The Lovin' Spoonful
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The Lovin' Spoonful is a Canadian-American folk-rock band formed in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
, New York City, in 1964. The band were among the most popular groups in the United States for a short period in the mid-1960s and their music and image influenced many of the contemporary rock acts of their era. Beginning in July1965 with their debut single " Do You Believe in Magic", the band had seven consecutive singles reach the Top Ten of the US charts in the eighteen months that followed, including the number-two hits "
Daydream Daydreaming is a stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when one's attention becomes focused on a more personal and internal direction. Various names of this phenomenon exist, including mind-wandering, fantasies, a ...
" and " Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" and the chart-topping " Summer in the City". Led by their primary songwriter
John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and musician who founded the rock band the Lovin' Spoonful in 1964 with Zal Yanovsky. During his time in the Lovin Spoonful, Sebastian wrote and sang some of the ban ...
, the Spoonful took their earliest influences from
jug band A jug band is a musical band, band employing a jug (instrument), jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washbo ...
and
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
music, reworking them into a
popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...
format. In 1965, the band helped pioneer the development of the musical genre of folk rock. By 1966, the group were "one of the most highly regarded American and they were the year's third-best-selling singles act in the US, after
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
and
the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
. As
psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...
expanded in popularity in 1967, the Spoonful struggled to transition their approach and saw diminished sales before disbanding in 1968. Before they founded the Spoonful, Sebastian (guitar, harmonica,
autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of t ...
, vocals) and Zal Yanovsky (guitar, vocals) were active in Greenwich Village's folk-music scene. Aiming to create an "electric jug band", they recruited the local rock musicians Steve Boone (bass guitar) and Joe Butler (drums, vocals). The four-piece lineup honed their sound at New York nightclubs before they began recording for Kama Sutra Records with the producer Erik Jacobsen. In May1966, at the height of the band's success, Yanovsky and Boone were arrested for marijuana possession in San Francisco. The pair revealed their drug source to authorities to avoid Yanovsky being deported to his native Canada, an action which generated tensions within the group. Due to disagreements over their artistic direction, the band fired Yanovsky in May1967, replacing him with Jerry Yester, and Yanovsky commenced a brief and commercially unsuccessful solo career. The original iteration of the Spoonful last publicly performed in June1968, after which time Sebastian departed the group and pursued a briefly successful solo career. The band dissolved later that year. In 2000, the Spoonful were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
, an occasion that saw Sebastian, Yanovsky, Boone and Butler perform together for the last time. Yanovsky died of a heart attack two years later. Sebastian has remained active as a solo act, and Boone, Butler and Yester began touring under the name ''the Lovin' Spoonful'' in 1991.


History


1964–1965: Formation


Greenwich Village and folk music

The co-founders of the Lovin' Spoonful –
John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and musician who founded the rock band the Lovin' Spoonful in 1964 with Zal Yanovsky. During his time in the Lovin Spoonful, Sebastian wrote and sang some of the ban ...
and Zal Yanovsky – met on February 9, 1964, at the apartment of
Cass Elliot Ellen Naomi Cohen (September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974), known professionally as Cass Elliot, was an American singer. She was also known as "Mama Cass", a name she reportedly disliked. Elliot was a member of the singing group the Mamas & the P ...
, a mutual friend and fellow musician. Elliot was holding a party that night to watch the English rock band
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
make their American television debut on ''
The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the ''CB ...
''. Elliot, Sebastian and Yanovsky were all active in the folk-music scene in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
, a neighborhood in New York City, and the three were greatly influenced by the Beatles' performance; Sebastian later reflected, "It affected heavily... eaningmy specific generation". Later that night, Elliot encouraged Sebastian and Yanovsky to play guitars, and Sebastian remembered discovering they had "a tremendous affinity" for one another. Sebastian, the son of the classical
harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...
player John Sebastian Sr., grew up in a Village apartment which neighbored Washington Square Park. The younger Sebastian often went to the park to play music, and he also played in rock bands as a teenager at his prep school in
New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
. He became a multi-instrumentalist, being proficient on guitar, harmonica, piano and the
autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of t ...
. Beginning in the early 1960s, he worked as a studio musician. Yanovsky grew up in Downsview, a suburb of Toronto, Canada, and he was enmeshed as a guitar player in the city's folk-music scene, which centered on the Yorkville neighborhood.
Denny Doherty Dennis Gerrard Stephen Doherty (November 29, 1940 – January 19, 2007) was a Canadian singer, songwriter and musician. A tenor, he was a founding member of the 1960s musical group the Mamas & the Papas for which he was inducted into the Rock ...
, another musician active in Yorkville, invited Yanovsky to join his folk group, the Halifax Three, which later relocated to Greenwich Village. After the Halifax Three broke up in June1964, Elliot recruited Yanovsky and Doherty to join her own group, the Mugwumps. That same year, Sebastian briefly played with another New York folk group, the Even Dozen Jug Band, before he was also recruited into the Mugwumps to play harmonica. Sebastian later remembered becoming enamoured with Yanovsky: " eamused the hell out of me. He inhaled and exhaled people and conversation and jokes and theater. He was this kind of cultural weathervane – and people gathered around him." During live performances with the Mugwumps, rather than playing folk songs straight through, Yanovsky and Sebastian often improvised off of one another on guitar and harmonica, respectively. After the Mugwumps dissolved in late1964, Sebastian and Yanovsky began planning to form their own group, which they envisioned as an electric
jug band A jug band is a musical band, band employing a jug (instrument), jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washbo ...
. Sebastian recalled: "Yanovsky and I were both aware of the fact that this commercial folk music model was about to change again, that the four-man band that actually played their own instruments and wrote their own songs was the thing." Yanovsky contacted Bob Cavallo, the former manager of the Halifax Three and the Mugwumps, who agreed to manage Sebastian and Yanovsky's group even though they had not yet performed publicly, had no songs and did not yet have a band name. In 1964, Sebastian lived in an apartment on Prince Street in
Little Italy Little Italy is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an Urban area, urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian cul ...
, a Manhattan neighborhood south of Greenwich Village. That year, Erik Jacobsen, the former banjo player of the bluegrass band Knob Lick Upper 10,000, moved into the apartment next door, and the two soon bonded over their shared interests of smoking marijuana and listening to eclectic music. Like Sebastian, Jacobsen had been affected by the new sound of the Beatles; he later recalled that while touring in early1964, he listened to the group for the first time on a
jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that plays a user-selected song from a self-contained media library. Traditional jukeboxes contain records, compact discs, or digital files, and allow user ...
: "I decided, kind of then and there I think, that I was gonna quit the Knob Lick Upper 10,000, and go to New York City, and produced electric folk music." As part of his effort to switch focus towards production, Jacobsen recorded
demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * Plural for Demo (computer programming ...
for musicians in the Village, including Sebastian's compositions "Warm Baby" and


