Don't Give It Up (Six60 song)

"Don't Give It Up" is a song by New Zealand band Six60, released as the lead single from their 2017 extended play Six60.

"Don't Give It Up"
Single by Six60
from the EP Six60
Released13 October 2017 (2017-10-13)
GenrePop
Length3:21
LabelEpic, Massive
Songwriter(s)
  • Chris Mac
  • Eli Paewai
  • James Fraser
  • Marlon Gerbes
  • Matiu Walters
  • Printz Board
Producer(s)
Six60 singles chronology
"Exhale"
(2015)		 "Don't Give It Up"
(2017)		 "Rivers"
(2017)
Music video
"Don't Give It Up" (Lyric Video) on YouTube

Background and composition

The song was the first that Six60 recorded for the Six60 EP sessions.[1] The song was created by Six60 as a way to play with space, and to use silence as an instrument. The song was sonically inspired by the "sophisticated simplicity" of musicians such as Bob Marley, Queen and the Beatles,[2] and began as a piano demo performed by Marlon Gerbes, that the band stripped back to the most basic aspects.[1] Lyrically, the band wanted to create an ambiguous song where listeners could put their own voice and experiences into the track, such as social media-related anxiety and other "unique challenges" faced at the time.[2]

Release and promotion

"Don't Give It Up" was the first of six tracks released weekly in the build-up to their Six60 EP,[3] on 13 October 2017.[4] The band performed "Don't Give It Up" at the 2018 New Zealand Music Awards.[5] "Don't Give It Up" spent six months from November 2017 to May 2018 as the most performed song on New Zealand radio.[6]

New Zealand musician Miller Yule released an acoustic cover of the song in 2018, on his live EP Miller Yule Live.[7]

Critical reception

Chris Schulz of The New Zealand Herald praised "Don't Give It Up" as an "earworm sugar rush".[8] Hussein Moses of Radio New Zealand described the song as "basically one big unimaginative feel-good singalong about nothing in particular, which is bound to annoy critics and please just about everyone else."[9]

Mark Beynes of MAINZ analysed "Don't Give It Up", describing the song as a diatonic track borrowing the rhythm of 1960s pop songs, such as "Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison, noting the track's "tasteful vocal harmonies".[10]

The song was nominated for the Aotearoa Music Award for Single of the Year at the 2018 New Zealand Music Awards, losing to "Woke Up Late" by Drax Project. The song was awarded both the Te Tōtahi Hoko Teitei/Vodafone Highest Selling Single and Te Rikoata Marakerake o te Tau/NZ On Air Radio Airplay Record of the Year awards.[11]

Credits and personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal.[12]

  • Neil Baldock – engineer
  • Leslie Braithwaite – mixing
  • Andrew Chavez – engineer
  • Ji Fraser – guitar, songwriter
  • Marlon Gerbes – keyboards, guitar, producer, songwriter
  • Dmitry Gorodetsky – bass guitar
  • David Kutch – mastering engineer
  • Chris Mac – bass guitar, songwriter
  • Eli Paewai – drums, songwriter
  • Printz Board – producer, songwriter
  • Matiu Walters – vocals, producer, songwriter

Charts

Certifications
Certifications for "Don't Give It Up"
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
New Zealand (RMNZ)[15] 5× Platinum 150,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

References
  1. Six60 (24 November 2017). "SIX60 - Don't Give It Up (Behind the Song, Norway 2017)". Retrieved 12 April 2023 – via YouTube.
  2. "Vice New Zealand Shorties: Singles: Six60". Vice. 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  3. Gillespie, Kim (15 November 2017). "SoundBites: Marlon Williams, Estère, Koi Boys, Kimbra, Kings, Six60, Punk It Up". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  4. Six60. "Out now. 'Don't Give It Up'..." Facebook. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  5. "Six60 performs 'Don't Give It Up' at 2018 VNZMAs". Newshub. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  6. Greive, Duncan (21 July 2018). "The biggest band in New Zealand history are doing everything wrong". The Spinoff. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  7. Butch181 (17 December 2018). "Miller Yule - EP Review: Miller Yule Live". muzic.net.nz. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  8. Schulz, Chris (9 November 2017). "Business at the front, party at the back: How Six60 turned their band into a big deal". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  9. Parker, Katie; Moses, Hussein (24 November 2017). "The Singles Life: Which new Six60 song is the Six60-est?". Radio New Zealand. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  10. Beynes, Mark (2018). "X-Factory: Six60". NZ Musician. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  11. "Six60 dominates the 2018 VNZMAs, winning five Tuis". Newshub. 15 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  12. "Credits / SIX60 / SIX60". Tidal. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
  13. "Six60 – Don't Give It Up". Top 40 Singles. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  14. "END OF YEAR CHARTS 2018". NZ Music Charts. RMNZ. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  15. "New Zealand single certifications". Recorded Music NZ. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
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