Margo Guryan
| Margo Guryan | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Margo Guryan |
| Also known as | Margo Guryan Brookmeyer Margo Guryan Rosner |
| Born |
September 20, 1937 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Origin | Far Rockaway, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Baroque pop, sunshine pop, jazz |
| Occupation(s) | singer, songwriter, composer, lyricist, arranger |
| Instruments | voice, piano |
| Labels | Bell, Oglio |
Margo Guryan (born September 20, 1937) is an American songwriter, singer, musician and lyricist. As a songwriter, her work was first recorded in 1958, although it was for her 1960s song "Sunday Mornin'", a hit for both Spanky and Our Gang and Oliver, that she is perhaps best known. Her songs have also been recorded by Cass Elliot, Glen Campbell and Astrud Gilberto, among others.
As a performer, she is best known for her 1968 album Take a Picture, the sole album release in the initial phase of her career. The album was re-released in 2000, and followed by a compilation entitled 25 Demos (2001). In 2014 the American record label Burger Records released another compilation named 27 Demos on cassette.
Margo Guryan grew up in the suburbs of New York City. Her parents met at Cornell University, where her mother majored in piano, and her father, also a keen pianist, in liberal arts. Guryan wrote poems from an early age, and moved on to writing songs soon after being introduced to the piano in childhood. Initially interested in the popular music of the time, as well as the classical music she was studying, Guryan became interested in jazz at college. She studied classical and jazz piano at Boston University, idolizing musicians such as Max Roach and Bill Evans, and switched from piano to composition in her sophomore year in order to avoid performing.
While still in high school, Guryan was sent to Frank Loesser's Frank Music, whose Herb Eiseman sent her on to Atlantic Records, where she performed her songs for Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun, who signed her up to song contracts, and had a demo session with Tom Dowd. She was signed by Atlantic, initially as a performer, but her initial attempts at recording were not successful, due in part to her inexperience and in part to a range break in her voice (as Guryan stated, "I couldn't damn sing!"). The label instead retained her as a writer.
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