Earliest lineup

From 1962 to 1964, Steve Boone played bass guitar in several
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
rock bands with the drummer Joe Butler. They both played in the Kingsmen, a band led by Boone's brother, Skip, before Boone quit in mid-1964 to spend time visiting Europe. Skip and Butler changed the band's name to ''the Sellouts'' and moved to Greenwich Village, holding a residency at Trude Heller's club as one of the neighborhood's earliest rock groups. In December1964, at the insistence of Butler, Boone went to the Village Music Hall, a small music club on West 3rd Street in Greenwich Village. There, he met Sebastian and Yanovsky, and though he had no background in folk music, Boone soon bonded with the two over their shared musical influences, including
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
,
Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and de ...
,
the Everly Brothers The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close-harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly and Phillip "Phil" Everly, the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, ...
,
Buddy Holly Charles Hardin Holley (September 7, 1936 – February 3, 1959), known as Buddy Holly, was an American singer, songwriter, and musician who was a central and pioneering figure of rock and roll. He was born to a musical family in Lubbock, Texa ...
,
Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...
, the Beatles and other
British Invasion The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s, when Rock music, rock and pop music acts from the United Kingdom and other aspects of Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture became popular in the United States with sign ...
acts. Sebastian played him his composition " Good Time Music" – the lyrics of which derided early 1960s
rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
while extolling the Beatles and other new music – and the three musicians jammed different Chuck Berry and R&B numbers. Sebastian invited Boone to Jacobsen's apartment afterwards, where Boone met Jacobsen as well as Jerry Yester of the Modern Folk Quartet, a local folk music group. That week, Boone attended Sebastian's performance at a Greenwich Village club. Sebastian's show, made up of a quickly assembled group of Fred Neil,
Tim Hardin James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk music and blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his own success, his songs " If I Were a Carpenter", " Reason to Believe", " Misty Roses" and " ...
, Buzzy Linhart and Felix Pappalardi, greatly impressed Boone, who later remembered it as "one of the most significant nights in my musical life." He also recalled: "I was stunned. I had never heard such power in a folk group before." The performance motivated Boone to enter the Greenwich Village folk scene and join Sebastian and Yanovsky's group. The band was still in need of a drummer, and Boone suggested Jan Buchner, a part-timer with the Kingsmen who came at the recommendation of both Skip and Butler. Buchner, who went by the stagename Jan Carl, was the manager of the Bull's Head Inn, a small inn located in Bridgehampton on Long Island, and which he offered as a rehearsal space during the inn's winter closure. The band rehearsed at the Bull's Head for several weeks in December1964 and January1965, and they also played at local bars in Bridgehampton at night. In late1964 and early1965, to keep earning money before his new band had earned a contract, Sebastian continued performing as a studio musician on other artists' recordings. In this period, he played harmonica on progressive folk records for several acts, including
Fred Neil Fred Neil (born Frederick Ralph Morlock Jr.; March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularl ...
, Jesse Colin Young and
Judy Collins Judith Marjorie Collins (born May 1, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter and musician with a career spanning nearly seven decades. An Academy Awards, Academy Award-nominated documentary director and a Grammy Awards, Grammy Award-winning rec ...
. In January1965, the musician
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
asked Sebastian to play bass guitar on his newest album, '' Bringing It All Back Home''. The album's first day of sessions, January13, featured only Dylan on an acoustic guitar and, for a few tracks, Sebastian playing bass guitar, but none of the recordings were used on the final album. Dylan returned the next day to re-record much of the material, rearranging the songs attempted the day before so they instead featured an electric backing. Dylan invited Sebastian to return for a separate session held that evening, in which they recorded a remake of the song " Subterranean Homesick Blues". Boone – one of the few people Sebastian knew with a car and driver's license – offered to drive him to the session. Sebastian was not a trained bass player and, after struggling to play the part, he suggested that Boone play instead, but neither musician's contributions ended up on the final album.


First live dates

In early1965, in preparation for their first public performances, Sebastian, Yanovsky, Boone and Carl continued rehearsing at the Bull's Head, while Sebastian and Yanovsky searched for a group name. Fritz Richmond, the
washtub bass The washtub bass, or gutbucket, is a stringed instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal washtub as a resonator. Although it is possible for a washtub bass to have four or more strings and tuning pegs, traditional washtub basses ha ...
player for the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, suggested to Sebastian the name ''the Lovin' Spoonful'', a reference to the lyrics of the song "Coffee Blues" by the country blues musician Mississippi John Hurt, with whom Sebastian had previously worked. Sebastian and Yanovsky were enthusiastic about the suggestion and adopted it as the band's name. Joe Marra, the owner of Greenwich Village's Night Owl Cafe, knew Sebastian from his time backing other artists at the club, and Marra offered to book the Spoonful at the venue. The Night Owl was formerly an after-hours bowling alley at West 3rd and
MacDougal Street MacDougal Street is a one-way street in the Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the nort ...
s, which Marra had recently converted into a 125-person capacity coffeehouse and restaurant for folk music acts. The band made their first live performances in late January 1965 at the Night Owl, holding a two-week residency. One show, which Jacobsen recorded on a tape recorder, featured a mixture of Sebastian's originals ("Good Time Music" and "Didn't Want to Have to Do It"), folk songs ("Wild About My Lovin and "My Gal") and rock and roll (" Route 66", " Alley Oop" and " Almost Grown"). The band received a mixed reception, due in part to their loud playing style in the small venue. Marra was unimpressed and returned to booking folk acts. Cavallo and Jacobsen recommended rehearsals and that the band replace Carl as drummer. Carl, who was six years older than his bandmates, clashed with them in terms of appearance and playing style, and he was subsequently fired by the band's management. Having fired Carl, the Spoonful could no longer play at the Bull's Head and were in need of a new rehearsal space. The band had little money and had been living with Elliot in her Village apartment at the Hotel Albert. The Albert was frequented by many local folk musicians, and the building's proprietors allowed musicians staying there to rehearse in its basement, a decaying space with standing pools of water, chipping walls and a bug infestation. While at the Albert, the band befriended one of the building's permanent residents, Butchie Webber, who often fed them meals. Though the two were not romantic, Webber married Sebastian, so as to prevent him from being drafted into fighting in the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. Butler, who still played drums for the Sellouts, auditioned for the Spoonful in the Albert's basement. He impressed the others when he broke a drumstick but continued performing by hitting the cymbal with his hand, cutting it in the process. The band were inspired by Butler's energy and hired him as their drummer. While waiting to be signed to a record label, the Spoonful played at night clubs on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village, including Cafe Wha? and Café Bizarre. The band held a brief residency at Café Bizarre, playing several sets a night for six days a week, leading Sebastian to later reflect, "We learned more at that crappy little club than almost any other gig." Marra had been especially critical of the band's earlier performances at the Night Owl, but he was impressed by the band's newly professional approach, and in May of 1965, he offered for the band to return to performing at the Night Owl. The Spoonful shared their bill at the club with two other electric groups whom Marra booked, Danny Kalb's band the Blues Project and the Modern Folk Quartet, the latter of which Sebastian sometimes filled in for on drums. The Night Owl's triple-bill was immediately successful, and other established acts sometimes came to watch, including members of the American band
the Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...
and Mary Travers of the folk-trio
Peter, Paul and Mary Peter, Paul and Mary were an American Contemporary folk music, folk group formed in New York City in 1961 during the American folk music revival. The trio consisted of Peter Yarrow (guitar, tenor vocals), Paul Stookey (guitar, baritone vocals), ...
. Around the time he began booking electric acts, Marra moved the venue's stage towards the front street-facing window to draw in passers-by, and he printed a large color photo of the Spoonful and placed it in the club's window, which helped elevate the band's local popularity. On June7 and 8, 1965, the Spoonful performed at Club 47, a folk music club in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
. Boone remembered feeling hesitant to perform at a club known strictly for folk music, but Sebastian recalled that he and Yanovsky were immediately enthusiastic at the prospect of challenging folk enthusiasts: "Did we want to in that room!... We were going to be face to face with the folkies at last." The band played at the venue at the suggestion of Fritz Richmond, who encouraged the group by pointing to Bob Dylan's recent transition to electrified rock, first heard three months earlier with the release of " Subterranean Homesick Blues", and the newfound popularity of the Byrds, whose
folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...
cover of Dylan's song " Mr. Tambourine Man" reached number one in North America that month. The term "folk rock" had been coined in the June12 issue of the American music magazine ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' by the journalist Eliot Siegel, who used the term principally to describe the music of the Byrds. Siegel also counted "the Living Spoonfull" as an act working in the New York area with "a folk-rock sound", even though the group had not yet released a record. The Spoonful performed two sets at Club 47 and initially received a mixed reception; many folk fans walked out of the first set due to the band's loud sound. Years later, Sebastian recalled a moment from the first set: During the second set, the band received a warm response from the remaining crowd. In retrospect, the author
Richie Unterberger Richie Unterberger (born 1962) is an American author and journalist whose focus is popular music and travel writing. Life and writing Unterberger attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he wrote for the university newspaper '' The Daily P ...
describes the Spoonful's appearance as a "watershed" moment in the history of folk rock. The rock journalist Paul Williams attended the shows, and his review of the performances for the magazine ''Folkin' Around'' marked his earliest work as a music writer. Williams later reflected, "For a band like that to come to Club 47 was revolutionary, in terms of Cambridge sholier-than-thou purist attitude about folk music."


