Marty Kristian - I’ll Give You Love (1966)

(Crispian St. Peters)
 Australia
Original version
#17 Melbourne

Released 1966, charted March 1967.

See also We Didn’t Ask To Be Brought Here (1966) and It Comes And Goes (1967).

Single on CBS, one of four in Australia 1966-1968 by Marty Kristian (b. 1947), a Melbourne singer-songwriter later resident in Britain. He is of Latvian heritage, born Martin Vanags in post-war Germany.

In 1969, after working his passage to the UK as a shipboard entertainer, he joined British pop group The New Seekers, a younger, poppier group assembled by Keith Potger, a member of the original Seekers. Kristian sang (sometimes on lead), played guitar, wrote, and produced, beginning with their formation in 1969 until 2002 (with a mid-70s break-up and re-formation). In the UK they had 14 Top 40 entries 1970-77 including two at #1 and two at #2, and they had three hits in the USA including I’d Like to Teach The World To Sing (1971, #1 UK, #7 USA).

The writer
I’ll Give You Love was written by British singer-songwriter Crispian St Peters (1939-2010) who produced the single while touring Australia. At this time St Peters was known for his two big hits, You Were On My Mind (1965, #2 UK, #36 USA, a cover of the We Five US hit version of the Ian & Sylvia song) and The Pied Piper (1966, #5 UK, #4 USA, a remake of the 1965 original by The Changin’ Times). Both songs were also hits in Australia.

According to a biography from the Marty Kristian website it was Ken Pitt, manager of Crispian St Peters, who arranged for Marty to record a song that Crispian had written and also invited him to come to England where he promised to help with his career.

Crispian St Peters appears not to have recorded this himself.

Reference, further reading: 1. Marty Kristian official website on Crispian St Peters (archived, quoted above). 2. Crispian St Peters obituary from The Independent.  3. The New Seekers website tells the story of the group in photos and text (follow the arrows). 4. Wikipedia entries on Marty Kristian, Crispian St Peters and The New Seekers.

Suggestion from Terry Stacey.

Image: Billboard, 1 April 1967 [via Google Books].