TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Maureen McGovern To Sing Standards and Holiday Classics

ADVERTISEMENT

By MARC VALERO

Highlands Today

Published: December 9, 2008

AVON PARK - You may not remember her name, but you've probably heard Maureen McGovern's expressive voice on songs from the 1970s blockbuster movies: "The Poseidon Adventure," "The Towering Inferno" and "Superman."

McGovern's vocal versatility is evident in her 36-year career which includes recordings, concerts, Broadway, theater, films, television, radio and song writing.
South Florida Community College's Artist Series features McGovern with an evening of popular standards followed by holiday classics at 7:30 p.m., Dec. 16 in the SFCC Auditorium.

Now 59 years old, the red head with Irish ancestry, started using her vocal talents at an early age.

"Family lore has it that I'd keep my family awake in the middle of the night singing before I could put sentences together, singing songs that I heard my mother listening to on the radio during the day," she told Highlands Today Monday.

By third-grade McGovern knew she wanted to sing for the rest of her life.

"I didn't know how in Youngstown, Ohio I was going to achieve that, but I made a conscious choice that singing would be my life's work," she said.

McGovern calls her musical taste and influences "eclectic," including: Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Dusty Springfield, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Judy Garland and Cleo Laine.

In the 1960s, McGovern played guitar and sang folk music and "loved" the Beatles and the music the baby boomers grew up to.

"I was a very, very shy kid and shy performer and so singing folk music and singing things that mirrored what I believed gave me a forum to say those things," she said.

The road to a recording career with a chart-topping debut started in Cleveland.

"My first manager put together a rock group behind me and sent me out into the lounge circuit all across the Midwest doing top-40 covers, which was very sad going from highly personalized music to sort of mindless top-40," she said.

The barber of a producer heard McGovern perform in a Ramada Inn lounge on the outskirts of Cleveland.

The producer sent a recording of McGovern to numerous record companies, but only 20th Century Records showed interest.

The record company president liked McGovern's voice and signed her to a recording contract sight-unseen saying he would find something suitable for her to record.

About a month later she received the music to "The Morning After."

From the blockbuster film "The Poseidon Adventure," the Oscar winning and million-selling song and recording was not an overnight hit.

Released in December 1972 along with the movie, the recording did absolutely nothing though the film was a huge hit, McGovern noted.

When the "The Morning After" received an Oscar nomination, radio stations started playing it out of curiosity.

"When it subsequently won, there was this huge groundswell of requests all across the country and it forced the record company to re-release it and by August of 1973 it was a gold record," McGovern said.

McGovern was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1973, but Bette Midler won among the five disparate nominees.

"It was interesting; it was Bette Midler, Deodato, Marie Osmond, me and Barry White - a motley crew," she said with a chuckle.

McGovern sang on another Academy Award winning song "We May Never Love Like This Again," from the 1974 disaster film epic "The towering Inferno."

Soon after the 1978 film "Superman" was released, McGovern recorded "Can You Read My Mind," which was recited in the film by Margot Kidder who played Lois Lane.

In 1981 McGovern's career took a turn to musical theater.

"I love musical theater," she said. "For years people would say to me 'you have this big voice; you should go into theater' and I really wasn't interested in going into theater."

But, despite not even having experience in high school play, she started getting offers for theater productions.

McGovern made her Broadway debut in 1981, replacing Linda Ronstadt, as "Mabel" in "The Pirates of Penzance."

She also started to perform in cabaret shows, which McGovern believes offered her a musical evolution.

In the 1970s the record company or producers would pick the songs and created the arrangements, McGovern explained.

"I felt like a background singer on my own records ... I'm grateful for 'The Morning After' and 'Can You Read My Mind,' but the albums had nothing to do with me.

"So I walked away from recording and started writing children's music, musical theater and started doing cabaret ... which is the antisithis of your hits."

It gave her a chance to explore jazz, theatre, big band, swing and classical music.

"I just had a ball doing anything that interested me," McGovern said.

For her SFCC performance, McGovern will dedicate the first half of her show to various selections of her personal favorites, including songs from her latest album "A Long Winding Road."

The second half of her performance will feature holiday classics.

She will be backed onstage by a 20-piece orchestra and more than 100 poinsettias to get concertgoers into the holiday spirit.

The concert is sponsored by Highlands Independent Bank, Rick and Jean Moyer and Highlands Today.

Tickets for this performance range from $26 to $37 and may be purchased online http://performances.southflorida.edu 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Tickets may also be purchased weekdays, 11:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. by calling the SFCC Box Office at (863) 784-7178 or by visiting the SFCC Box Office located at the SFCC Auditorium, 600 West College Drive, Highlands Campus.

Highlands Today reporter Marc Valero can be reached at 386-5826 or mvalero@highlandstoday.com

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT