Remember when they tried to make Anne Murray sexy?

They tried and failed.

I like a lot her recordings a lot but whenever I see her I can't get "gym teacher" out of my mind.

[quote] I like a lot her recordings a lot

Am I allowed to Oh, Dear myself?

Helen Reddy

Celine Dion comes to mind.

Helen Reddy is a great answer.

Bette Midler, Reddy and Murray are like the triumvirate of unsexy singers from English-speaking countries.

I am curious if any DL music snobs have an opinion on Anne's voice? I find her voice very distinctive but don't know if I say she's a "great singer".

LOL, OP. I do love that Now and Forever song. The video is hilarious. Some guy ten years younger is chasing after with his cunty French girlfriend one step behind. Plus the omnipresent 80s drafting table.

Bette Midler, like Madonna, was sexual, though. Different category to Murray.

An 80s time capsule. The trendy art gallery as a background. The huge, manky looking fur coat and big black leather jacket, feathered hairstyles. Just awful. I love it.

You can hear the dykeiness in her voice. I did when I was a kid

Op's tune is dreadful. I don't recognize it. But I love that video.

In the 1970s, you don’t have to be sexy if you could sing. Lots of male rock singers were ugly as fuck but they could still sing and play instruments.

I love her.

[quote]An 80s time capsule. The trendy art gallery as a background. The huge, manky looking fur coat and big black leather jacket, feathered hairstyles. Just awful. I love it.

Don't forget the kicky fuchsia "better separates" blazer.

I was 13 when "Snowbird" was released. I bought the 45 and played it over and over again. I learned never to disclose this sort of information with my middle school's male students...

I think that is what they were trying with this video as well. The guy is pretty sexy, but is he really what Anne wants?

Kelly Marie looked like a man in drag.

I'm so old I remember when they tried to make Jan Murray sexy.

[quote]Kelly Marie looked like a man in drag.

This video has everything: her little judo chop, the backup dancers dressed up like gold lamé condoms, and the way she's constantly looking at the wrong camera.

R20 I thought her story about the short-armed man was hilarious.

Kelly Marie wishes she had these backing dancers.

She's like a glass of tepid milk.

Hazell Dean stole Anne's hit.

I like some of Anne’s music but it’s not the stuff you listen to to stay awake on a road trip.

Now, good ole Helen Reddy was 99.99% more theatrical and much more fun.

They crossed paths many times. I wonder how they got on?

[quote]Was there ever a less sexy singer than Anne Murray?

I can think of any number of female Canadian singers.

Hmmm...

Dusty touched her deeply.

Anne's look in that video really is peak mid-80s career woman glamour.

That SCTV parody was hilarious

Dusty viciously slapped Anne's husband.

As a Canadian, don't you dare say anything bad about Canada's Snowbird. Don't you dare!!!

I have always loved this song. I was a 10-year-old gayling when this song came out. The parent album it came from, Something to Talk About, steered her back to a more pop sound. She sang "Who's Leaving Who" before Hazell Dean did two years later. (It appears the album is named after the Bonnie Raitt song, which Anne foolishly turned down). 1986 was the year of True Blue, Control, and True Colors. But Anne got hip for a short minute and this cassette was in heavy rotation with those other albums for me.

Although Now and Forever was supposed to give Anne a big pop hit, it flopped on the pop charts but hit #1... on the country charts.

About 15 years ago, Anne Murray's albums were reissued. I bought all of them and I have to say her early albums, produced by Brian Ahern, were really strong.

But I enjoyed Anne's short minute as a pop diva. There was even a 12" of this song.

Anne Murray is my all time favorite Canadian singer. She always seemed laid back and down to earth didn't walk around half naked like the female singers of today. She's a gem and a jewel from another era. By the way, she turned 76 last June.

She was too rich and polished to look like the gym teacher. She looked like the lezzy HS English Teacher who is also a girls sports coach, but only the preppy sports such as tennis, golf or skiing.

Anne Murray then and now. She has 2 children and has been divorced from her husband for years now. She denies all the lesbian rumors.

She looks very Canadian.

My “all time favourite Canadian singer” is still pretty faint praise.

R38 She has a beautiful, soothing voice. Let's hear yours!!!

