(Jimmy Boyd - with assistance from The Wrecking Crew)
A big departure from his first mega-hit "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" (okay, he was 12), Jimmy Boyd had a brief stint at Vee-Jay Records (the Chicago label who gave us John Lee Hooker, Dee Clark, The Four Seasons and oh . . . the first Beatles album). With this moderate hit "That's What I'll Give To You", penned by none other than Barry Gibb during his starving artist/pre-Bee Gees days.
It's a pure out-and-out teen love ballad, assisted by members of the Wrecking Crew (Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco et al).
The problem was, Vee-Jay was about to go into receivership just after this single was issued - not the first time the label would have financial problems, and certainly not the last. But it did manage to screw up an album or follow up singles by Boyd, which was too bad because Jimmy was a remarkable talent. Sadly, Jimmy passed away earlier this year and I don't think he ever got the chance to hear the stereo mix of this track.
I managed to unearth the 4-track session masters and hoped this would be in a compilation at some point. But no. Financial problems would prevent that from happening, yet again.
Well . . . at least you get a chance to hear it in stereo for the first time. Lucky you.
