Her parents met at Cornell University, where her mother majored in piano, and her father, also a keen pianist, in liberal arts.

She attended the Lenox School of Jazz in 1959, where she met and worked with Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry,[3] and was taught by Bill Evans, Max Roach, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, John Lewis and Gunther Schuller, among others.

Songs of this period, with her lyrics, were recorded by Chris Connor, Freda Payne, Nancy Harrow and Alice Babs, among others.

Popular music passed Guryan by until, after her divorce from Brookmeyer, her friend Dave Frishberg urged her to listen to the song "God Only Knows" from the album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys.

"[10]Guryan played Creed Taylor, for whom she was at the time working as a secretary, a tape of some of her newer songs, and he pointed her in the direction of April-Blackwood, the publishing arm of Columbia Records.

Rosner signed her up, and suggested she double-track her voice on demos, to compensate for the difficulties she had previously and produce a better sounding vocal.

[12] Also in 1968, Marie Laforêt released "Et si je t'aime", a French version of "Sunday Mornin'" with lyrics by Michel Jourdan.

The musicians on the record included Hill on guitar, Kirk Hamilton (flute, bass), Phil Bodner (oboe), Paul Griffin (keyboards) and Buddy Saltzman (drums).

[18] Take a Picture was praised by Billboard, who remarked on Guryan's "fine sound" which it characterized as "commercial" and said "should ensure strong sales".

[19] However Guryan refused to tour, having been married to a jazz musician and having seen "too much – performing required an agent, and a manager and a lawyer and a booking person and... you got owned by these people – they told you where to go, how to look, how to dress, what to say, and I didn't want that!

[6][20] Resigned to this, Guryan withdrew from performing, although she continued as writer for April-Blackwood for several years afterwards, and worked with Rosner producing records for other artists.

British band Saint Etienne covered "I Don't Intend to Spend Christmas Without You" for a 1998 fan club single.

To promote the re-release, Guryan issued a music video for the album track "California Shake", co-written by Richard Bennett.

[22][citation needed] In 2007, Guryan released a new single via British label Pure Mint Recordings, entitled "16 Words".

The song referenced then US President George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address, in particular the phrase "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa", which forms the entirety of the lyric.

[25] A portion of the album's proceeds will be donated to non-profits, such as Planned Parenthood to help provide and advocate for affordable reproductive health services.