Ann-Margret started recording for RCA in 1961, but her recording career was not as successful as her concurrent movie career. She had a sexy, throaty singing voice comparable to Eartha Kitt or Nancy Sinatra, and RCA attempted to capitalize on her "Female Elvis" comparison by her recording a version of Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" and other songs stylistically similar to Presley. She scored one minor hit, "I Just Don't Understand" (which entered the Billboard Top 40 in the third week of August 1961 and stayed 6 weeks, peaking at #17.) Her only charting album is The Beauty and the Beard (1964), on which she was accompanied by trumpeter Al Hirt. The contract with RCA ended in 1966.
Years later, she returned to music at the end of Disco era. Her 1980 album, "Ann-Margret" became a success with both singles, "Midnight Message" and "Love Rush" reaching the Top 10 of the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. In the early 1980s, the album was followed up with the single, "Everybody Needs Somebody Sometimes" and the B-Side "Hold Me/Squeeze Me." Ann Margret has continued to record music sporatically since then.
[edit]Film career
In 1961 she also made her film début for in Pocketful of Miracles, starring Bette Davis, Glenn Ford, and Hope Lange, a remake of the Oscar-winning 1933 film Lady for a Day; both versions were directed by the great Frank Capra. She followed that role with the successful remake of Rodgers' and Hammerstein's musical State Fair in 1962. Her next starring role, as the all-American teenager in Bye Bye Birdie, made her a major star. When she filmed Viva Las Vegas with Elvis Presley the two began an affair that received considerable attention from the gossip columnists in various media. The reports led to a showdown with a very worried Priscilla Beaulieu, which she recounts in her 1985 book, Elvis and Me, including Ann-Margret's attempt to "cut her off at the pass" with a press announcement that Ann-Margret and Elvis were engaged to be married. Although he ended the affair, Presley remained a friend and continued to send her flowers at the opening of each of her stage appearances until he died. Of all the Hollywood starlets he had worked with or had a relationship with, Ann-Margret was the only one to attend his funeral.
In 1963, Ann-Margret was featured and guest-starred, in animated form, in an episode of Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones as "Ann-Margrock." Decades later, she recorded the theme song to the live-action film The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas in character as Ann-Margrock. The song she recorded was a modified version of the "Viva Las Vegas" theme.\
In March 1966, Ann-Margret and entertainers Chuck Day and Mickey Jones teamed up for a USO tour to entertain U.S. servicemen in remote parts of Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia. She still has great affection for the veterans and refers to them as "my gentlemen". [1] Ann-Margret, Day and Jones reunited for an encore of this tour for veterans and troops at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada in November 2005. [2]
In 1971, she starred in Mike Nichols's Carnal Knowledge, marking a change from her sex-kitten musical roles, garnering a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The following year, while performing at Lake Tahoe, Nevada, she fell 22 feet from the stage and suffered injuries that put her out of commission for several months. Throughout the 1970s, Ann-Margret balanced her live performances with a string of critically acclaimed dramatic film performances that played against her glamorous image, including Tommy in 1975, for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In addition, she has been nominated for ten Golden Globe Awards, winning five times including Best Actress for Tommy. She also did a string of successful TV specials, starting with The Ann-Margret Show for NBC in 1968. Now in her mid-60s, she continues to act in movies.
In 1994, she published an autobiography titled Ann Margret: My Story (ISBN 0-399-13891-9). She has been married to actor Roger Smith since 1967. Smith suffers from myasthenia gravis, and Ann-Margret has devoted much of her life to caring for him.
In 2001 Ann-Margret made her first appearance in a stage musical, playing the character of Mona Stangley in a new touring production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
She has also filmed the movie "Mem-o-re", where she stars with Billy Zane and Dennis Hopper.
You Took Advantage of Me
Ann-Margret Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
It must go to someone of course
It can't be sister or brother
And so I love my horse
But horses are frequently silly
Mine ran from the beach of Okhala
And left me alone for a filly
So I have picked you up
I'm a sentimental sap, that's all
What's the use of trying not to fall?
I have no will, you've made your kill
Cause you took advantage of me
I'm just like an apple on a bough
And you're gonna shake me down somehow
So, what's the use, you've cooked my goose
Cause you took advantage of me
I'm so hot and bothered that
I don't know my elbow from my ear
I suffer something awful each time
You go and much worse when you're near
Here I am with all my bridges burned
Just a babe in arms where you're concerned
So lock the doors and call me yours
Cause you took advantage of me.
I'm a sentimental sap, that's all
What's the use of trying not to fall?
I have no will, you've made your kill
Cause you took advantage of me
I'm just like an apple on a bough
And you're gonna shake me down somehow
So, what's the use, you've cooked my goose
Cause you took advantage of me
I'm so hot and bothered that
I don't know my elbow from my ear
I suffer something awful each time
You go and much worse when you're near
Here I am with all my bridges burned
Just a babe in arms where you're concerned
So lock the doors and call me yours
Cause you took advantage of me
You took advantage of me
The first stanza of Ann-Margret's song "You Took Advantage of Me" speaks of a girl's love for her horse, a love that is maternal in nature. This love cannot be given to a sibling, so the girl loves her horse; however, horses can be unpredictable and the singer's horse ran from the beach of Okhala leaving her alone. So she has no choice but to love the person who has picked her up - the one who took advantage of her. The second stanza, on the other hand, talks about the singer herself being a "sentimental sap" who could not resist falling in love. She has no will of her own and has fallen prey to the person who took advantage of her.
The song speaks of unrequited love, of a love that is unreturned and in this case, even taken advantage of. It tells a story of a person who has given all her love to another, only to be deceived for it. The line "I'm just like an apple on a bough, and you're gonna shake me down somehow" can be taken literally, as one would shake an apple tree to get the apples, or figuratively, where the person being referred to as the apple being shaken down by the one who took advantage of her. The song leaves the listener with a sense of hopelessness, of being trapped with no way out.
Line by Line Meaning
When a girl has the heart of a mother
When someone is very nurturing and caring
It must go to someone of course
It's natural for them to express their emotions towards someone
It can't be sister or brother
It can't be a family member
And so I love my horse
So she puts that care and love into her horse
But horses are frequently silly
However, horses can also be unpredictable
Mine ran from the beach of Okhala
Her horse ran away from her at Okhala beach
And left me alone for a filly
Leaving her to be replaced by another horse
So I have picked you up
So she has directed that love towards someone else
I'm a sentimental sap, that's all
She's a very emotional person
What's the use of trying not to fall?
There's no avoiding falling in love
I have no will, you've made your kill
She has no control over her feelings, and he's taken advantage of that
Cause you took advantage of me
He's taken advantage of her emotional vulnerabilities
I'm just like an apple on a bough
She's helpless and vulnerable
And you're gonna shake me down somehow
He's going to exploit her vulnerability
So, what's the use, you've cooked my goose
There's no escape, he's already taken advantage
I'm so hot and bothered that
She's very flustered and overwhelmed
I don't know my elbow from my ear
She's so emotional that she's lost touch with reality
I suffer something awful each time
She experiences a lot of pain and anguish
You go and much worse when you're near
She's even worse when he's around
Here I am with all my bridges burned
She's put all her trust and emotions into him, even if it's not reciprocated
Just a babe in arms where you're concerned
She's powerless when it comes to him
So lock the doors and call me yours
She's willing to give everything to him
Cause you took advantage of me.
He's taken advantage of her vulnerability and emotions
You took advantage of me
Reiterating that he's taken advantage of her
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind