Current Traffic

Friday 10 September 2010

Post 284 - Liv Maessen - Knock, Knock Who's There EP


Noted for her deep, resonant contralto voice, Melbourne singer Liv Maessen launched her career in 1969 when she entered the popular TV talent quest New Faces. The young mother of two won her heat and went on to take out second place in the series final. Her first single was a song called "The Love Moth". Released on the Polydor label in Dec. 1969, it scraped into the bottom end of the national Top 40 in April 1970, peaking at #39. Her second single, issued in April 1970, was a cover of Mary Hopkin's UK hit "Knock, Knock, Who's There". Liv's version was included in the first batch of singles released by Ron Tudor's new record company Fable Records and it quickly shot to the top of the charts. It became her most successful recording and one of the biggest Australian singles of the year. It stayed on the charts for 23 weeks and earned Liv the unique distinction of being the first Australian female singer ever to be awarded a Gold Record, for sales of over 50,000 copies. Her third single moved into the country pop genre with a rendition of Anne Murray's US hit "Snowbird". It made the national Top 20, but this proved to be her last chart hit. In March 1971 she released her fourth single, "Hurry On Down", which sold only moderately and didn't chart. Here to download is the 1970 EP "Knock, Knock Who's There" (FBE 1) arranged by John Farrar. In 1974 Liv released a new single on the Philips label, "Hey Mama, Sing Me A Song" which was apparently her last commercial recording. Nothing is currently known about what Liv is doing these days.

1 comment:

Luuk said...

Quite accidentally I stumbled upon this singer. A pity there apparently is only 1 EP and 1 single. Luckily there are some clips on YouTube!
Thank you for making this EP available.