The Lovin' Spoonful
(Read all about the Lovin' Spoonful after the videos)
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American rock band, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and well known for a number of hit songs in the 1960s including "Summer in the City", "Do You Believe In Magic", "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?", and "Daydream".
Career
Formation and early years (1964–65)
The band had its roots in the folk music scene based in the Greenwich Village section of lower Manhattan during the early 1960s. John Sebastian, the son of classical harmonicist John Sebastian Sr., grew up in the Village in contact with music and musicians, including folk musicians who were involved with the American folk music revival of the 1950s through the early 1960s. Sebastian formed the Spoonful with guitarist Zal Yanovsky from a bohemian folk group called The Mugwumps (two other members, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty, later formed half of the Mamas & the Papas), playing local coffee houses and small clubs.[1]
The formation of the Lovin' Spoonful during this period was later
described in the lyrics of the Mamas & the Papas' 1967 top ten hit, "Creeque Alley".[2]
Drummer Jan Carl and bassist Steve Boone rounded out the group, but Carl was replaced by drummer-vocalist Joe Butler
after the group's first gig at The Night Owl in Greenwich Village.
Butler had previously played with Boone in a group called The Kingsmen
(not the hit group of "Louie Louie" fame). The group's first Night Owl
performances were reportedly so bad that the club owner told them to go
away and practice, so they practiced in the basement of the nearby Hotel
Albert until they had improved enough to draw audience attention.[3]
The group made its first recordings for Elektra Records in early 1965, and agreed in principle to sign a long-term deal with Elektra in exchange for a $10,000 advance. However, Kama Sutra Records
had an option to sign the Lovin' Spoonful as recording artists as part
of a previously signed production deal, and Kama Sutra exercised the
option upon learning of Elektra's intent to sign the band.[4] The four tracks recorded for Elektra were released on the 1966 various artists compilation LP What's Shakin' after the band's success on Kama Sutra.
Pop success (1965–66)
The band worked with producer Erik Jacobsen to release their first single on July 20, 1965, "Do You Believe in Magic", written by Sebastian. Additionally, they wrote their own material (aside from a few covers, mostly on their first album),[5][6] including "Younger Girl" (which missed the Hot 100), which was a hit for The Critters in mid-1966.
"Do You Believe in Magic" reached #9 on the Hot 100,
and the band followed it up with a series of hit singles and albums
throughout 1965 and 1966, all produced by Jacobsen. The Lovin' Spoonful
became known for such folk-flavored pop hits as "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice", which reached #10, and "Daydream", which went to #2.[5][7] Other hits included "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" (another #2 hit) and their only song to reach #1 on the Hot 100, "Summer in the City"
(13–27 August 1966). Later that year, the #10 hit "Rain on the Roof"
and the #8 hit "Nashville Cats" completed the group's first seven
consecutive Hot 100 hits to reach that chart's top 10. The only other
1960s act to achieve that feat is Gary Lewis & the Playboys.
The Lovin' Spoonful was one of the most successful pop/rock groups to
have jug band and folk roots, and nearly half the songs on their first
album were modernized versions of blues standards. Their popularity
revived interest in the form, and many subsequent jug bands cite them as
an inspiration. The rest of their albums featured mostly original
songs, but their jug band roots showed up again and again, particularly
in "Daydream" and the lesser-known "Money" (which only reached #48, in
1968), featuring a typewriter as percussion.
Lovin' Spoonful members termed their approach "good-time music". In
the liner notes of "Do You Believe in Magic," Zal Yanovsky said that he
"became a convert to Reddy Kilowatt because it's loud, and people dance to it, and it's loud." Soon-to-be members of the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead
were part of the West Coast acoustic folk music scene when the Lovin'
Spoonful came to town on tour. They credited the Lovin' Spoonful concert
as a fateful experience, after which they decided to leave the folk
scene and "go electric".[citation needed]
At the peak of the band's success, the producers of the television series that later became The Monkees
initially planned to build their series around the Lovin' Spoonful, but
dropped the band from the project due to conflicts over song publishing
rights.[8][9] The band also gained an added bit of publicity when Butler replaced Jim Rado in the role of Claude for a sold-out four-month run with the Broadway production of the rock musical Hair. The Lovin' Spoonful's song "Pow!" was used as the opening theme of Woody Allen's first feature film, What's Up, Tiger Lily;
the band also composed and played instrumental music for the film and
appeared in some live performance sequences in the film (reportedly
added during post-production without Allen's knowledge or consent).[10][11][12] Shortly thereafter, John Sebastian composed the music for Francis Ford Coppola's second film, You're a Big Boy Now,
and the Lovin' Spoonful played the music for the soundtrack, which
included yet another hit, "Darling Be Home Soon". Both films were
released in 1966.[13] In addition, the Michelangelo Antonioni film Blow-up, also released that year, contained an instrumental version of the Spoonful song, "Butchie's Tune", performed by jazz musician Herbie Hancock.
