McGovern was born in Youngstown, Ohio to Mary Rita Welsh and James Terrence… Read Full Bio ↴McGovern was born in Youngstown, Ohio to Mary Rita Welsh and James Terrence McGovern.[1] She has Irish ancestry.[2] As a child, McGovern would listen to her father's barbershop quartet rehearse in their home. She was told by her elders that she began singing at the tender age of three, and would sometimes sing herself to sleep with things she heard on the radio. She decided at age eight that she wanted to be a professional singer; and she developed a taste for various types of music, including jazz, showtunes, oldies, and folk. Her influences include Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick.

After graduating from high school in 1967, she worked as a secretary and performed part-time as a singer for a local folk band called Sweet Rain. Her singing caught the attention of Russ Regan (then head of 20th Century Records) in 1972 when he heard a demo she had recorded. At the time, Regan was searching for a singer to record "The Morning After" (the theme from The Poseidon Adventure) for release as a record. He hired McGovern sight unseen to record the song, which led to her signing with 20th Century Records. After it won an Oscar for Best Original Song, "The Morning After" quickly climbed the pop charts, reaching #1 in 1973.

In 1974, she recorded two movie themes: "We May Never Love Like This Again" (from the disaster film The Towering Inferno, in which she made a short appearance when she is seen singing the song as the evening's entertainment) and "Wherever Love Takes Me" (from the British disaster film Gold). The former won an Oscar (though it was only a minor pop hit), and the latter received an Oscar nomination. These two songs (along with "The Morning After") led the media to call McGovern "the Disaster Theme Queen."

McGovern's contract with 20th Century ended in 1976. By this time, her career went downhill and she ended up broke, due to being cheated out of her earnings by her managers and producers. To begin her life over again, she moved to Marina del Rey and took a secretarial job under an assumed name. However, she was still in demand occasionally for international live concerts. Her career made a turn for the better when she was asked to record a version of "Can You Read My Mind," the love theme from 1978's Superman, which was not recorded for the film. The single achieved minor success on the Pop charts. Toward the end of the decade, she recorded "Different Worlds," the theme from a short-lived TV sitcom entitled Angie. The song was her only other Top 40 single aside from "The Morning After," reaching #18 on the Pop charts in 1979 and also spending two weeks at #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart. In 1980, she made a cameo appearance as the singing nun, Sister Angelina, in the comedy-disaster movie Airplane!.

At the beginning of the 1980s, McGovern gave up movie themes to begin a career on Broadway, despite having no acting experience. In 1981, she made her Broadway debut as Mabel in a revival of Gilbert & Sullivan's musical The Pirates of Penzance. She then performed in two productions with the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera: The Sound of Music (1981; as Maria) and South Pacific (1982; as Nellie Forbush). She continued her theatrical career throughout the eighties and originated the role of Mary in the Off-Broadway production of Brownstone in 1985.

In 2005, McGovern returned to the Broadway stage as Marmee opposite Sutton Foster's Jo in the musical adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Plagued by negative reviews, it quickly closed, but McGovern reprised her role for the successful subsequent national tour.

She slowly returned to music in the mid-eighties, contributing songs to musical soundtracks and recording for various-artist compilations. She also returned to touring and performing in concerts and began establishing herself as a classy, jazzy nightclub and cabaret performer. Starting in 1987, she released three albums for CBS in three years - Another Woman in Love (a voice/piano album), State of the Heart (a fully orchestrated album), and Naughty Baby (a live album).

In 1989, she performed her debut concert in Carnegie Hall, singing a collection of songs by George Gershwin. The concert was recorded live and released that year as an album entitled Naughty Baby; it features a very first recording of a lost Gershwin song "A Corner of Heaven With You" (written ca. 1917).

From the nineties into the 21st century, McGovern continued her careers in musical theatre, performing in concerts, and recording albums, and she occasionally made guest appearances on television. Other recordings include Baby I'm Yours (1992), a collection of her favorite songs from 1955 to 1970, and Out of This World (1996), a collection of songs by Harold Arlen. She was twice nominated for a Grammy, for her albums The Music Never Ends (1997), a collection of songs by Alan & Marilyn Bergman, and The Pleasure of His Company (1998), another voice/piano album.

In 2003, Out of This World and The Music Never Ends were rereleased by Fynsworth Alley Records; both albums included bonus tracks, the former two, and the latter three.

The Long and Winding Road
Maureen McGovern Lyrics

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The long and winding road
That leads to your door
Will never disappear
I've seen that road before
It always leads me here
Lead me to you door

The wild and windy night

That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here?
Let me know the way

Many times I've been alone
And many times I've cried
Anyway you'll never know
The many ways I've tried

And still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't leave me waiting here
Lead me to your door

But still they lead me back
To the long winding road
You left me standing here
A long long time ago
Don't keep me waiting here

Lead me to your door
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Overall Meaning

The Long and Winding Road by Maureen McGovern is a song about a person’s journey to finding love. The long and winding road represents the difficulties and obstacles she has gone through in her journey to find true love. The singer has been on this journey before, but it always leads her back to the same place: the door of her beloved. The journey has been long and difficult, but she never gives up as she believes that true love is worth the effort.

The wild and windy night symbolizes the struggles that the singer has gone through. The rain represents the tears she has cried, and the pool of tears represents the pain that she has endured. She asks her lover to let her know the way as she can’t wait anymore. She has been alone and has tried many ways to find love. However, she has never been able to succeed. But, despite all the struggles, she never gives up hope and believes that her journey will lead her back to her lover’s door.

Overall, The Long and Winding Road is a beautiful song that captures the essence of love, hope, and perseverance. It encourages us to never give up on our journey to find true love, despite the obstacles we may face along the way.

Line by Line Meaning

The long and winding road
This journey towards finding you has been full of twists and turns.

That leads to your door
This journey is ultimately towards finding you and being with you.

Will never disappear
This journey is one that cannot be avoided or forgotten.

I've seen that road before
I have traveled down this path numerous times in search of you.

It always leads me here
Despite this journey's ups and downs, it always brings me back to where I want to be - with you.

Lead me to your door
Please guide me towards you so that we may be together.

The wild and windy night
This difficult and challenging experience has been fraught with unpredictable events and uncontrollable forces.

That the rain washed away
These events have left me with little left, akin to how the rain can wash away traces of feeling and longing.

Has left a pool of tears
Emotions have overflowed, culminating in a metaphorical pool of tears.

Crying for the day
Longing and hoping for a better future in which we can be together.

Why leave me standing here?
The plight of being left in limbo and yearning for direction towards the end goal.

Let me know the way
Please guide me towards the destination that will bring us together and ease the frustrations of the journey.

Many times I've been alone
Throughout this journey, I have spent much time by myself, yearning for your companionship.

And many times I've cried
This journey towards you has not been an easy one, with many moments of great emotional pain and distress.

Anyway you'll never know
No matter how much I try, I can never fully express the depth and extent of my longing for you.

The many ways I've tried
I have sought different paths and solutions to be with you, but nothing seems to work like the long winding road that always leads me back to you.

You left me standing here
The feeling of being abandoned and forgotten, alone in the struggles of the journey towards you.

A long long time ago
The waiting and yearning have gone on for what seems like an impossibly long time.

Don't keep me waiting here
Please, do not leave me to wait any longer to be reunited with you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
An expression of frustration, longing, and a desire for a resolution to this journey towards you.

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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