Liv Maessen - The Love Moth (1969)

(Mario Panzeri - Gianni Argenio - Corrado Conti - Daniele Pace + Buddy Kaye)
 Australia
Original English language version
#8 Melbourne

Charted in January 1970.

Single on Polydor, an English rewrite of an Italian song, La Pioggia, a 1969 entrant in the Sanremo Music Festival (see below). 

The notable American songwriter Buddy Kaye (1918-2002) wrote the English lyrics. There appears to be no other version of this song as The Love Moth.

This was the first charting single by Liv Maessen, a deep-voiced Melbourne-based singer who won a 1970 Logie Award (Australia’s equivalent of the Emmys) for Best New Talent.

The Love Moth was arranged John Farrar of The Strangers, later in post-Shadows group Marvin, Welch & Farrar, and a writer-arranger-producer for Olivia Newton-John (see The Banks Of The Ohio).

See also at this site: Liv Maessen’s hit songs Knock Knock Who’s There and Snowbird.

References, further reading:
1. SecondhandSongs.com’s extensive history of La pioggia including The Love Moth and other variations.
2. Wikipedia’s Buddy Kaye article has a partial but substantial list of his works.
3. Buddy Kaye credits at Discogs.com.

Gigliola Cinquetti - La Pioggia (1969)

(Mario Panzeri - Gianni Argenio - Corrado Conti - Daniele Pace)
 Italy
Original version

Single on CGD. Released in Australia on CBS.

La Pioggia (“The Rain”) is the song that became The Love Moth. It was a hit in Italy; #20 for the year, according to OldieHitParade.de [archived page].

La Pioggia came 6th in the 1969 Italian Song Festival (Festival della canzone italiana), better known as the Sanremo Music Festival (Festival di Sanremo) 30 January-1 February 1969.

Gigliola Cinquetti and France Gall each sang La Pioggia in Italian at the Festival, but each released a version in her own language.

Sanremo practice was to air a new song twice, first by an Italian artist and later again the same day by an international artist for the European TV audience. The records would be released simultaneously after that, on the following Monday.

Further reading:
2. Gigliola Cinquetti biography at All Music Guide.
2. Release details at SwissCharts.com

Thanks to Roberto Lanterna, by email from Italia, for Sanremo insights.