Margo Guryan (born 1937) is a sadly underrated songwriter, whose work melds jazz and 1960s pop. She was born in New York City. Both parents played the piano, so she had early access to a good instrument and was encouraged to study from a young age. She also started writing poems, and soon began writing songs. While still at school, she auditioned for Atlantic Records executives Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun, who agreed to record a demo album with her singing her own songs. The engineer was Tom Dowd, who had already engineered records for The Drifters, Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) and Mabel Mercer. Guryan had little experience as a singer, so the sessions were in her own words ‘a disaster’. The song ‘Moon Ride’ was however given to Chris Connor, who included it on her 1958 album ‘Misty’.
She studied piano and composition at Boston University, and in 1959 and 1960, she attended the Lenox School of Jazz Summer School led by John Lewis. Among the teachers was drummer, Max Roach, who encouraged her to compose a tune for her fellow students Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry to perform in the final concert, which was recorded and released by Atlantic. She wrote a lyric for Coleman’s tune ‘Lonely Woman’, which was recorded by Chris Connor in 1962. She worked in the jazz scene throughout the 1960s, and was married to trombonist Bob Brookmeyer, who she had met at the Lenox School.
Dave Frishberg turned Guryan onto The Beach Boys’ 1966 album Pet Sounds, and this was the first time she became interested in pop music. Brian Wilson’s ‘God Only Knows’ inspired her to write ‘Think Of Rain’ which Bobby Sherman and Jackie DeShannon both recorded in 1967. Another new song ‘Sunday Mornin’ hit number 30 in a version by Spanky And Our Gang. Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell also covered the song on their self-titled duo album. Julie London recorded it in 1969, along with another Guryan song ‘Come To Me Slowly’. Carmen McRae also included two of her songs on the 1968 album Sounds of Silence, ‘Don’t Go Away’ and ‘Can You Tell’. In 1968, Guryan signed to Bell Records and made what would be her only mainstream release as a performer Take A Picture, which included her own versions of the songs listed above. The album was critically well received, but Guryan was reluctant to tour in support of the album, so the label ceased promotion, and Guryan gradually withdrew from her short-lived pop career. She continued to write into the 1970s, and ‘Mama’ Cass Elliot released ‘I Think A Lot About You’ as her last single in 1974. Guryan returned to a study of classical music, and became a music teacher, publishing a set of variations on Chopsticks with Hal Leonard in 1994.
In the late 1990s, a resurgence of interest in Guryan, led by singer-songwriter Linus of Hollywood, led to a reissue of Take A Picture and a new release in 2001, 25 Demos of recordings she had made between 1967 and 1978.
Key Songs:
‘Think Of Rain’ (1967)
‘Sunday Morning’ (1967)
‘Can You Tell’ (1968)