(Bobby Darin)
Australia
#18 Melbourne #27 Brisbane #45 Perth
B-side 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.
See also his singles I’ll Give You Love (1966) and It Comes And Goes (1967).
After working his passage to the UK as a shipboard entertainer, he joined British group The New Seekers, a younger, poppier group assembled by Keith Potger, a member of the original 1960s Seekers.
Kristian sang (sometimes on lead), played guitar, wrote, and produced in The New Seekers, 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).
References, further reading: 1. Marty Kristian official website. 2. The New Seekers website [archived] told the story of the group in photos and text (follow the arrows). 3. Wikipedia entries on Marty Kristian and The New Seekers.
(Bobby Darin)
USA
Original version
Single on Atlantic, September 1965.
Wikipedia’s infobox summary of Bobby Darin (1936-1973) says a lot about his widely ranging career:
Genres Jazz, blues, rock’n’roll, pop, swing, folk
Occupations Musician, singer-songwriter, actor
Instruments Vocals, guitar, piano, drums, harmonica, xylophone
Darin recorded this after returning from Capitol to Atlantic, the label that had released (through Atco) his sixteen Top 40 hits from Splish Splash (1958, #3 USA) to Things (1962 #3).
During this later period he showed influences from current musical trends, became active in politics as a Bobby Kennedy Democrat, and produced his last big hit, a version of folk singer-songwriter Tim Hardin’s If I Were A Carpenter (1966, #8 USA).
We Didn’t Ask To Be Brought Here had an up-to-date folk-rock sound, and its lyrics about the blamelessness of youth fitted into a current protest song genre. Its Billboard ad pushed its great message, and although it doesn’t explicitly mention the war or Vietnam, it has been taken as an anti-war song. Richie Unterberger at All Music has it as an unexpected antiwar tune, and Lee Anderson includes it in the discography for his book Battle Notes: Music of the Vietnam War. Shane Brown at his blog Beyond Boundaries notes that it is an early example of the protest music that would later be a feature of the album Bobby Darin Born Walden Robert Cassotto (1968), with songs about the war, the environment and politics.
References, further reading: 1. Bobby Darin biography by Richie Unterberger at All Music. 2. Shane Brown on Darin’s protest music.
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Website by Lyn Nuttall. © Lyn Nuttall 2004-2026. Chart positions courtesy of Gavin Ryan’s Australian Chart Books and Dean Scapolo’s Complete NZ Music Charts. Special thanks to Terry Stacey for information, corrections and suggestions. Thanks also to Tony Watson, Philippe Edouard, Dave Overett.., More…