|
|
Maureen McGovern Interview
Maureen McGovern is one of the most respected singers of our time.
Her talent spans recordings, concerts, the Broadway stage, films, television,
and radio.
Her recording career began with the Number One chart topping gold record "The
Morning After", the Academy Award-winning song from The Poseidon Adventure.
She recorded another Oscar winner "We May Never Love Like This Again",
from The Towering Inferno, in which she made a cameo appearance. She was
honored with international gold records from the United States, Canada,
Japan, Australia, the Philippines, and England, as well as a Grammy award
nomination. She also won the Grand Prize Award at the Tokyo Musical Festival,
starred opposite Sting in the Broadway production of "The 3 Penny Opera";
and appeared in the motion picture Airplane! as the guitar-strumming nun.
Maureen McGovern's latest CD release is titled "The Music Never Ends:
The Lyrics of Alan and Marilyn Bergman" (Sterling Records).
Q. Is it hard for you to find good material to record these days?
A. It's harder. Let's put it that way. In the hey-day of the great American
songbook, it was an embarrassment of riches. Everywhere you turned there
was one great composer and lyricist. I love a great lyric and a great
melody. Some of those are few and far between these days. (Laughs).
Q. You can sing just about anything can't you?
A. Well, I probably won't be a rap star. (Laughs).
Q. You could have a CD titled Maureen McGovern Sings the Greatest Hits
of Country Music.
A. Well, actually we've got something along that line in the works.
Q. What I'm trying to get at is, would the same people who are pitching
songs to today's Top 20 recording artists, also include you in that group?
A. No, not necessarily. They tend to continually go after the Top 10,
or the Top 20 stylists. But, I think Diane Warren is a great writer. I love
the writing of Mary Chapin Carpenter, and Sting and Annie Lennox. Those
are singer, songwriter people whose work I really love. I love Joni Mitchell,
Paul Simon, Elton John. People who are just very well established. James
Taylor is wonderful. He writes some beautiful songs, because he understands
the craft of songwriting. So, it's harder for me to find material today,
but it's still out there. There are some great, great songs.
Q. How did you get to record The Morning After? That is the song that
launched your career isn't it?
A. Yes. (Laughs). I'd only been working professionally since June of 1972.
I was performing in Cleveland. My then manager had me performing in all
the Holiday Inns and Ramada Inns across the great mid-west here, (Laughs),
doing endless Top 40. The diva with the lounge band. I grew up in northeastern
Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio. My producer was from Cleveland. His barber had come
to hear me at a Ramada Inn on the outskirts of Cleveland, and went to him
and said you've got to hear this young woman. He took a tape of mine around
which essentially was just our lounge set. All of the record cos. turned
me down except for Twentieth Century Records, and Russ Regan who was head
of Twentieth Century Records at the time, heard something in my voice and
literally signed me sight unseen. He said, 'We'll look for something",
and 'The Morning After' was the very first thing they sent me to record.
I thought, being a totally unknown artist, that by all indications, this
movie was going to be huge; "The Poseidon Adventure." So, they
had me record it. I was working in Canada at the time and flew into Cleveland.
I had a cold and it took awhile to make it not sound like The Borning After.
(Laughs). Maybe I should get a cold every time I record a million-seller.
That was in November 1972, and the song was released along with the movie
in December 1972. The movie took off. It was huge, a blockbuster. The song
did absolutely nothing, and the record co. dropped it. So then in the Spring
of '73, it was nominated for an Oscar and a lot of radio stations started
playing the song, as one of the nominees. Then, when it subsequently won
the Oscar, more stations started playing it, and there was this huge groundswell
of phone requests from California to New York. It forced the record co.
to re-release the song and by August of'73, it was a gold record.
So it took a full 9 months for that song to happen. Even in December of
'72 when it was first released, I auditioned for the Mike Douglas Show with
that song and they turned me down. So then in August of'73, I went on his
show. For years, he was a very sweet man, made a joke about it, my brilliant
staff...
Q. How many records did "The Morning After" eventually
sell?
A. At that time, 1.2 million (one point 2 million). For the past 25 years
now, it has continued to sell.
Q. When "The Morning After" broke, were
you a headliner, or opening for other people?
A. Both.
Q. Who did you open for?
A. The very first one was Gilbert O'Sullivan. I did a tour with him. I
opened for Frank Gorshen, Don Rickles, Dom DeLuise.
Q. You didn't open for any rock groups did you? Did you get any strange
billings?
A. I did some horrific rock thing on Long Island. I can't even remember.
Pure Prairie Dog...