R20. Merciless.

I've always found Gloria Estefan to be completely unsexy.

She was a real frump in the early years of Miami Sound Machine. They tried like hell to glam her up when she went solo, but no matter how much money they threw at her hair, wardrobe and makeup, she still always looked like a dumpy frau.

[quote] My “all time favourite Canadian singer” is still pretty faint praise.

Fuck you.

She’s ugly but I like op’s song

OMG. I can’t believe I watched that - it’ll take me weeks to work Anne Murray out of my YouTube algorithm. But I couldn’t look away.

It’s amazing how they spared NO EXPENSE on this desperate re-launch of her career!

It certainly proves that Anne was no actress. Imagine the shots they didn’t use. She’s like a plank of wood with the stance of a gorilla. I have to think she was wearing a tool belt under that fur coat. Why didn’t they just cast her as a plumber?

Can any Canadians on this thread inform us of the cultural impact this had in her native country? We make fun but it probably won 10 Juno Awards that year.

During the bridge she looks like she’s passing a particularly hard stool.

R44

No. I don’t have a TV.

I remember seeing that video as a kid and thinking, "Man, Toronto sure looks COLD!" (I also liked the song.)

You and me we got a destiny starting tonight-night-night. Now and forever…..

Her songs are full of 'who's', 'you's' and 'the one'. At least she never lied.

"she looks like she’s passing a particularly hard stool"

Nut loaf?

Leave Anne alone!!

Terri Clark would give Anne a run for her money when it came to being a butch female Canadian country singer.

WEHT Terri Clark? Still married to the merkin?

I remember this. I took more umbrage with her use of echo in the chorus of Now and Forever.

(starting tonight....ight.....ight.....ight)

As mentioned above, "Now and Forever" flopped on the pop charts, but hit #1 on the country chart; she only had one more top 10 country hit, in 1990.

My favorite Anne Murray song is "A Little Good News":

I want to eat her pussy.

She looks fine, OP.

What's your damage?

R20 - that’s got to be the meanest thing Andrea Martin ever did - AND I LOVE IT.

I love Anne. Great voice. You Needed Me, LOVE! I've been to Anne's museum in Spring Hill, Nova Scotia. Very interesting, nice town.

I just don’t get the gym teacher comment. I actually think she’s quite pretty. Some might call her a handsome woman. And her voice is very pleasant.

The guy they keep using in her videos is hot as hell. Who is he? He looks like he might be French Canadian. Yum!

R60, she was always considered blandly pretty. It was the lack of feminine grace, to put it nicely. That soft butch vibe.

Looks like Meredith Baxter’s Canadian cousin.

[quote]I just don’t get the gym teacher comment.

To be fair, the comments don't come from out of nowhere - she literally was a gym teacher for a brief period before starting her singing career.

[quote]Following high school, Murray attended Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax for one year. She later studied Physical Education at University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. After receiving her degree in 1966[11] she taught physical education at a high school in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, for one year.

Disko Dyke

She looks like a young Pauline Hanson in Now And Forever 🤢

I really don’t know what to make of the posters who say they don’t like the video but like the song. It’s like an unmixed1980s David Foster production. Vanessa Williams did it a lot better.

I can’t get over her wearing that coat next to a fireplace. Maybe she’s fantasizing about some flaming hot muff while kissing that guy.

[Quote] Vanessa Williams did it a lot better.

Not a comment one sees often, outside of an Ugly Betty discussion.

Is it the alleged closet that is bringing the claws out? Dusty Springfield threads don't get so puerile.

R68, it could apply to conversion about cunnilingus as well. You never know.

I always loved this video. Anne Murray lumbering around 1980s Toronto seeming less like a woman on the verge of love and more like a general contractor mildly chuffed about how much the subtrades got done this week.

[Quote] it could apply to conversion about cunnilingus as well. You never know.

Or rimming.

She was unsexy. Her voice screams lez. Not butch lez but still lez.

Celine Dion was never sexy, and lately....she looks unwell.

My favorite part is the ice queen girlfriend shooting daggers out of her eyes at Anne at 1:58.

