Anne Murray
singer-songwriter | born 1945
BornMorna Anne Murray June 20, 1945 in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Canada
Biographyby Rachel Giese
Anne Murray is one of the most successful Canadian singers of all time, a genre-hopping talent who blazed a path for artists like Shania Twain and Céline Dion. Few other artists’ careers can be measured in such staggering numbers: Murray has sold more than 54 million albums and received four Grammys, three American Music Awards, three Canadian Country Music Association Awards and 24 JUNOS. Now officially retired from the music industry, she pursues a variety of charitable efforts, most notably in support of colon cancer research and treatment.
IN DEPTH
Anne Murray, Canada’s fresh-faced diva, required no embellishments. On stage, there were no backup dancers, glittery costumes, or over-the-top theatrics—sometimes she just performed barefoot. The former phys-ed teacher, with her no-fuss hairdo and Ivory soap prettiness, seduced her fans with nothing more than a slight sway, a sly smile and that voice, a lush alto as pure and clear as a northern lake.
Even her breakthrough hit was a low-key creation. “Snowbird” was the B-side of the second single from her second album, 1969’s This Is My Way. A catchy and deceptively simple tune, it offers an infectious combination of bouncy tempo, country twang, and swooping orchestration, culminating in a scale-climbing finish. But contrasting that breezy pop sound is a bitter account, told in an economical two minutes, of heartbreak and false love. “Snowbird” tore up pop and country charts and Murray became the first female Canadian solo artist to be awarded an American gold record.
Murray began singing as a child, accompanying her idols Buddy Holly and Connie Francis when she heard them on the radio. She went on to study piano, take classical voice lessons and secure a slot on the CBC variety show Singalong Jubilee in 1966. When fame struck in her twenties, she didn’t take to it easily. She became a regular on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and toured extensively through the early 1970s, but hated life on the road. “Those weren’t very happy days,” she told People magazine in 1979. Her hard-partying band was always drunk or stoned, and she was so anxious it made her ill. “‘Why am I here?’ I asked myself. I was a wreck.”
She feared becoming a one-hit wonder, but by the mid-’70s, Murray was a crossover sensation and bona fide star, with airplay on country, pop, and adult contemporary radio, soaring on the strength of tunes like “Danny’s Song” (1973), “A Love Song” (1974), and “You Needed Me” (1978). Her musical admirers included Johnny Cash, Harry Nilsson and Elvis, and she was romantically pursued by Brian Mulroney, Dusty Springfield and Burt Reynolds. Eschewing the temptations of celebrity, Murray settled into a quiet family life in Toronto with her husband, music producer Bill Langstroth, and their two children.
But as she revealed in her 2009 memoir All of Me, there was a shadow side to her good- girl image—namely that she began her relationship with her husband while he was still married to his first wife. And her own family’s perfect public facade was shown to have cracks, when her daughter opened up about developing an eating disorder after feeling abandoned by her busy, famous mother. Long the subject, too, of gossip regarding her sexuality, Murray ended up garnering a substantial lesbian fan base.
While she continued to record and perform extensively through the ’80s and ’90s, going on to record children’s albums and collections of duets, Murray’s career never again reached its late ’70s peak. She announced her retirement not long after her memoir was released, but her body of work continues to set a standard for other artists, among them K.D. Lang. When Lang was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2013, she said of Murray, “This one had a huge impact on me. . . I had the biggest crush on her and I still do.”
Anne Murray is one of the most successful Canadian singers of all time, a genre-hopping talent who blazed a path for artists like Shania Twain and Céline Dion. Few other artists’ careers can be measured in such staggering numbers: Murray has sold more than 54 million albums and received four Grammys, three American Music Awards, three Canadian Country Music Association Awards and 24 JUNOS. Now officially retired from the music industry, she pursues a variety of charitable efforts, most notably in support of colon cancer research and treatment.
IN DEPTH
Anne Murray, Canada’s fresh-faced diva, required no embellishments. On stage, there were no backup dancers, glittery costumes, or over-the-top theatrics—sometimes she just performed barefoot. The former phys-ed teacher, with her no-fuss hairdo and Ivory soap prettiness, seduced her fans with nothing more than a slight sway, a sly smile and that voice, a lush alto as pure and clear as a northern lake.
Even her breakthrough hit was a low-key creation. “Snowbird” was the B-side of the second single from her second album, 1969’s This Is My Way. A catchy and deceptively simple tune, it offers an infectious combination of bouncy tempo, country twang, and swooping orchestration, culminating in a scale-climbing finish. But contrasting that breezy pop sound is a bitter account, told in an economical two minutes, of heartbreak and false love. “Snowbird” tore up pop and country charts and Murray became the first female Canadian solo artist to be awarded an American gold record.
Murray began singing as a child, accompanying her idols Buddy Holly and Connie Francis when she heard them on the radio. She went on to study piano, take classical voice lessons and secure a slot on the CBC variety show Singalong Jubilee in 1966. When fame struck in her twenties, she didn’t take to it easily. She became a regular on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and toured extensively through the early 1970s, but hated life on the road. “Those weren’t very happy days,” she told People magazine in 1979. Her hard-partying band was always drunk or stoned, and she was so anxious it made her ill. “‘Why am I here?’ I asked myself. I was a wreck.”
She feared becoming a one-hit wonder, but by the mid-’70s, Murray was a crossover sensation and bona fide star, with airplay on country, pop, and adult contemporary radio, soaring on the strength of tunes like “Danny’s Song” (1973), “A Love Song” (1974), and “You Needed Me” (1978). Her musical admirers included Johnny Cash, Harry Nilsson and Elvis, and she was romantically pursued by Brian Mulroney, Dusty Springfield and Burt Reynolds. Eschewing the temptations of celebrity, Murray settled into a quiet family life in Toronto with her husband, music producer Bill Langstroth, and their two children.
But as she revealed in her 2009 memoir All of Me, there was a shadow side to her good- girl image—namely that she began her relationship with her husband while he was still married to his first wife. And her own family’s perfect public facade was shown to have cracks, when her daughter opened up about developing an eating disorder after feeling abandoned by her busy, famous mother. Long the subject, too, of gossip regarding her sexuality, Murray ended up garnering a substantial lesbian fan base.
While she continued to record and perform extensively through the ’80s and ’90s, going on to record children’s albums and collections of duets, Murray’s career never again reached its late ’70s peak. She announced her retirement not long after her memoir was released, but her body of work continues to set a standard for other artists, among them K.D. Lang. When Lang was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2013, she said of Murray, “This one had a huge impact on me. . . I had the biggest crush on her and I still do.”
artist, singer-songwriter | 1950 - 1996
Contemporary Country Singer-Songwriter | born 1961
