重口味SM

'Canada's sweetheart' Anne Murray donates archives to U of T

Anne Murray
Anne Murray, who paved the way for other Canadian singers on the world stage, donated archives from her 40-year career to the 重口味SM Libraries (photo by Laura Pedersen)

重口味SM will be home to the archives of Canada's music legend Anne Murray.

The first Canadian female solo singer to reach No. 1 on the U.S. charts, whose albums have sold over 55 million copies worldwide, Murray has donated her extensive archives to U of T Libraries.

The collection includes more than 70 boxes, containing 188 LP albums from around the world, nearly 900 photographs, 253 audiotapes and cassettes going back to the time she was 18, videotapes of her television appearances, yearly scrapbooks of clippings, fan mail from the likes of ABC anchor Peter Jennings and a thank-you note from TV host Dick Clark, to name a few. 

鈥淓very television show I ever did, every tape I ever made, people will have access to this,鈥 Murray said in an interview with U of T News. 鈥淎 lot of the places I played 鈥 Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, Royal Albert Hall in London, the Palladium in London 鈥 it was at the time, monumental for me. Everything鈥檚 there.鈥 

U of T Libraries announced the donation of Murray's archives at an event at Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library this week. Murray's 40-year career saw her win four Grammy Awards, 24 Juno Awards, three American Music Awards and three CMA Awards.

鈥淪he embodies the Canadian popular music industry,鈥 said Brock Silversides, director of , which houses an audiovisual library and media archives at Robarts Library. 鈥淪he's been so successful within Canada and internationally. She's really identified with Canada, even one of her songs Snowbird, that's so Canada.

鈥淛ust with her voice alone, she's become enormously successful and has affected a lot of people. At the risk of sounding like a clich茅, Anne's music has been the soundtrack to many people's lives.鈥


A note from Dick Clark (left), photographs, LPs and videos are among the more than 70 boxes in the Anne Murray archives at

Dressed in a blue leather jacket, Murray, 72, was her down-to-earth self at the announcement Wednesday evening, recalling why she decided to donate the archives.

At the time, she was moving from her Toronto area home of 38 years to a condo, she said, and a squash court in the house was doubling as a storage room.

鈥淚t was wall to wall shelves with 40 years of memorabilia,鈥 Murray said. 鈥淚 had no idea who, if anybody, would want that.鈥

Well, U of T did.

The university's extensive library system houses the archives of well-known Canadians like Leonard Cohen and U of T alumna Margaret Atwood, whose collections reside at the Thomas Fisher Library.

In this case, a friend of Murray's, music journalist Marty Melhuish, had also donated his material to U of T. He put her in touch with Silversides. Murray recalled her initial phone conversation with the head of Media Commons. 

鈥淚 said to him, 鈥業f you don鈥檛 want this stuff, I鈥檓 going to light a match to it,鈥欌 Murray said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 see his face. But there was almost an audible gasp.鈥

The collection includes demo tracks and unreleased recordings, every contract for every record, TV and  live performance Murray did until her retirement in 2008. There's a framed gold record from Capitol Records, from sales of Let鈥檚 Keep It That Way, in Australia in 1982. U of T librarians hope the archives will offer a window into the music industry and how it worked.

鈥淔or somebody who's wanting to reconstruct her career, it's all there,鈥 Silversides said. 鈥淥ne of the strong points of the collection is it's so comprehensive. It covers her entire career and almost any way she has been documented.

鈥淵ou would gain quite an insight into how she handled her career, how she dealt with people.鈥


The collection includes photographs, and magazine and newspaper clippings. The photo to the right is from Murray on The Muppet Show in 1980. The collection also includes a holiday card from the Clintons (photo by Laura Pedersen) 

U of T Provost Cheryl Regehr spoke at the event, remembering family dinners in the living room watching Anne Murray鈥檚 Christmas special on TV.

鈥淭hese kinds of archives really give us a critical glance into the working mind, and allow us to appreciate true genius as it evolves when we have the opportunity to see work in progress and the finished work. For our students in history, music, Canadian studies, popular culture, this is really a magical resource that鈥檚 here for us.鈥

Murray herself said she hopes members of the public who have access to the digitized archives will see how hard she worked. 

鈥淚 was on the road so much. You can see by the itineraries that are there. It鈥檚 incredible. I look at it, and wonder how I did it. And remember, I had a young family too,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t was my job, and when it鈥檚 your job, you do it, whatever it entails.鈥

But she said the work was never boring.

鈥淵ou go from doing television shows, to in studio doing albums, to live shows. There were so many facets to the business. But boy, it sure kept you going.鈥


Album covers in the collection are from around the world, including Japan and Germany (photo by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah) 

Looking back now, she said maybe the key to her success was her voice.

鈥淚t was a combination of the sound of my voice 鈥 when you hear my voice on radio, there鈥檚 no mistaking it 鈥 I haven鈥檛 heard anyone else who sounds like that ever, except my brothers and my kids.

鈥淚t was a very unique sounding voice, and I was good too. But maybe I was in the right place at the right time. I just don鈥檛 know. I just feel fortunate that all of those things happened when they did.鈥   

One thing the public won't see in the archives is information about her personal life. Murray, who decided to do a tell-all memoir in her 2009 autobiography, All of Me, said she wanted this collection to be about her career.

鈥淚鈥檓 very personal,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 keep close things to the chest, but the career was something else. I share that with everybody else. 

鈥淎s a matter of fact, my family often wishes I hadn鈥檛 done it. My son once said when they asked him if he was going to get into show business, he said, 鈥榃hy would I do something that took my mother from me?鈥 And that鈥檚 true. Why would he? It was hard on the kids.鈥

Will she ever come out of retirement to sing again? Murray said not likely.

鈥淣o. Once I made up my mind, that was it. Forty years is long enough to do anything, and it was hard work. A lot of sacrifices. A lot of compromises. Even as I look back, I say, 鈥榃as it worth it?鈥 I don鈥檛 know. It鈥檚 what I knew how to do. It鈥檚 what I was good at. And how do you turn away from that?鈥


Scrapbooks include clippings of every article written about Murray. Media Commons' director Brock Silversides said the archives contain almost every documentation of her career (photo by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

The Bulletin Brief logo

Subscribe to The Bulletin Brief

UTC