You Won't She Me

That song in OP did hit number one on the Country charts

My friend used to hoop over the "appearing for the first time in high heels" line! John Lennon praised her cover of You Won't See Me. I bought that album and it was produced by the same guy who did Emmylou Harris's albums. It had some good stuff on it. The synth pop numbers are terrible, though. Sean MacFarland is a fan and wrote an ep. about Anne and she voiced it.

I hated Snowbird, but liked a couple of her ballads and The Beatles cover. She, like Bobbie Gentry, recorded an album of duets with Glen Campbell. I always liked her voice. There was a rumor her manager wouldn't let her walk across the stage because she was so butch.

Back in the early 90s, I attended a taping of an Anne Murray Christmas special being recorded on a stage in front of Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic Kingdom in Disney World.

Her guest was Patti LaBelle; among the audience was a flaming black man who, between songs, while Anne was getting her make up touched on the side, yelled up at Patti:

“I do you in my show! I do you in my show!”

Patti, not missing a beat, turned to Anne and said right into the mic: “Do you hear that, Anne? He does me in his show!”

Anne merely gave a side eye. But Patti was a queen: she went back to her make up case and gave to the drag queen her own false eyelashes and lipstick.

Anne Murray definitely hit in bigger in the states, but in Canada she kind of got replaced by Jann Arden as the “soulful in a very Caucasian way” easy listening songbird. Arden’s matey lesbian AA sponsor vibe plays even better in Canada than Murray’s Dudley Do-right closeted gym teacher energy.

R80 that is terrific! I love Miss Patti even more now.

Here are Anne and her daughter Dawn going shopping. I gather Anne made a beeline for the sensible shoes. They seem to have a decent relationship.

Could I Have This Dance is one of her best.

Definitely more glam looking in the over the top1980s than the granola 1970s.

Another classic SCTV, this time with Robin Duke, at 5:10

She did have a solid run of songs that were successful on pop, country and AC charts.

Snowbird, Danny's Song, A Love Song, You Won't See Me, You Needed Me, Broken Hearted Me, Daydream Believer, Could I Have This Dance, A Little Good News, and Now and Forever.

Interestingly, two songs from A Little Good News were recorded by Whitney Houston as duets on her debut album: Nobody Loves Me Like You Do and Take Good Care of My Heart.

Love this photo: Anne with John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Alice Cooper, and Micky Dolenz. Were they all hanging out at the Troubadour that night or something?

Shitty Little Anne

I remember that Anne's daughter had an eating disorder. They were both on Oprah or in People magazine or on Dateline...something like that. Oh, I love her song "Shadows in the Moonlight".

[Quote] Interestingly, two songs from A Little Good News were recorded by Whitney Houston as duets on her debut album: Nobody Loves Me Like You Do and Take Good Care of My Heart.

Wrong album, you fat whore.

Sorry r90

It's Heart Over Mind.

You fat carpet-munching cunt!!

My dad had her 8 track tape in his truck and it had about 30 mins of songs from her live act and she rocked much more than I expected. The songs were upbeat, soulful soft-rock, not ballads.

OMG, what a dyke! I love it.

r92, you're Dad was a FAAAG!

I lurved me some Anne Murray. It was the only music that got me through some tough life or death neonate surgeries! I cry sometimes just overhearing some songs in the background. Brings back some memories.

I can't find the album that contained the live tracks nor can I recall the title. But it was unusual to release an album with 5 or 6 live tracks that were unannounced. Her band was rocking and I think she may have had black backup vocalists.

Was it a multidisc set?

It's probably this one.

That's it - thank you, and no it wasn't multi-disc it was an 8 track purchased from Columbia Record Club via mail.

Sister Mary John my 8th grade teacher in 1980 just loved Anne Murray. She had a cassette of hers and even brought it to school for us kids to listen to sometimes. Btw Sister John wore extremely sensible footwear and didn't shave her legs.

I would argue the mission was accomplished. Tess McGill Realness.

I still remember her bad perm from the mid-'70s.

Damn you, R71, you made me spit my coffee all over my computer screen.

Hold my beer, OP…

Stewie and Brian visit Anne. Featuring a cameo by Georgia O'Keefe.