"Do You Believe in Magic", Kama Sutra

Early in the Spoonful's May residency at the Night Owl, Sebastian wrote a new song, " Do You Believe in Magic", which explored the transformative power of music. His initial inspiration came during one of the band's performances, in which he and Yanovsky noticed a sixteen-year-old girl dancing among the audience. The girl stood in contrast to the older
beatnik Beatniks were members of a social movement in the mid-20th century, who subscribed to an anti- materialistic lifestyle. They rejected the conformity and consumerism of mainstream American culture and expressed themselves through various forms ...
crowd who typically attended folk performances, and Sebastian recalled that " he wasdancing like danced – and not like the last generation danced". He also remembered: "Zal and I just elbowed each other the entire night, because to us, that young girl symbolized the fact that our audience was changing, that maybe they had finally found us." Sebastian composed the song the following night, and the band worked together at the Albert to finish its arrangement. The Spoonful was enthusiastic about "Do You Believe in Magic" and hoped to record a demo of the song to flog to record companies. In June1965, Jacobsen fronted a session with his own money at Bell Sound Studios in New York, where the band recorded "Do You Believe in Magic" and several other songs. Jacobsen invited Yester to participate in the session, adding both piano and backing vocals, and the session musician Gary Chester played tambourine. Jacobsen and Cavallo brought an acetate disc of the demo to numerous record labels, all of which turned down an opportunity to sign the band. After attending one of the Spoonful's performances at the Night Owl,
Phil Spector Harvey Phillip Spector (December 26, 1939 – January 16, 2021) was an American record producer and songwriter who is best known for pioneering recording practices in the 1960s, followed by his trials and conviction for murder in the 2000s. S ...
, a well-known producer, listened to an acetate of "Do You Believe in Magic" and considered signing the band to his label,
Philles Records Philles Records was an American record label formed in 1961 by Phil Spector and Lester Sill, the label taking its name from a hybrid of their first names. Initially, the label was distributed by Jamie/Guyden in Philadelphia. In 1962, Spector p ...
. Recollections differ as to who turned whom down, but subsequent authors suggest that in writing their own music and possessing a defined sound, the Spoonful differed greatly from the acts with which Spector normally worked.
Elektra Records Elektra Records (or Elektra Entertainment) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, founded in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickolt. It played an important role in the development of contemporary folk and rock music between the ...
approached the Spoonful and offered to sign them. Elektra regularly produced acts from Greenwich Village, including the Even Dozen Jug Band and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. The label's offer would have allowed the Spoonful to retain Jacobsen as their producer and Cavallo as their manager, but the band worried that Elektra had not been successful at issuing singles in the pop market, and that they would not be clearly identified as a rock act if they signed at a folk-oriented label. Cavallo approached Paul Rothchild and Jac Holzman of Elektra and said the band needed an advance of $10,000 before they could sign (). Holzman initially refused due to the large figure, but he soon changed his mind and offered the band a deal, by which point they had signed elsewhere. The band instead signed a side-deal with Elektra, which had them record four songs, including Sebastian's song "Good Time Music". Jacobsen later said that the band offered the songs to Elektra out of guilt, since "We had kind of hung olzmanout to dry just a little bit... o weallowed him to have those sides. The label later included the four songs on the compilation album '' What's Shakin''', released the following year. The Spoonful signed with Koppelman-Rubin, an entertainment company, who signed the band to Kama Sutra Records in June1965. As part of the deal,
MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...
distributed the records, which Kama Sutra released for Koppelman-Rubin. The arrangement's format of multiple middlemen left little in profits for the band. Sebastian later said that not signing with Elektra was "the worst decision I ever made in my life". Kama Sutra saw no need to re-record Jacobsen's original demo of the Spoonful performing "Do You Believe in Magic", and the label pressed copies to be the band's debut single. The label issued it in the US on July 20, 1965, and it debuted on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 a month later, remaining on the chart for thirteen weeks and peaking in October at number nine.


1965–1966: American popularity


Touring, debut album

The release of "Do You Believe in Magic" in July1965 propelled the Spoonful to nationwide fame in the US within weeks. The band made their American television debut on the channel 10 show of the Miami disc jockey Rick Shaw, and they also taped appearances for the TV programs ''
American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'' (AB) is an American Music television, music performance and dance television series that aired in various iterations from 1952 to 1989. It was hosted by Dick Clark who also served as the program's Television producer, pr ...
'', '' The Merv Griffin Show'' and '' The Lloyd Thaxton Show''. In conjunction with the release of the single, the band's management made plans for their first series of serious live dates outside of New York City. Beginning in August, the band toured the
West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...
. In San Francisco, the band held a two-week residency at Mother's Nightclub, which then advertised itself as the "world's first psychedelic nightclub", and on August7, they performed in-front of 35,000 at the Rose Bowl in
Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...
, as one of several support acts for the English pop group
Herman's Hermits Herman's Hermits are an English rock and pop group formed in 1963 in Manchester and formerly fronted by singer Peter Noone. Known for their jaunty beat sound and Noone's often tongue-in-cheek vocal style, the Hermits charted with numerous tra ...
, alongside
the Turtles The Turtles are an America, American Band (rock and pop), rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The band achieved several Top 40 hits throughout the latter half of the 1960s, including "It Ain't Me Babe" (1965), "You Baby (song), ...
and the Bobby Fuller Four. In LosAngeles, the Spoonful played at several clubs on Sunset Strip, including Ciro's, the
Whisky a Go Go The Whisky a Go Go (informally nicknamed The Whisky) is a historic nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip, corner North Clark Street, opposite North San Vicente Boulev ...
and The Crescendo (later renamed The Trip). In October1965, the Spoonful returned to the West Coast, where their image and sound proved influential in the emerging San Francisco scene, particularly in the city's Haight-Ashbury district, a center of the 1960s counterculture. The band appeared for a week at the hungry i, one of the most prominent clubs in America's folk-music scene, where they were seen by the ''
San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...
'' jazz critic Ralph J. Gleason. In his review of their first show, Gleason described the band's music and clothing as "the expression of a new age" and "an expression of freedom". He concluded the band was "vital and alive and, I believe, important". On October24, the Spoonful headlined a dance party at the Longshoreman's Union Hall in the city's Fisherman's Wharf neighborhood. Organized by the concert-production collective Family Dog Productions, the event combined rock music with light shows and
psychedelic drugs Psychedelics are a subclass of Hallucinogen, hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger psychoactive drug, non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also ...
, and it was among the earliest events of its kind in San Francisco; Jacobsen reflected, "That whole idea of going and listening to music and getting high started there". In attendance at the Longshoreman's show were members of the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
, an acoustic-folk group, who were inspired by the Spoonful's performance to similarly "go electric" in their style. Amid their touring schedule, the Spoonful recorded tracks for their debut album, '' Do You Believe in Magic''. The band recorded thirteen songs across several sessions between June and September1965, mostly at Bell Sound in New York, and they also recorded at RCA Studios in
Hollywood, Los Angeles Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...
. The band's focus was on recording as quickly as possible, and a majority of the songs were jug band and blues covers taken from their typical live set list. The album's five original compositions were all credited to Sebastian, including " Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?", which he based on a experience as a child at summer camp when he fell in love with twin sisters. Pointing to the success of the Beatles and the Byrds, the Spoonful's label encouraged the band to trade lead vocal responsibilities; on ''Do You Believe in Magic'', Sebastian sings lead on most songs, but Butler also sings twice (" You Baby" and "The Other Side of This Life") as does Yanovsky ("Blues in the Bottle", "On the Road Again" and the unreleased " Alley Oop"). The album first went on sale on October23, 1965, when the band held an autograph session in
Pleasant Hill, California Pleasant Hill is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 34,613 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It was municipal corporation, incorporated in 19 ...
, and Kama Sutra issued the album nationwide in November. It debuted on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart on December 4, and it initially ran on the chart for 19 weeks, peaking in February1966 at number 71. By late1965, the Spoonful had made appearances on the most popular American television variety shows, including '' Where the Action Is'', '' Shindig!'' and '' Hullabaloo''. Executives from NBC approached Cavallo and offered the band the opportunity to star in their own television series, ''
The Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...
''. The executives Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider met with the band in Manhattan and explained their idea for a comedy sitcom about a band seeking to make it big, styled similarly to the Beatles' 1964 film, '' A Hard Day's Night''. Though excited at the prospect of being propelled quickly to a national audience, the band were unenthusiastic at the idea of having to change their name to ''
The Monkees The Monkees were an American pop rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1960s. The band consisted of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones (musician), Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. Spurred by the success of ''The Monkees (TV series), Th ...
'' and were worried that their ability to create and play their own music would be limited by the venture. They declined the offer. Rafelson later said that the Spoonful was the only existing group considered for the show before they began auditioning individual actors and musicians in September1965.


