Early life Margo Guryan grew up in
New York City in the neighborhood of
Far Rockaway, Queens. Her parents met at
Cornell University, where her mother
majored in
piano, and her father, also a keen pianist, in
liberal arts. They were both of
Russian-Jewish descent. 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 second year 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 The label instead retained her as a writer. Another early recording of her work was by
Harry Belafonte, who recorded "I'm On My Way to Saturday" for
The Many Moods of Belafonte (1962). She attended the
Lenox School of Jazz in 1959, where she met and worked with
Ornette Coleman and
Don Cherry, and writing lyrics for jazz pieces by composers including John Lewis, Ornette Coleman and
Arif Mardin. Songs of this period, with her lyrics, were recorded by
Chris Connor,
Freda Payne,
Nancy Harrow and
Alice Babs, among others.
"Think of Rain" Popular music passed Guryan by until, after her divorce from Brookmeyer, her friend
Dave Frishberg urged her to listen to the song "
God Only Knows" from the album
Pet Sounds by
The Beach Boys. According to Guryan,"I thought it was just gorgeous. I bought the record and played it a million times, then sat down and wrote 'Think of Rain.' That's really how I started writing that way. I just decided it was better than what was happening in jazz." Guryan played
Creed Taylor, for whom she was at the time working as a secretary, a tape of some of her newer songs, and he pointed her in the direction of
April-Blackwood, the publishing arm of
Columbia Records. At April-Blackwood she met David Rosner, who would become not only her producer but also her husband. Rosner signed her up, and suggested she double-track her voice on demos, to compensate for the difficulties she had previously and produce a better sounding vocal. "Think of Rain" was recorded by
Bobby Sherman,
Jackie DeShannon and
Claudine Longet in 1967.
The Cyrkle and
Nilsson also recorded versions although neither was released. Also in 1968,
Marie Laforêt released "Et si je t'aime", a French version of "Sunday Mornin with lyrics by
Michel Jourdan. That same year, she released an Italian version, entitled "E Se Ti Amo".
Oliver also released a version of "Sunday Mornin, which reached No. 35 in the US charts in 1969. "Sunday Mornin was listed as one of the "102 most performed songs in the
BMI repertoire during 1968".
Carmen McRae and
Julie London both released versions of two songs by Guryan: McRae performing "Can You Tell" and "Don't Go Away" on
The Sound of Silence (1968) and London releasing "Sunday Mornin and "Come to Me Slowly" on
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy (1969).
Tommy LiPuma commissioned Guryan to write a
Christmas song for Claudine Longet, and the result was "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You", a 1967 single.
Saint Etienne later covered the song on a Christmas fanclub release. It was preceded by a single entitled "Spanky and Our Gang", a tribute to the band who had had a hit with "Sunday Morning", backed with her own version of "Sunday Morning". The single was included on the Japanese reissue of
Take a Picture.
Take a Picture was praised by
Billboard, who remarked on Guryan's "fine sound" which it characterized as "commercial" and said "should ensure strong sales". However Guryan refused to tour, having been married to a jazz musician and having seen "too much – performing required an agent, and a manager and a lawyer and a booking person and... you got
owned by these people – they told you where to go, how to look, how to dress, what to say, and I didn't want that! [...] I guess I had about enough 'daddy' when I was five, and I just didn't like being told what to do." As a consequence of this, the label ceased promoting the album and it thus failed to make an impact. Resigned to this, Guryan withdrew from performing, although she continued as writer for April-Blackwood for several years afterwards, and worked with Rosner producing records for other artists. Taking classical piano lessons after this led her to becoming a piano teacher herself, and producing music books for students. In 1994,
Hal Leonard published
The Chopsticks Variations, a set of 14 variations by Guryan on
Euphemia Allen's well-worn "
Chopsticks".
Gunther Schuller described it as a "charming set of variations on the famous tune: clever, witty, at times tender and elegant, at other times punning and ribald".
Resurgence Interest in Guryan's recordings underwent a revival in the 1990s, particularly in Japan. British band
Saint Etienne covered "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" for a 1998
fan club single.
Linus of Hollywood met with Guryan in 1999, and as well as covering two of her songs on his
Your Favourite Record album, reissued
Take a Picture on his Franklin Castle Records imprint (in conjunction with
Oglio Records) in 2000.
Trattoria Records (Japan) and Siesta Records (Spain) also reissued the album. In 1999, Kevin Dotson,
Linus of Hollywood, visited Margo Guryan at her residence in Larchmont Village. Guryan presented Dotson with a selection of demos she had recorded during the 1960s and 1970s that were never released, along with sheets containing other original songs. Inspired by the quality of her work, Dotson encouraged Guryan to record these demos, which ultimately culminated in the 2001 release of the collection of demos entitled
25 Demos by Franklin/Oglio. An alternate version entitled
Thoughts, released by UK-based
RPM Records, has the 25 demos, plus two recordings of Guryan singing songs written by others. These tracks were also compiled by Burger Records on a 2014
cassette entitled
27 Demos, which Oglio again released on CD. To promote the re-release, Guryan issued a music video for the album track "California Shake", co-written by
Richard Bennett. In 2007, Guryan released a new single via British label
Pure Mint Recordings, entitled "16 Words". The song referenced then US President
George W. Bush's
2003 State of the Union Address, in particular the phrase "
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa", which forms the entirety of the lyric. Other songs were attempted in the same session but not completed. On July 24, 2024, the tribute album
Like Someone I Know: A Celebration Of Margo Guryan was publicly announced and was set to be released on November 8, 2024 (the third anniversary of Guryan's passing) via American record label
Sub Pop. The album features reinterpretations of her sole studio album,
Take a Picture, by contemporary musical artists
Empress Of,
Clairo, June McDoom,
Rahill,
Frankie Cosmos, Pearl & The Oysters,
TOPS,
Kate Bollinger, MUNYA,
Bedouine,
Margo Price and
Barrie respectively. Empress Of's version of "Someone I Know" served as the album's lead single, alongside the announcement. A portion of the album's proceeds will be donated to
non-profits, such as
Planned Parenthood to help provide and advocate for affordable reproductive health services.
Last years Her husband, David Rosner, died in 2017. Guryan died November 8, 2021, at the age of 84 at her home in Los Angeles. ==Discography==