Q. League.
A. League. Thank-you very much. What am I talking about. Pure Prairie
League and REO...I don't know. Actually, before I even went out on the road
professionally, I did open for the Temptations once. (Laughs). I was
a folk-singer playing guitar at the time. That was an odd bill.
Q. You do a lot of Broadway work don't you?
A. Well, I've done three Broadway shows, and one off Broadway, and a lot
of regional and some stock. I did "Pirates of Penzance." I replaced
Linda Ronstadt, in 1981. I loved that show. I had never even done a high
school play. Just 3 weeks prior to being signed to do Pirates I was on my
way to Pittsburgh to do one week of summer stock with "The Sound of
Music" and Joe Papp had asked me to come to New York and audition,
and they hired me on the spot. I was coming from California with enough
clothes in my suitcase for 2 weeks, and went right after that to New York,
and stayed for the next 17 years. I just recently moved back to California.
Q. Was it your idea to become a pop singer or did you have it in the back
of your mind that you wanted to be on Broadway and this would be a
good stepping stone?
A. As a kid, all I wanted to be was a pop singer. I was extremely shy.
People kept telling me you've got such a big voice, you have to go into
theatre. But, I was very, very shy as a child and a slow reader. But, even
in my early days of performing, I could sing in front of anybody, but then
I would go quickly into the next song, and said as minimal amount of words
as possible. I never entertained the idea of going into theatre, although
my idols were Judy Garland, Streisand, along with Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Torme,
and Cleo Laine, and Judy Collins, and Joni Mitchell and Dusty Springfield.
So, I had a wide, cross-section of people that I greatly admired. But, theatre
was not something I was really interested in. When I went to New York and
did "Sound of Music," that one week of summer stock, I'd found
a real home on Broadway. Opening on Broadway 3 weeks later was one of the
most daunting things in my life. Theatre actually ground me as a performer,
much more than the years and years of concerts that I'd done before that.
Q. Isn't Broadway hard work?
A. Well, there's a real discipline that goes with it. Its eight shows
a week. To use the mere 4 octaves I use every night, you have to get enough
sleep, and I work out, and I'm a vegetarian. You really have to approach
your life like you're in training.
Q. What happens if you're not in top form?
A. I have sung through colds, and sore throats. In theatre, I missed
one day of "Pirates of Penzance." I had a migraine, and was flattened.
I couldn't stand up. But, I would pretty much ride out colds, and really
didn't get sick much, as other people did. The theatre is sort of like kindergarten.
One person gets sick and it goes right through the whole cast. So, you try
to stay as healthy as possible.
Q. What did you do with yourself between "The Morning After" success
and your Broadway work?
A. At the end of the 70's, when my records in the States weren't selling,
and I was without a record co. I went back to being a secretary.
Q. Where?
A. Out here in California, in the marina for a p.r. firm and a publishing
co. in the Valley. My mother always said have something you can fall back
on, and she was right. But, I decided I didn't want to chase that 3 minute
and 10 second record and that there was more to me than that. It was even
suggested to me in the late 70's to change my name, because it was easier
to launch a new artist than someone who was deemed a one hit artist. So,
I just decided I was going to record things that meant something to
me, and I walked away from the recording business until I could do
it on my own terms. I didn't record a solo album until 1986. I started writing
children's music and working in theatre. I just started working in the charity
work I wanted. In the 70's it was the grind of trying to find a hit record,
and there's more to life than that. (Laughs).
Q. Tell me about your work with the North Shore Animal League. Are you
an animal rights activist?
A. Yes. I love animals. My two puppies are the light of my life. I think
North Shore Animal League is a great organization. They have a pet adoption
every year, finding homes for unwanted pets. People abandon animals
like you would not believe. It's just horrifying.
Q. What would you tell people who believe animals have no rights?
A. That's absurd. There are many people who believe that the animals and
the earth are ours to consume and take from constantly. I think as intelligent
human beings we have to evolve a little more spiritually to the point where
the earth; we must give back to the earth. This disposable notion that
people have is destroying everything around us.
Q. How about people who continue to wear fur?
A. It's ridiculous when there's virtually no reason for it. There are
faux-furs that are just as warm and just as stylish. That they would slaughter
an animal just for a social thing is ludicrous to me.
Q. Do you prefer the music of the past over much of today's music?
A. I have a huge CD collection of jazz and classical and I love the Big
Band Era and I love all kinds of music. I listen to today's music but not
with a consistency. It's sort of like fast food to me. It goes right through
you. (Laughs). I will just savor and absorb older music probably with
much more satisfaction that I do current things. But, I do listen to current
music.
© Gary James All Rights Reserved
|