''Daydream''

In November1965, the Spoonful embarked on a 19-day package-tour with the American girl group
the Supremes The Supremes were an American girl group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959 as the Primettes. A premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful Amer ...
. The acts performed at colleges across the southern US, beginning in
Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette ( , ) is the most populous city in and parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, Lafayette Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located along the Vermilion River (Louisiana), Vermilion River. It is Louisiana's List of municipaliti ...
, on November10. Both acts traveled by bus and partied together, along with members of the Supremes' backing band,
the Funk Brothers The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972. Its members are considered among the most successful groups of stud ...
, billed as the Earl Van Dyke Orchestra. The Spoonful generally enjoyed the tour but found it physically exhausting. Sebastian additionally missed his girlfriend, Loretta "Lorey" Kaye. Near the tour's end, in an effort to raise his own spirits, he composed "
Daydream Daydreaming is a stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when one's attention becomes focused on a more personal and internal direction. Various names of this phenomenon exist, including mind-wandering, fantasies, a ...
" while riding on the bus through North Carolina, drawing inspiration from the Supremes' 1964 singles " Baby Love" and " Where Did Our Love Go". A stop in
Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...
, inspired the beginnings of "Jug Band Music", which Boone later said "recalled pleasant visions of the tour" for him and his bandmates. At the conclusion of their tour with the Supremes, the Spoonful departed directly for Los Angeles, having been invited by Phil Spector to appear in the concert film '' The Big T.N.T. Show''. After filming on 29–30November, the band remained in Los Angeles to do several weeks of a residency at the Trip, a short-lived nightclub on
Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...
, where
Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – June 11, 2025) was an American musician, songwriter, singer and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often Brian Wilson is a genius, called a genius for his novel approaches to pop compositio ...
of
the Beach Boys The Beach Boys are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian Wilson, Brian, Dennis Wilson, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their f ...
saw them perform. During their stay, the Spoonful befriended a local fashion designer, Jeannie Franklyn, who subsequently designed custom-clothing for Yanovsky. They also struck up a friendship with
David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He first found fame as a member of the Byrds, with whom he helped pioneer the genres of folk rock and psychedelic music, psych ...
, the rhythm guitarist of the Byrds. Crosby had spoken favorably of the Spoonful in interviews as early as August, often promising reporters that they would be the next big group. Both he and his bandmate Jim McGuinn had been familiar with Sebastian and Yanovsky since their earlier years playing folk with Cass Elliot, and the Spoonful, the Byrds and the Mamas & the Papas remained on close terms in the mid-1960s. Amid their busy TV and live-date schedule, the Spoonful recorded most of their second album ''
Daydream Daydreaming is a stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when one's attention becomes focused on a more personal and internal direction. Various names of this phenomenon exist, including mind-wandering, fantasies, a ...
'' in four days, from December13 to 16, at Bell Sound Studios in New York City. Some songs for the album were recorded in November, including " You Didn't Have to Be So Nice", and additional sessions took place at Columbia Studios in New York City and RCA Studios in
Hollywood, California Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. ...
. Boone began "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" as a verse and a basic melodic figure, and Sebastian collaborated with him to complete the song. Kama Sutra issued the song as a non-album single on November13, and it peaked at number ten on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in January1966. The sessions for ''Daydream'' came ten weeks after the band finished their first album, and the band had had little time to rehearse new material. Owing to the constraints, they recorded some Sebastian compositions which Jacobsen had rejected for inclusion on their debut album, including "Didn't Want to Have to Do It" and "Warm Baby". While ''Do You Believe in Magic'' contained just five original compositions, eleven out of twelve tracks on ''Daydream'' were original. Kama Sutra released the album in March1966 and it reached number ten on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart, making it the band's best performing studio album. Of the songs recorded for ''Daydream'', Sebastian and Yanovsky hoped that their joint composition "It's Not Time Now" would be issued as a single, but Kama Sutra denied the request out of fear that it was a protest song. The label instead issued "
Daydream Daydreaming is a stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when one's attention becomes focused on a more personal and internal direction. Various names of this phenomenon exist, including mind-wandering, fantasies, a ...
" in February1966. The song's release fueled speculation from the press and public about a link between the band and drug use, as the press had often incorrectly speculated that ''the Lovin' Spoonful'' alluded to the spoon used in injecting
heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...
. The increased speculation was partly driven by the lyrics' use of the term "dream", which by 1966 was sometimes used to connote the experience of taking
psychedelic drug Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary mental states (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips") and a perceived "expansion of consciousness". Also referred to as classic halluc ...
s. Additionally, a trade ad in ''Billboard'' accompanying the single's release made several drug allusions, drawing the ire of the band, who had regularly sought to distance themselves from drug associations. "Daydream" remained on the Hot 100 for twelve weeks, peaking at number two for two weeks in mid-April. The single was kept from the top spot on ''Billboard'' chart by
the Righteous Brothers The Righteous Brothers are an American musical duo originally formed by Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield but now comprising Medley and Bucky Heard. Medley formed the group with Hatfield in 1963. They had first performed together in 1962 in the L ...
' song " (You're My) Soul and Inspiration", but it reached number one on ''
Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', is an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' magazine's chart and also reached the top spot in Canada. The song's success expanded the Spoonful's popularity such that they were often able to headline their concerts rather than perform as a support act. When the band toured the American South with the Beach Boys from April1 to 9, 1966, the two groups alternated top billing.


1966: International popularity


''What's Up, Tiger Lily?'' soundtrack; European tour

Though the Spoonful had achieved quick success in North America, they remained generally unknown in the UK. None of their singles had charted in the country. To expand the band's popularity to an international audience, their management organized several live- and TV-dates in England and Sweden for April1966. Only days before the Spoonful was set to depart to Europe, they were approached to provide a soundtrack for '' What's Up, Tiger Lily?'', the directorial debut of the comedian
Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...
, who knew the band from his work at clubs in Greenwich Village. The band recorded the soundtrack in two days, April 11 and 12, at National Recording Studios in New York City, and they made a brief appearance in the film. The film was a commercial disappointment and received mixed reviews. Issued in August1966, the soundtrack album reached number 126 on the Billboard LPs chart. Jacobsen later criticized the project as a "goofball album" which distracted the band and stalled their progress. On April12, the Spoonful arrived at
Heathrow Airport Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...
to begin their ten-day tour of England and Sweden. Problems which arose during negotiations with the British Musicians' Union forced the band to limit the number of appearances they made in Britain. In the tour's first week, the band played concerts in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
and
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
, appeared on the television programs ''
Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...
'', ''
Ready Steady Go! ''Ready Steady Go!'' (or ''RSG!'') was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light ente ...
'' and '' Thank Your Lucky Stars'', played on
BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...
and attended a party at the London home of the Irish socialite
Tara Browne Tara Browne (4 March 1945 – 18 December 1966) was an Irish socialite and heir to a part of the Guinness fortune. His December 1966 death in a car crash was referenced in the Beatles' song " A Day in the Life". Early life Browne was the yo ...
. The band's time in England allowed them to interact with many of Britain's top musicians. On April18, they performed an invite-only show at the
Marquee Club The Marquee Club was a music venue in London, England, that opened in 1958 with a range of jazz and skiffle acts. It was a small and relatively cheap club, in the heart of London's West End of London, West End. It was the location of the first ...
on Wardour Street, Soho, central London. Several of Britain's top performers were in attendance, including
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...
,
George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Culture ...
,
Ray Davies Sir Raymond Douglas Davies ( ; born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter for the Rock music, rock band the Kinks, which he led, with his younger brother Dave Davies, Dave pro ...
,
Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English musician and founder of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, he went on to sing backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones r ...
,
Steve Winwood Stephen Lawrence Winwood (born 12 May 1948) is an English musician and songwriter whose genres include blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, and pop rock. Though primarily a guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist prominent for his dis ...
, Spencer Davis and
Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English Rock music, rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s l ...
. The band were warmly received, and Lennon and Harrison joined them afterwards into the morning at The May Fair Hotel in
Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...
. The next night, following their performance at the Blaises Club in
Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
, the band befriended Jones as well. After flying to
Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
to perform on Swedish television, the Spoonful proceeded to Ireland to attend the 21st-birthday celebration of Browne on April23. Browne, who then regarded the Spoonful as his favorite band, delayed his party by seven weeks in order to coincide with the band's touring and recording schedule. Browne flew the band to Ireland at his own expense to perform a private show, paying them US$10,000 for the performance (). Held at the Luggala Estate, a
Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
house in the
Wicklow Mountains The Wicklow Mountains (, archaic: '' Cualu'') form the largest continuous upland area in Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into the counties of Dublin, Wexford and Carlow. Where the mountai ...
, the party was attended by many prominent
Swinging London The Swinging Sixties was a youth-driven cultural revolution that took place in the United Kingdom during the mid-to-late 1960s, emphasising modernity and fun-loving hedonism, with Swinging London denoted as its centre. It saw a flourishing in ...
figures, including members of
the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
,
Peter Bardens Peter Bardens (19 June 1945 – 22 January 2002) was an English keyboardist and a founding member of the progressive rock group Camel. He played keyboards, sang, and wrote songs with Andrew Latimer. During his career, Bardens worked alongside ...
, Anita Pallenberg, Chrissie Shrimpton, John Paul Getty Jr., Rupert Lycett Green and Mike McCartney. Butler recalled that the band's performance was likely substandard, since they were all drunk and high on marijuana. Several guests also partook in the drug
LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...
, including Butler, and the Spoonful stayed overnight. The Spoonful flew back to the US on April24, and reports soon followed that they planned to return later in the year for more British shows. The band's morale was high following the April tour, particularly after they had been treated as equals by contemporary performers whom they held in high regard. "Daydream" became a major international hit; by mid-May, it had reached number two on all of the major British singles charts and number one on the Swedish Kvällstoppen chart.


