Mary Margaret O’Hara, a daughter of Toronto, hasn’t recorded much and hasn’t had hits and these are terribly sad things because she’s a gem, a wonderful unconventional songwriter and singer. Her stuff gets pretty far out over the edge sometimes, but Dear Darling is a lovely straight-up country tune, hardly weird at all, or only in places.

Mary Margaret O’Hara

Ms O’Hara’s performances were legendary in Toronto of the Eighties, and when she finally went into the studio and came out with Miss America, people thought she was on a rocket to the Top of the Pops. Despite, one hears, a parade of record-company executives throwing themselves at her feet, she’s only ever recorded once since then, on the soundtrack to the 2001 move Apartment Hunting.

I’m not convinced she’d ever have been a Big Star though. I saw her once in a Toronto bar a hundred years ago, and you can see it on video; a Mary Margaret O’Hara performance is a pretty strange piece of work; I’ve heard her approach described as “bouncing off the music”.

This is part of the Song of the Day series (background).

Links · Spotify playlist. This tune on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon. Live video (so charming).



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From: Mike Ridley (Feb 13 2018, at 03:59)

Thanks for this Tim. Mary Margaret & Miss America are national treasures. And thanks too for SotD. Thoroughly enjoying the posts and the music.

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February 12, 2018
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