Remember when they tried to make Anne Murray

HETEROSEXUAL

Anne Murray turned down "I Honestly Love You" because of the would-be affair between a married (but not to each other) woman and man because she felt uncomfortable with the theme. Olivia Newton- John snapped it up and it became one of her biggest hits.

I had no idea "I Honestly Love You" was about that.

Anne also turned down "Torn Between Two Lovers" because she didn't want a slutty image. Thankfully I didn't have such hang-ups.

R102 that’s the ugliest pic I ever saw.

I always thought "I honestly love you" seemed like a crypto gay song about closeted people

Peter Allen wrote I Honestly Love You.

Can't imagine Anne's vocals on I Honestly Love You. Olivia's soft, tender voice was absolutely perfect.

Ann sucks

Agreed.

I love her album with Glen Campbell. Anne said that Glen treated her very well and always looked out for her. I know he was an asshole to Tanya Tucker but in an interview with CBC years ago, Anne had nothing but good things to say about him.

[quote] Was there ever a less sexy singer than Anne Murray?

I'll just leave this here.

AM has it all. A career, huge drafting table, huge fur coat but no love until she steals away a guido in a mullet from a younger woman.

Don't forget the quintessential 1986 hot pink outfit.

I liked "Another Pot Of Tea", Son of a Rotten Gambler, and Backstreet Loving from the Love Song album.

What do you mean "they TRIED to make Anne Murray sexy?"

"They" never had to "try". That goddess is SEX on a STICK!!!

Rrrrrowrrrr!

As cringe as julie Andrews and ONJ trying to be sexy.

Um ONJ was sexy and popular sexy you amoeba

Onj was cute, never sexy you loon.

R124 your opinion doesn’t hold up. Go jump in the toilet with your isolated opinions.

Don McKellar played a writer doing a retrospective on Anne Murray in the Canadian remake of Sensitive Skin (better than the British, in my opinion).

Did anyone find out who the actor in this video was, for the queen that posted it?

my favorite song of hers is "Eating Breakfast at the Y-Shaped Buffet"

You Light Up My Snatch

[quote] [R102] that’s the ugliest pic I ever saw.

Did you miss the pic at R109?

I loved her cover of 'I've always preferred my smiles vertical'.

Do your remember pantless Anne Murray on the cover of Hottest Night of The Year? I guess it was her version of Physical.

^ Pics or it didn't happen, toots.

Here it is, fool r133

Fun Fact: Anne Murray was actually a gym teacher before getting discovered.

A musician I ran into once said of Anne: ‘I was a huge fan of her in the 70s, until I saw her live and underneath her skirt I saw a piece of testicle.’

Was "Walk Right Back" a hit or a single for her? I know it was a track on one of her albums because we used it in 1978 when I convinced my friend Annie Fluker to dress up like a clown marionette puppet while I stood on a ladder controlling the strings for the Woodson Elementary talent show.

We didn't win. And she had to spend the whole school day dressed up like a clown with full clown makeup while I just wore my normal clothes. Sucker.

Hi, R137, see link.

Walk Right Back was a pretty big hit in Canada, and on US country and adult contemporary charts, but it didn't make the US Hot 100.

Anne Murray's last US Top 40 hit "Blessed are the Believers" was pretty terrible. It basically turned everyone in the US off of her music in a mainstream sense.

R116, Tanya Tucker was a handful and wouldn’t be tamed. That was a part of her charm.

God, the 80s were tacky.

I liked when independent, pre-preprogrammed radio stations used to play "Snowbird" often during the Christmas holiday season.

[quote] Celine Dion comes to mind.

And the Wilson sisters (even though Ann got fat). But Celine is worse. Her trying to be sexy was her disposable cover of "I Drove All Night". Zero sensuality at all. Roy Orbison--someone with no sex appeal--managed to sing it sexy. Celine turns it into roadkill.

Anne does look pretty here, all dressed up to the nines!!

Then and now.

Anne Murray was born on June 20th, 1945 which means that she is going to be 78 years old this Tuesday!

A photo made for DL - Anne with Bernadette Peters, Dusty Springfield and Kim Carnes.

Anne looked really good in an androgynous way in that pic with Lennon, Alice Cooper, etal. up thread.