Marijuana bust

On May20, 1966, Boone and Yanovsky were arrested in San Francisco for possessing marijuana, then an illegal drug. Police discovered the marijuana after pulling the pair over and searching their vehicle. Boone and Yanovsky spent the night in jail before being bailed out the following morning by the Spoonful's road manager, Rich Chiaro. Cavallo and Charley Koppelman flew out to meet the band to begin managing the situation, and they hired Melvin Belli to be their attorney. Sebastian and Butler were not immediately informed of the nature of the bust, and the band's May 21 performance at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
's Greek Theatre went forward as normal. At a meeting with San Francisco police and the
District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, county prosecutor, state attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or solicitor is the chief prosecutor or chief law enforcement officer represen ...
, Yanovsky was threatened with deportation back to his native Canada. Belli expressed that Yanovsky and Boone were unlikely to win on the merits of their case and that their only way to avoid charges was to cooperate with authorities. The two initially balked at the idea, but they relented to avoid Yanovsky being deported, something they expected would lead to a breakup of the band. Yanovsky and Boone cooperated with authorities to name their drug source, directing an undercover operative to their source at local party. In exchange, all charges were dropped, their arrest records were expunged, the two did not need to appear in court and there was no publicity related to their arrest. Their drug source was in turn arrested and served a brief jail sentence. After the drug case went to court in December1966, knowledge of Yanovsky and Boone's bust became more widespread. The
underground press The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rece ...
was especially critical of the band. By early1967, the Spoonful's shows on the West Coast were sometimes picketed by members of the '60s counterculture. Protesters carried signs which accused the band of being " finks" and traitors to the movement, and they encouraged fans to boycott the band and burn their records. The public revelations of the drug bust added to tensions between Sebastian and Butler on the one hand, and Yanovsky and Boone on the other. Boone later suggested that the boycott hurt the band's commercial performance, but the author Richie Unterberger suggests that the effects have likely been overestimated by other authors, since "most of the people who bought Spoonful records were average teenage Americans, not hippies". In an article recounting the June1967
Monterey International Pop Festival The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16-18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix E ...
, the author Michael Lydon suggested that the Spoonful was unable to appear at the festival due to complications related to the drug bust.


"Summer in the City"

After having recorded two albums in the second-half of 1965, the Spoonful was stretched for new material in March1966 when they began sessions for a new single. While searching for inspiration, Sebastian recalled a song composed and informally recorded by his fourteen-year-old brother, Mark. Sebastian reworked the lyrics and melody of his younger brother's composition into " Summer in the City", and he also incorporated contributions from Boone and the session musician Artie Schroeck. Kama Sutra did not issue "Summer in the City" immediately but instead repurposed "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" for release as a single. Issued in April, "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" reached number two on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in June, making it the band's fourth top ten single in America and their second top two record in a row. That same month, ''Do You Believe in Magic'' re-entered the Top LPs chart, peaking in August at number 32 after spending 16 more weeks on the chart. In June1966, while in LosAngeles to play at the
Golden Bear The Golden Bear () is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, the most important international film festival award. The bear is the heraldic an ...
nightclub and support the Beach Boys at the
Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and Urban park, public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in the United States by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018 and was listed on ...
, the Spoonful held a party to debut their newest single. "Summer in the City" was released on July4. One month later, it overtook
the Troggs The Troggs (originally called the Troglodytes) are an English beat music band formed in Andover, Hampshire, in May 1964. Their most famous songs include the US chart-topper " Wild Thing", " With a Girl Like You" and " Love Is All Around", al ...
' " Wild Thing" and became the band's first and only number one single in the US. It held the position for three weeks, becoming what the author
Jon Savage Jon Savage (born Jonathan Malcolm Sage, 2 September 1953) is an English writer, broadcaster and music journalist, best known for his definitive history of the Sex Pistols and punk music, ''England's Dreaming'' (1991). Early life and educati ...
terms the "American song of the summer". The song also topped ''Cash Box'' and ''
Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of three major weekly music industry trade magazines in the United States, with ''Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 as ''Music Vendor''. In 1964, it was changed to ''Record World'' under the ...
'' charts, and it was number one in Canada. The musicologist Ian MacDonald characterizes the song as a "cutting-edge pop ecord and one of many "futuristic singles" to appear in 1966, representative of a time period when recorded songs began to employ sounds and effects difficult or impossible to recreate during a live performance; when the Spoonful played the song in concert, Sebastian was unable to both sing and play the piano part simultaneously, and Butler instead performed lead vocal duties. After "Daydream" reached number two in the UK, expectations were similarly high for "Summer in the City", but it failed to enter the top five of the British charts; it instead peaked at number eight on the ''Record Retailer'' chart. Coincident with the single's release, the band reiterated their plans for a second tour of Britain and continental Europe, to be held over two weeks in September and October with the English singer
Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was a British singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano voice, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop mus ...
. Only weeks before it began, the band withdrew from the tour. As they announced their withdrawal, the band announced plans to return to Britain in April1967 for a three-week tour. In July1966, the Spoonful played to a crowd of 65,000 at that year's
Newport Folk Festival The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...
in
Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...
. Bob Dylan had generated controversy at the previous year's festival when he performed a set of electric rock, but at the 1966 festival, the Spoonful and several other electric bands appeared, including
Howlin' Wolf Chester Arthur Burnett (June 10, 1910January 10, 1976), better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was an American blues singer, guitarist and harmonica player. He was at the forefront of transforming acoustic Delta blues into electric Chica ...
,
Chuck Berry Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist and songwriter who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and de ...
and the Blues Project. The Spoonful was well received and received no pushback over their appearance. In an article recounting the festival for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', the critic Robert Shelton suggested that the band's warm reception "reflected the growing acceptance of folk-rock and other amalgamations of contemporary folk songs with electric instruments".


''Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful''

Sessions for the Spoonful's third studio album, later released as '' Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful'', were originally booked for Columbia Records' 7th Avenue studio in New York from August 16 to September 23, 1966. Recording was delayed after Columbia booked its own artists at the studio. When time allowed them a break from touring, the Spoonful recorded the album across several sessions in New York City at Bell Sound and the 7th Avenue studio, with work also done in Los Angeles. For the first time on one of the band's albums, it consisted of only original material. Henry Diltz, a member of the Modern Folk Quartet, contributed clarinet to "Bes' Friends" and took the pictures which adorned the LP's sleeve. The album was released in November1966, and it reached number 14 on the ''Billboard'' LPs chart. Preorders for the album were diminished after a disappointing reaction accompanied the August release of the ''What's Up, Tiger Lily?'' soundtrack album. In addition to the already-released "Summer in the City", the sessions for ''Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful'' produced the song " Rain on the Roof". The possibility of releasing the song as a single generated disagreement among the members of the Spoonful. "Summer in the City" featured a harder sound than their previous output, and it had attracted new fans to the group after it reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart in August. Both Boone and Butler worried that returning to a softer sound with "Rain on the Roof" would potentially alienate the band's new fans, but Sebastian countered that the band ought to avoid releasing consecutive singles which sounded too similar, also contending that "Rain on the Roof" would add another dimension to their sound. Issued as a single in October, "Rain on the Roof" remained on the Hot 100 for ten weeks and peaked at number ten, making it the Spoonful's sixth consecutive single to reach the top ten. The song also continued the band's success in Europe, charting in several European countries. Another song from ''Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful'', the country-tinged " Nashville Cats", was issued as a single in December. It reached number eight on the Hot 100, but despite the band's hopes, it failed to crossover into the country market. The single's B-side, "Full Measure", a Boone-Sebastian collaboration, received strong airplay in California and the
Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...
, helping it reach number 87 on the Hot 100 chart. In '' KRLA Beat'', the local publication of the Southern Californian radio station
KRLA KRLA (870 AM) "AM 870 The Answer" is a commercial radio station broadcasting a conservative talk radio format. Licensed to Glendale, California, it serves Greater Los Angeles and Southern California. The station is owned by Salem Media Group, ...
, "Full Measure" reached as high as number seven on the station's chart. In 1966, the Spoonful had five Top Ten singles, making it the band's most successful year to date. The end-of-year issue for ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' magazine ranked the Spoonful as the third best performing singles artist of the year, after the Beatles and
the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
. In the magazine's list of the top records of the year, it placed "Summer in the City", "Daydream" and "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind" at numbers 35, 38 and 48, respectively. Besides achieving commercial success, the Spoonful in 1966 were among the American bands regarded most highly by critics; a piece in ''
TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'' magazine that October placed the band alongside the Mamas and the Papas and
Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel were an American folk rock duo comprising the singer-songwriter Paul Simon and the singer Art Garfunkel. They were one of the best-selling music acts of the 1960s. Their most famous recordings include three US number-one sing ...
as one of the three best new groups in the country, and Ralph J. Gleason told '' Look'' magazine that the Spoonful were "the best group in the U.S.", adding he was "glad to be alive at a time when I can hear them".


1967–1968: Diminished success


''You're a Big Boy Now'' soundtrack; Yanovsky and Jacobsen fired

In mid-October1966, the Spoonful recorded a soundtrack album for the 1966 film ''
You're a Big Boy Now ''You're a Big Boy Now'' is a 1966 American comedy film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Based on David Benedictus' 1963 novel of the same name, it stars Elizabeth Hartman, Peter Kastner, Geraldine Page, her spouse Rip Torn, Kar ...
''. The film served as the master's thesis of the director
Francis Ford Coppola Francis Ford Coppola ( ; born April 7, 1939) is an American filmmaker. He is considered one of the leading figures of the New Hollywood and one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. List of awards and nominations received by Francis Ford Coppo ...
, who was then attending UCLA Film School. After meeting with Coppola in September to discuss the project, Sebastian wrote the songs on his own before presenting them to the musician Artie Schroeck, who arranged the compositions for an orchestra. After Butler struggled with the drum part, the session musician Bill LaVorgna played in his place. David "Fathead" Newman played saxophone during the sessions and Clark Terry played flügelhorn. During the editing of ''You're a Big Boy Now'', Coppola used the Mamas & the Papas' 1966 single " Monday, Monday" as temp music for one sequence in the film, for which Sebastian wrote " Darling Be Home Soon". Sebastian's composition flips a genre convention by describing a male subject waiting for a female to return home. The Spoonful recorded the song in one night, but Sebastian's original vocal track was subsequently wiped. Sebastian later attributed the loss to an accident on the part of an engineer, saying that what is heard on the final recording "is me, a half hour after learning that my original vocal track had been erased". He added: "You can even hear my voice quiver a little at the end. That was me thinking about the vocal we lost and wanting to kill someone." Boone instead suggests that Jacobsen deliberately erased Sebastian's vocal after finding it substandard; Boone recalled that the event marked the angriest he had ever seen Sebastian. Jacobsen was soon fired from working with the band, and Boone suggests that the vocal-erasure "probably played a major role" in Jacobsen's departure. The lack of collaboration on ''You're a Big Boy Now'' led to consternation from Sebastian's bandmates, especially Yanovsky, whose playing style often relied on improvisation. Yanovsky especially disliked the soundtrack album's lead single, "Darling Be Home Soon", which was issued in early1967. When the Spoonful appeared on ''
The Ed Sullivan Show ''The Ed Sullivan Show'' is an American television variety show that ran on CBS from June 20, 1948, to March 28, 1971, and was hosted by New York City, New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the ''CB ...
'' in January to promote the release, Yanovsky mugged for the camera, miming the lyrics and bouncing up-and-down with a rubber-toad figurine attached to his guitar. The appearance led to laughter from the audience and anger from Sebastian. "Darling Be Home Soon" peaked at number fifteen, a major disappointment compared to the band's earlier releases and their first single which failed to reach the Top Ten. Also disappointing was the release of the ''You're a Big Boy Now'' soundtrack, which peaked at number 160 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs chart in May1967. The album's sales were hampered by the release in March of the band's first greatest hits compilation, '' The Best of The Lovin' Spoonful'', which reached number three and became the band's best selling album. From late1966 into early1967, Sebastian's bandmates felt he was exerting excessive control over the band's direction. Boone recalled that the relationship between Sebastian and Yanovsky became especially stilted, since Yanovsky often rebelled rather than articulate his concerns directly. Further agitating the situation, when Koppelman and Rubin renegotiated the band's distribution deal between Kama Sutra and MGM in late1966, though the band received an increase in pay, the label added a "key-man clause" which specified that the band would exist only if Sebastian was a member. In May1967, Sebastian convened a meeting with Butler and Boone to discuss the band's future. Sebastian expressed frustration with Yanovsky's increasingly erratic public behavior and his derogatory treatment of his bandmates. Sebastian concluded that either Yanovsky should be fired, or else he was prepared to leave the band. Butler, who had never gotten along with Yanovsky and was increasingly the target of Yanovsky's insults, agreed with Sebastian. In a subsequent group meeting at Sebastian's apartment, the band informed Yanovsky that he had been fired. He agreed to continue performing the rest of the group's scheduled dates, but rumors circulated throughout June that the band was breaking up. He last performed with the Spoonful on , at the Forest Hills Music Festival in
Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
, New York.


Yester hired, ''Everything Playing''

The Spoonful hired Jerry Yester to replace Yanovsky on lead guitar duties. Following the May1967 meeting in which Yanovsky was fired, Sebastian suggested hiring Yester, and no other replacement was considered. Yester had been close to the band and Jacobsen for years, having contributed to the recording of "Do You Believe in Magic". Since mid-1966, when Yester's band the Modern Folk Quartet disbanded, he had been working as a session musician and producer in Los Angeles. In early June1967, he rehearsed with the Spoonful at Sebastian's home in East Quogue, New York, and he debuted with the band on June30 at the Memorial Coliseum in
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
. The Spoonful reconvened in August1967 to begin sessions for their next album, '' Everything Playing''. In need of a producer after Jacobsen's firing, the band initially hoped to work with
Roy Halee Roy Decker Halee (born 1934) is an American record producer and engineer, best known for working with Simon & Garfunkel, both as a group and for their solo projects. Early life Halee grew up on Long Island, New York. His father, also named Roy ...
, who had worked as
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
on the band's earlier recordings, but his continued employment with
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...
prevented the collaboration. Koppelman-Rubin instead suggested Joe Wissert, a Philadelphia-based producer who had recently worked with
the Turtles The Turtles are an America, American Band (rock and pop), rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The band achieved several Top 40 hits throughout the latter half of the 1960s, including "It Ain't Me Babe" (1965), "You Baby (song), ...
on their 1967 singles, " Happy Together" and " She'd Rather Be with Me". On Wissert's recommendation, the band moved from Columbia's recording studios to Mira Sound Studios, a new facility in New York City which made use of an AMPEX MM-1000, the industry's first 16-track recorder. The band struggled to manage the more complicated recording equipment, a situation worsened when Wissert stopped attending sessions, forcing Yester to produce in his place. Like other folk-rock acts, the Spoonful struggled to modify their musical approach as the new genre of
psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...
expanded in popularity in 1967. The sessions for ''Everything Today'' yielded three singles, all three of which continued the band's downward commercial performance when they failed to place in the Top Ten. "Six O'Clock", which had been recorded at Columbia before Jacobsen and Yanovsky were fired, was released in April1967 and peaked at number 18. For the album's next single, "She Is Still a Mystery", Yester arranged an orchestral accompaniment which included strings and woodwinds played by members of the
New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic is an American symphony orchestra based in New York City. Known officially as the ''Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc.'', and globally known as the ''New York Philharmonic Orchestra'' (NYPO) or the ''New Yo ...
, along with horns from
Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...
' touring band. Released in October, the single reached number 27. ''Everything Playing'' was issued in December1967, but received negative reviews from critics and peaked at number 118 in the US after spending seven weeks on the album chart. The album track "Younger Generation" was originally intended for release as a single – a trade ad in ''Billboard'' promised it would be "the most talked-about track of 1968" – but its release never followed. Instead, "Money" was issued as a single in January1968, and it peaked at number 48.


