The first snowflake? Melenie 1970

Did a little research online. Melanie describes herself as a Libertarian.

She was a follower of the Sufi mystic, Meher Baba as was Pete Townshend and several other rock & roll luminaries. Meher Baba was the originator of the term “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”, taken up in a song composed by Bobby McFarrin.

I must confess that I had the hots for Melanie back in the day, of course a perfectly normal thing for a 16 or 17 kid into the music scene.

I bought all her albums up to Stoneground Words and, while not disliking her after that I haven't really followed her too much since.

I really would not call Melanie a snowflake. While her persona was that of the archetypal "Hippie Chick" I don't believe she was a druggie, or a dropout, in fact, I seem to recall that she managed her own career and formed her own record company.

Contrast this with another singer of those times, Linda Ronstadt, who became a totally bat-schiff, leftist. In fact she was so far left she dropped off the edge of the world.

Going back to Melanie, I mentioned the album "Stonefround Words". I was listening almost exclusively to Rock and Progressive Rock and wouldn't have given the time of day to the EZ orchestral arrangements on the album, but it was a Melanie album so I did and I give it a great deal of credit in expanding my musical horizons.

Back when Ronstadt was sane, she did three albums with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra which as a result of my exposure, in part to the Melanie album, became the go-to makings for special evenings, accompanied with a bottle of Champagne.

As far as female singers, in no particular order and in no means a complete list...

Sandy Dennis (Fairport Convention and Solo) - Who knew where the time went ? (Not the title of the song, just my play on the words)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oBMDcLf6WA

Maddie Prior (Steeleye Span and Solo)- Wont link to any one song, they're ALL worth listening to!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDc2FD-vy8M

Annie Haslam (Renaissance and Solo)- Annie in Wonderland -

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8a8cutYP7frJ_BNiYDtDO7qNDxBkyzZq

Judy Collins (Solo) A cover of the Sandy Dennis song

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

Ronnie Spector (Solo) - On this list if for no other reason than "Baby Please Don't Go" every Christmas.

Sarah Brightman (Opera, Solo)

Patricia Janečková (Solo) - Already one of the world's greatest sopranos she could very well become one of the best who ever lived.

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

Enya (Solo) - Yeah, I know it's Enya but you can't argue with the etherial qualities of both her voice and production values.

Janice Joplin (Solo)

Bonnie Tyler (Solo)

Floor Jansen (Nightwish) - You will be gobsmacked if you've never seen them before !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V_eoR6r1Tw

Compared to the examples above I don't think that, technically Melanie is a world class vocalist but, just as in the case of Janice Joplin and others, the "honesty" of the performance, (not exactly the right word here), of the presentation overcomes the technical shortcomings.

Why didn’t any of my hotlinks actually hotlink when I posted my comments ? AFAK they all work if you cut and paste them.

Any thoughts ?

The hyperlink will work if you place the URL to be linked within the quotations, write the hyperlink after the second angle bracket, then write bracket-slash-a-bracket:
< a href="http...">hyperlink< /a >
Don't do as I did and put a space between the first angle bracket and a href... or between the bracket and slash or a and the final bracket. I put the spaces in so it would show up on the screen in this post.

I’m sorry for the late reply, as you became mesmerized by Melenie I was becoming mesmerized by Marcia Brady, ah the 70’s.LOL!