{"id":8200,"date":"2025-06-20T09:41:44","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T09:41:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8200"},"modified":"2025-09-07T19:51:36","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T19:51:36","slug":"the-look-on-anne-murrays-face-was-one-of-sheer-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=8200","title":{"rendered":"The look on Anne Murray’s face was one of sheer terror"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anne-Murray<\/a><\/p>\n

By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

LONDON \u2013 One of Canada\u2019s most successful singers, Anne Murray, who turns 80 today, became a huge international entertainer but she told me two things had made her nervous \u2013 performing in Las Vegas and at the Quebec Winter Carnival.<\/p>\n

Murray had plenty of hits after \u201cSnowbird\u201d in 1970 became the first recording by a Canadian artist to go gold in the United States. She became a regular on \u201cThe Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour\u201d and Burt Reynolds, who was a big fan, talked about her often on Johnny Carson\u2019s \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d. Hits followed throughout the following decades including \u201cHe Still Thinks I Care\u201d, Lennon & McCartney\u2019s \u201cYou Won\u2019t See Me\u201d, \u201cYou Needed Me\u201d, \u201cShadows in the Moonlight\u201d, and \u201cA Little Good News\u201d.<\/p>\n

Murray was a major attraction in Las Vegas and when I saw her perform in the Riviera Hotel\u2019s Flamingo Room in 1983 with a tight seven-piece band behind her, she sang a string of hits and commanded the stage with an easy line of patter.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t start out that way. \u201cVegas sharpens the tools,\u201d she told me. She had been playing the Riviera for two weeks every year since 1978: \u201cThe first time I played here, I was so scared that I couldn\u2019t eat. I lost 10 pounds in two weeks. Couldn\u2019t even get soup down before the show. But I made myself go back, over and over, until I got it right. Now, I can\u2019t think of anything that would intimidate me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She did have concerns, though, ahead of two concerts she taped in Quebec City that winter for a CBS and CBC television special. The next time I saw her she had left her glittering Vegas garb at home in favour of a down jacket and army-issue boots. It was Winter Carnival time and Murray was nervous.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very reticent to be involved in it,\u201d she told me, “because I thought, ‘These people don\u2019t know who the hell I am’, and I didn\u2019t want to be embarrassed. I was worried about that English-French vibe that I\u2019ve gotten in Montreal many times. I\u2019ve tried to speak French on TV shows and such in Montreal and they just laugh at you. It\u2019s horrible when you\u2019re doing your best to try.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned out to be as easy as a Las Vegas catwalk: \u201cI walked up there and the place went wild. I don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t think people in Quebec knew who I was. I just assumed they didn\u2019t because I thought they listened to French singers and I\u2019ve never recorded in French. But they surprised me; they couldn\u2019t have been nicer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anne_Murray\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Dionne Warwick was a guest on the special along with Glen Campbell, who flew in from a California golf tournament to stand in the snow with Murray as peewee hockey players skated around them as they sang \u201cMamas, Don\u2019t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Hockey Players\u201d. The singer\u2019s longtime producer, Alan Thicke (who also was a talk show host), wrote special lyrics for the Ed and Patsy Bruce country song.<\/p>\n

Despite all her success, Murray seemed very down to earth. Thicke, who had written eight TV specials for Murray, also contrived to have her shimmy down a huge slide at Quebec\u2019s Palais des Enfants. \u201cIt was cold enough doing the song with Glen and the kids,\u201d she told me. \u201cTheir mothers finally took them home. We had one more shot to do but they left and I don\u2019t blame them. They were freezing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She still had to do the slide. \u201cIt\u2019s huge and you get on, just on your bum, and you come down. Well, first of all, I don\u2019t like heights, and it seemed I had to climb 50-feet. Three-year-olds are whipping up, no problem, but me, I\u2019m a nervous wreck. I put a piece of cardboard under me and I came down with a kid on my lap. The look on my face is one of sheer terror.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten minutes before showtime at Quebec\u2019s Grand Theatre, in the closest dressing room at the side of the stage, Murray has on a white terry-cloth robe and brown ankle socks.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, it\u2019s curtain time and the singer appears in\u00a0her dazzling Vegas outfit as she steps over cables and strides to the stage.<\/p>\n

Thicke calls out to her: \u201cSing like Anne Murray!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll do my best,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all it took.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ray Bennett LONDON \u2013 One of Canada\u2019s most successful singers, Anne Murray, who turns 80 today, became a huge international entertainer but she told me two things had made her nervous \u2013 performing in Las Vegas and at the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1263,8,2257,15],"tags":[4149,4141,4148,4146,4143,4147,4144,4145,4142],"class_list":["post-8200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-memory-lane","category-music","category-recalling","category-television","tag-alan-thicke","tag-anne-murray","tag-burt-reynolds","tag-dionne-warwick","tag-flamingo-room","tag-glen-campbell","tag-las-vegas","tag-quebec-winter-carnival","tag-riviera-hotel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8200"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11514,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8200\/revisions\/11514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}