Sebastian departs, ''Revelation: Revolution '69''

After the major commercial disappointments of ''Everything Playing'' and "Money" in early1968, Sebastian advised his bandmates that, following the Spoonful's next three months of scheduled tour dates, he planned to leave the group. ''
The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...
'' reported in April that he intended to leave by June. The band last publicly performed on June1, 1968, at Parker Field in
Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...
. The following day, Sebastian told reporters that the group had probably played their last show together, and some newspapers reported in July that the band had broken up. By September, Sebastian announced his intention to pursue a solo career. Sebastian later summed up the band's career as "two glorious years and a tedious one". Following Sebastian's departure, the remaining members of the band had little contact with one another. Butler received permission from the label to record and produce an album under the Spoonful's name, which he did without the participation of either Boone or Yester. The project's first single, the John Stewart-penned "Never Going Back", was recorded in Los Angeles at Sunset Sound Recorders before Sebastian departed the group, but he did not play on the recording. Issued in June1968, it peaked at number 73. Butler's finished album, '' Revelation: Revolution '69'', is credited to "The Lovin' Spoonful featuring Joe Butler". Released that October, it did not chart, and it is generally omitted from lists of the Spoonful's discography.


1968–present: After the breakup


John Sebastian

The Spoonful were one of several bands to have broken up in 1968. In an article that December, Penny Valentine of '' Disc and Music Echo'' counted the band's breakup and the formation of the folk-rock supergroup
Crosby, Stills & Nash Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN) was a folk rock supergroup comprising the American singer-songwriters David Crosby and Stephen Stills and the English-American singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by the Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Youn ...
as reflecting a consolidation in the industry, " yingup all the loose strings of musical talent in the pop world". Sebastian was offered a position in Crosby, Stills & Nash, but he declined, expressing his desire in a contemporary interview to focus on his solo career rather than joining a new group. Following the Spoonful's dissolution, Sebastian was the only former member whose music career initially appeared promising. Splitting time between New York City and Los Angeles, his first major project after leaving the band was composing the lyrics and music for the Broadway show '' Jimmy Shine'', which ran from December1968 to April1969. In late1968, he signed with
Warner Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...
and he recorded a solo album, '' John B. Sebastian'', which included contributions from Crosby, Stills & Nash. Due to a contract dispute, release of the album was delayed by over a year until January1970. It reached number 20 on the ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape chart. In the decade after he left the Spoonful, Sebastian was active in the concert and festival circuit, and he typically played around 100 shows a year. He made an impromptu appearance at the
Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
festival in August1969, in which he played the Spoonful's songs "Darling Be Home Soon" and "Younger Generation". Despite his initial successes, Sebastian struggled as a songwriter for most of the 1970s. His 1974 album '' Tarzana Kid'' did not chart, but it was produced by Erik Jacobsen, marking the first time the two collaborated since their falling out years earlier. After his first five singles were commercial failures, Sebastian's label planned to drop him; he achieved a number one hit in 1976 with " Welcome Back", the theme song for the TV show '' Welcome Back, Kotter'', but he was unable to translate it into continued success.


Zal Yanovsky

After leaving the Spoonful, Yanovsky signed as a solo act with Buddha Records, and he continued to be managed by Cavallo. In September1967, Buddha issued his debut single, "As Long As You're Here", which reached number 101 on ''Billboard''
Bubbling Under the Hot 100 Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (also known as Bubbling Under the Hot 100) is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The chart lists the top songs that have not yet charted on the main ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Chart ...
chart the following month. In late1967, he began recording his first solo album, ''Alive and Well in Argentina'', which was released in April1968. The album received little critical or commercial attention, but it spawned a partnership between Yanovsky and his replacement in the Spoonful, Jerry Yester, who produced the album. The two formed "Hair Shirt Productions", which produced recordings in Los Angeles for
Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, author, television personality, radio host and philanthropist. He sold nearly 50 million records, had 38 Top 40 hits, and has acted in many films. Boone ...
,
Tim Buckley Timothy Charles Buckley III (February 14, 1947 – June 29, 1975) was an American musician. He began his career based in folk rock, but subsequently experimented with genres such as psychedelia, jazz, the avant-garde, and funk paired with his ...
and the Fifth Avenue Band. Yanovsky played in
Kris Kristofferson Kristoffer Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – September 28, 2024) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was a pioneering figure in the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, moving away from the polished Nashville sound and toward a m ...
's band on a 1970 European tour, including a performance at that year's Isle of Wight Festival. Sebastian was performing at the festival as a solo act, and Yanovsky joined him on stage during the former's set for several songs. Yanovsky subsequently exited the music business and moved back to Canada, opening the restaurant Chez Piggy in 1979 with his wife in
Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the northeastern end of Lake Ontario. It is at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River, the south end of the Rideau Canal. Kingston is near the Thousand Islands, ...
.


Steve Boone, Joe Butler and reunions

In 1969, Boone attempted to record a solo album, but the project dissolved. That same year, he produced an album for the Virginia-based folk group the Oxpetals, after which he left the music business. Butler pivoted to Broadway acting, and he performed in the rock musical ''
Hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...
''. He also worked as a sound editor in Hollywood, but by later in the 1970s he was no longer active in music and instead drove a taxi cab. Sebastian resisted subsequent efforts to reform the Spoonful, and the original members of the band only reunited twice. In late1979, at the invitation of the musician
Paul Simon Paul Frederic Simon (born October 13, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter known for his solo work and his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. He and Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school in 1953, came to prominence in the 1960s as Sim ...
, the band appeared in his 1980 film '' One-Trick Pony'' in a concert sequence which featured several 1960s acts. The band did not see each other again until March2000, when the four original members were inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...
in Cleveland. Yanovsky died of a heart attack two years later. Butler, Boone and Yester began touring under the name the Spoonful in 1991, a venture opposed by both Sebastian and Yanovsky. Augmented by a group of touring musicians, the group released a live album, '' Live at the Hotel Seville'', in 1999. Sebastian has since reunited with Boone and Butler once, joining them onstage in 2020 during a benefit concert.


