Though she played
violin in a dance band in her twenties, she began her songwriting career late in life. She was in her late 40s when she met
Earl Robinson, Pete Seeger and other folk singers and songwriters. She returned to school at UC Berkeley, where she studied
music theory. She went on to write several popular songs, including "Little Boxes", "
What Have They Done to the Rain", recorded by
The Searchers and
Joan Baez (about
nuclear fallout), "It Isn't Nice" (a
civil rights anthem), "Turn Around" (about children growing up, later sung by
Harry Belafonte), and "There's a Bottom Below" (about being depressed). Reynolds was also a noted composer of children's songs, including "Magic Penny" and "
Morningtown Ride", a top 5 UK single (December 66) recorded by
The Seekers.
Three collections of her music are available on
compact disc. The
Smithsonian Folkways label released
Another County Heard From (Folkways 02524) and
Ear to the Ground (Smithsonian Folkways 40124), and the Omni Recording Corporation in
Australia issued
Malvina Reynolds (Omni 112.)
A film biography,
Love It Like a Fool, was made a few years before she died in 1978.
Reynolds' most famous song, "
Little Boxes" (made famous by
Pete Seeger), has enjoyed renewed popularity by being featured in
Showtime's TV series Weeds. "Little Boxes" was inspired visually by the houses of
Daly City, California. Nancy Reynolds, daughter of Malvina Reynolds, explains:
:"My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in
La Honda where she was going to sing for the
Friends Committee on Legislation. When
Time Magazine (I think, maybe
Newsweek) wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn’t find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered.”
