune', with no serious deep expression in the song. Melanie said, that people can take it anyway they want it.
    Her own words were, that it was a 1930's period song, that had some catchy-phrases and was rhythmically balanced.

    Melanie, from Astoria, Queens, New York - was a popular Folk Singer in and around the New York Scene from 1967 thru 1972. This song was recorded in July 1971,
    and was part of her 'Gather Me' Album (released in October 1971). The song 'Brand New Key' was released as a single, and reached the #1 U.S. Billboard
    Charts in December 1971 and January 1972.

    Though the words in the song include 'Freudian Symbols' and have a 'double meaning', (ie; 'I go pretty far' and 'You've got something I need'), the phrases
    were not part of a 'double entendre'.

    The song is nothing more than a 'Cute Pop Song', with some 'catchy phrases' and a rhythmically balanced 1930's Pop Tune, with a 'Novelty Feel'.
  • Glen from Torrance, CaNo one yet seems to have gotten the point. Sex? No question about that........drugs?......not likely...but....It's so obviously about puberty!......"I've got a brand new pair of roller skates....you've got a brand new key........"....do we need to be hit over the head here?......."Let's try them out to see........" And what do we get with all those brand new skates and keys? Teen pregnancy, among other things.............
  • Esskayess from Dallas, TxSame double-entendre as Ghostbusters, with 'keymaster' and 'gatekeeper.'
  • Edward from Henderson, NvThis is not a song about rollerskating; it's about a pushy girl chasing a guy who's not interested. See also Jim Stafford's "Spiders and Snakes."
  • Dan from New York, NyThe Dollyrots do a great cover of this, available on their 2007 album, 'Because I'm Awesome.'
  • Mel from Haverhill, MaMy parents loved this son hence how i got my name
  • Fred from Laurel, MdN.B. I haven't heard Ms. McPhee's, but I do remember Melanie's recording.
  • Fred from Laurel, MdAmerican Idol 5th season 1st-runner-up (she finished behind winner Taylor Hicks), Katharine McPhee, just covered this song on her new album, UnBroken. 2010/01/07
  • Joe from Fort Meade, MdThis is the song that is playing in the background when "Roller Girl" (Heather Graham) has sex with "Dirk Diggler" (Mark Wahlberg) in "Boogie Nights" (which is actually a really good movie if you give it a chance). The song is beyond appropriate for the scene and works on multiple levels.

    Dirk (to a nude Roller Girl who is on top of him): Aren't you going to take your roller skates off?

    Roller Girl: I NEVER take my roller skates off.

    When I first saw the movie I totally didn't get it (admittedly I was probably too young to be watching it and under "influences" at the time), now I watch that scene and laugh my ass off at the tongue-in-cheek humor prevalent throughout the scene.
  • Linc from Beaumont, TxThis song works on many levels. It's about sex, it's about drugs, it's about innocence. And it's about liking an older guy who doesn't notice you...in essence - it's every teenager girl's song. And it probably was written in 15 minutes...
  • Norm from Detroit, InThis is such a cute song, Grown ups hear it one way and children hear it another way, I have a friend this song helps me think of
  • Chris from Sterling, VaOf course this about sex. For one more clue, listen to the background vocal, "Hump,Ha-HA,Hump, Ha-HA....

    It's only slightly less subtle than The Beatles background vocal on "Girl, Girl" (tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit.)
  • Howard from St. Louis Park, MnWho would have thought that a novelty record like "Brand New Key" would become Melanie's biggest hit, even on her own Neighborhood Records label. I disagree with the person who posted that the lyrics were a reference to drugs. To me there were no drug references in the song, although some radio stations banned the song because it was too weird.
  • Jackjackjackie from Melbourne, AustraliaI always thought this song was about drugs and the "key" referred to a Kilo of cocaine. "I'm ok alone but you got sumthin i need". Its not the sex she wants.
  • Charles from Bronxville, NyHere are some lines from this wonderfully cute but throroughly dirty song:

    "Don't go to fast but I go pretty far"
    "I've been all around the world"
    "But you got something I need"

    What is this about??
  • Rob from Sv, AzI think this song is about the power of innocence. Her roller skates vs the technology of the car, yet it is the marriage of yin and yang - old ways and technology that is needed. Hence, "I'm ok a lone, but you've got something I need." The lyrics "done all right for a girl," show that although she doesn't use technology, she's been around the world. Just being a girl is being innocent. This power of innocence is found in stories throughout time: the Chinese Neh Zah, the Polynesian Maui, Santo Nino de Atoche, Tweety Bird, and the Baby Jesus, just to name a few.
  • John from Anaheim, CaYeah I agree its about sex. For a song written in 15 minutes it has very clever lyrics. "I ride my bike, I roller skate don't drive no car" is a clear reference to her virginity.
  • Dave from Scottsdale, AzI always thought it was Nookie she just got.
  • R from Seattle, WaCan anybody think of a song with MORE double-entendres?
  • Tanya from Los Angeles, CaThis song is about sex, virginity and her desire to give to a particular guy. I'm not buying any other explanations.
  • Lisa from Brampton, CanadaThis song is so obviously about sex.
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