Musical style and development


Songwriting

Led by their primary songwriter John Sebastian, the Spoonful took their earliest influences from
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
and jug band music. He and Yanovsky intended to be an "electric jug band", and Yanovsky summarized their style as "jug band music without the jugs". The band's music further blended influences from folk, blues, country and rock music, updating traditional American music into a modern popular music format. Sebastian later said that the music of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band was particularly influential on the band, and that the Spoonful "redid several of their tunes with only a minimal electric difference". Sebastian's songwriting drew from American pop, rock and folk, and he named Motown music and the
Holland–Dozier–Holland Holland–Dozier–Holland, often abbreviated as H-D-H, was a songwriting and production team consisting of Lamont Dozier and brothers Brian and Eddie Holland. The trio wrote, arranged and produced many songs that helped define the ...
songwriting team as among his biggest influences. He also named his friend and fellow folk musician
Fred Neil Fred Neil (born Frederick Ralph Morlock Jr.; March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularl ...
as influential on him, particularly Neil's "effortless" style, in which a lyric "sound like it just fell out of your mouth, like you hadn't really labored over it". The Spoonful's debut album featured covers of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, Fred Neil, the folk group
the Holy Modal Rounders The Holy Modal Rounders was an American folk music group, originally the duo of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, who formed in 1963 on the Lower East Side of New York City. Although they achieved only limited commercial and critical success in ...
, the 1920s blues musician Henry Thomas and the girl group the Ronettes. The Spoonful's sound was influential on contemporary musical acts, including bands like the Beatles, the Beach Boys,
the Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in London in 1963 by brothers Ray Davies, Ray and Dave Davies, and Pete Quaife. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British ...
,
Buffalo Springfield Buffalo Springfield was a Canadian-American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1966 by Canadians Neil Young, Bruce Palmer and Dewey Martin (musician), Dewey Martin and Americans Stephen Stills and Richie Furay. The group, widely know ...
and the
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
. The Spoonful were one of the first acts to be described as
folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...
, a term coined in June1965 to describe music which joined elements of rock-and-roll and folk-music. They were among the main instigators of the folk-rock movement in New York City and became the most successful folk-rock band from the US East Coast. In contrast to the protest songs for which folk had been known, the Spoonful focused on optimistic, feel-good music. The band often termed their sound "good-time music", a phrase which originally described jug band music. Sebastian hoped it could serve as an alternative to "folk rock" – a term he thought "just didn't say it all" – and he used it in his early composition "Good Time Music", which the author Richie Unterberger writes served as "a sort of manifesto of the group's optimism in its jaunty rhythm and celebration of the return of good time music to the radio". Among contemporary critics in 1966, Ralph J. Gleason wrote that the Spoonful seemed to be neither rock 'n' roll nor folk rock, while Robert Shelton wrote they were "folk-rock at its most appealing", with "one foot in old-time blues, jug-band music and ragtime and the other in the modern whirl of rock 'n' roll".


Instrumentation

The Spoonful played on their own recordings and were against the use of studio musicians. The band sought to avoid being typecast and aimed to sound different with each single, an approach they developed after seeing other groups fail when repeating the sound of an earlier hit. As part of their efforts, the group incorporated a variety of instruments on their recordings, including bass marimba, chimes, Irish harp and Hohner Tubon, as well as
resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a reso ...
, pedal steel and open-tuned
twelve-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 string (music), strings in six Course (music), courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lo ...
s. The band's music prominently featured the autoharp, a stringed instrument with buttons which, when depressed, produce preset combinations of chords, leaving it typically used as a rhythm instrument. The instrument was mostly associated with folk music, but few folk-rock or rock acts had employed it. Sebastian amplified his autoharp by affixing a
ukulele The ukulele ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...
contact microphone onto the back of it and then plugging it into an amplifier, a technique he developed in the rehearsal room before the band's first recording session. To generate more bottom end, the band added piano underneath, which Sebastian later said "create the effect of a huge autoharp". Despite their origins in folk music, Sebastian and Yanovsky were early fans of rock and roll. The two each played electric before acoustic guitars, and they enjoyed listening to the guitarists
Duane Eddy Duane Eddy (April 26, 1938 – April 30, 2024) was an American guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" guitar sound, including ...
and
Link Wray Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. His 1958 Instrumental rock, instrumental single "Rumble (instrumental), Rumble", reached the ...
. Sebastian recalled that when the two first met, he was shocked by Yanovsky's "all over the place" guitar playing, which he thought drew from the pianist
Floyd Cramer Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American pianist who became famous for his use of melodic "whole-step" attacks. He was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signatur ...
and the blues guitarist Elmore James simultaneously. He recalled that Yanovsky, by contrast, later admitted to being intimidated by Sebastian's clean playing, but that this became a guide to the pair's work together, where he provided a foundation onto which Yanovsky could "come in and throw flowers". Yanovsky's playing relied heavily on improvisation, and he often drew from country music, leading the commentator Peter Doggett to describe him as "the missing link between fifties
rockabilly Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music. It dates back to the early 1950s in the United States, especially the Southern United States, South. As a genre, it blends the sound of Western music (North America), Western musi ...
and sixties folk-rock". Sebastian played a 1957 sunburst
Gibson Les Paul The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typic ...
electric guitar in live performances and on the band's recordings, and he used a Heritage Gibson as his main acoustic guitar. Yanovsky's main guitar was a
Guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular territory. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradespeople belonging to a professional association. They so ...
Thunderbird, which he bought from Manny's Music in
Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...
around 1964. Soon after recording "Do You Believe in Magic" in June1965, he replaced the guitar's original Guild pickups with
humbucker A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from Single coil guitar pickup, coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in Microphone, dynamic microphones to can ...
s, which he thought "weren't quite as warm the originals, but they aged nicely". He also sometimes played a
Fender Esquire The Fender Esquire is a solid-body electric guitar manufactured by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation of Los Angeles. It was the first solid-bodied guitar marketed by the company, and made its debut in 1950.. Early development Proto ...
. He favored a Fender Super Reverb as his standard amplifier, which he later said managed to add extra bottom end while also being loud, and which he thought sounded similar to a pedal-steel guitar.


Image

The Spoonful's image was influential on their contemporaries. The band's stage act was both eccentric and extroverted, driven by Yanovsky, who Jacobsen later said "invented the hole-y jeans, falling apart T-shirts, crazy rock guitar antics on stage, the whole subsequent thing of rock 'n' roll guitar
sts STS, or sts, may refer to: Medicine * Secondary traumatic stress, a condition which leads to a diminished ability to empathize * Sequence-tagged site, a gene-reference in genomics * Soft-tissue sarcoma * Staurosporine, an antibiotic * STS (gene ...
being wild, crazy individualists". The author Bob Stanley later described the band's look as a clash between that of the Beatniks and the Beatles, and the American men's fashion magazine ''
Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...
'' produced a fashion spread of the band in its June1966 issue, detailing how the group sported " mod gear", but from New York's Seventh Avenue rather than London's
Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a Pedestrian zone, pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion ...
. The group wore clothes with stripes and spots, stripes having been popularized by
Brian Jones Lewis Brian Hopkin Jones (28 February 1942 – 3 July 1969) was an English musician and founder of the Rolling Stones. Initially a slide guitarist, he went on to sing backing vocals and played a wide variety of instruments on Rolling Stones r ...
. Sebastian often wore
denim Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more Warp (weaving), warp threads. This twill weave produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. Denim, as it is recognized today, was f ...
and granny glasses, the latter of which he adopted from Fritz Richmond, and which John Lennon subsequently adopted in September1966. After the band met the fashion designer Jeannie Franklyn in December1965 on the Sunset Strip, Franklyn designed custom-clothing for Yanovsky. Yanovsky is generally recognized as the first rock musician to wear
cowboy hat The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with ranch workers in the United States, Canada, Mexico, C ...
s and fringed buckskin jackets, and his wardrobe also consisted of fur coats, mod ties, corduroy jackets, vests and
boutonnière A boutonnière () or buttonhole (British English) is a floral decoration, typically a single flower or bud, worn on the lapel of a tuxedo or suit jacket. While worn frequently in the past, boutonnières are now usually reserved for special oc ...
s.


Members

Current members * Steve Boone – bass guitar, keyboards Past members *
John Sebastian John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and musician who founded the rock band the Lovin' Spoonful in 1964 with Zal Yanovsky. During his time in the Lovin Spoonful, Sebastian wrote and sang some of the ban ...
– vocals, guitar, harmonica,
autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of t ...
, keyboards * Zal Yanovsky – vocals, guitar * Jan Carl – drums * Joe Butler – vocals, drums * Jerry Yester – guitar


Membership timeline


Discography

Studio albums *'' Do You Believe in Magic'' (1965) *''
Daydream Daydreaming is a stream of consciousness that detaches from current external tasks when one's attention becomes focused on a more personal and internal direction. Various names of this phenomenon exist, including mind-wandering, fantasies, a ...
'' (1966) *'' Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful'' (1966) *'' Everything Playing'' (1967) *'' Revelation: Revolution '69'' (1968) Soundtrack albums *'' What's Up, Tiger Lily?'' (1966) *''
You're a Big Boy Now ''You're a Big Boy Now'' is a 1966 American comedy film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Based on David Benedictus' 1963 novel of the same name, it stars Elizabeth Hartman, Peter Kastner, Geraldine Page, her spouse Rip Torn, Kar ...
'' (1967)


Notes


References


Sources


Books

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Liner notes

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External links

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The Lovin' Spoonful
on the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovin Spoonful American pop music groups Folk rock groups from New York (state) Kama Sutra Records artists Musical groups from New York City Musical groups established in 1964 Musical groups disestablished in 1968 Musical groups reestablished in 1991 Musical quartets from New York (state)