Personnel changes (1967)
In early 1967, the band broke with their producer Erik Jacobsen, turning to Joe Wissert to produce the single "Six O'Clock", which reached #18 in the U.S.
Yanovsky left the band after the soundtrack album You're a Big Boy Now
was released in May 1967, primarily due to a drug bust in San
Francisco, in which he was arrested for possession of marijuana and
pressured by police to name his supplier. He was a Canadian citizen and feared that he would be barred from re-entering the U.S., so he complied.[14][15] The incident resulted in a public backlash from the counterculture against the band, with a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Free Press (according to music critic Ralph Gleason) "urging people not to buy Spoonful records and not to attend their concerts and, to the girls, not to ball them."[15] Although Yanovsky went on to release a solo single and album, his musical career was severely harmed.[16]
He later left the music business and opened a restaurant in Canada, the
immensely popular Chez Piggy in Kingston, Ontario. The restaurant is
now owned and run by his daughter.[17]
Yanovsky's replacement was Jerry Yester, formerly of the Modern Folk Quartet. Around this time, perhaps coincidentally, the band's sound became more pop-oriented.
The new line-up of the Lovin' Spoonful recorded two moderately
successful Wissert-produced singles ("She Is Still a Mystery" and
"Money"), as well as the 1967 album Everything Playing. Sebastian then left the group by early 1968 to go solo.[14]
The final years (1968–69)
The
group was now officially a trio, and drummer Butler (who had previously
sung lead on a few album tracks) became the group's new lead vocalist.
Up to this point Sebastian had written (or co-written) and sung every
one of the Lovin' Spoonful's hits; the band now turned to outside
writers for their singles, and used a variety of outside producers. The
band's last two Hot 100 entries, "Never Goin' Back (to Nashville)"
written by John Stewart
and "Me About You", were sung by Butler. In addition, "Never Goin'
Back" only featured Yester and Butler's playing—the other musical parts
were played by session musicians, which had not occurred since drummer Gary Chester played on Do You Believe In Magic.[18] "Never Goin' Back" was the highest-charting single of the group's post-Sebastian career, topping out at #73.
With commercial success waning, the Lovin' Spoonful lasted only until
early 1969. They split up following the release of their album Revelation: Revolution '69.
In 1970, following John Sebastian's 1969 solo performance at Woodstock, Kama Sutra issued the song "Younger Generation" as a single. Sebastian had closed his Woodstock set with the song.[19] The single version was taken from the two-year-old Everything Playing album and credited to "The Lovin' Spoonful featuring John Sebastian"; it failed to chart.
In 1976, however, a solo Sebastian scored another No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hit with, "Welcome Back", the theme song to ABC's "Welcome Back, Kotter".
Reunions, revivals, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction (1979–present)
The
original group (Sebastian, Yanovsky, Butler and Boone) reunited briefly
in the fall of 1979 for a show at the Concord Hotel in the Catskills for an appearance in the Paul Simon film One Trick Pony, which was released in October 1980.
In 1991, after a long-awaited settlement with their record company,
Butler and Boone decided to start up the Lovin' Spoonful again with Jerry Yester. They were joined by Jerry's brother, Jim Yester (vocals and guitar), formerly of The Association.
Sebastian and Yanovsky declined to participate. In March 1992 drummer
John Marrella was added to the band to allow Joe Butler to concentrate
on vocals. After a two-month rehearsal in the Berkshire Mountains,
the group started touring, with Joe Butler now the most common lead
singer. Keyboardist David Jayco was added in June 1992. Jim Yester left
this new grouping in March 1993 and was replaced by guitarist Randy
Chance. Jerry's daughter, Lena Yester (vocals and keyboards), replaced
David Jayco at the same time. Randy Chance was sacked in June 1993 and
was not replaced. Mike Arturi replaced John Marrella on drums in March
1997 and Phil Smith joined on guitar in 2000 replacing Lena Yester.
The original four members of the Lovin' Spoonful were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 6, 2000.[20] All four original members appeared at the ceremony and performed "Do You Believe in Magic" and "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?".
Yanovsky died in 2002.[17]
Sebastian has stated that he no longer wishes to perform with the
remaining members of the group because he wanted to move on when he left
the group.[21]
The current group, still led by Butler, Boone and Yester, continues to perform.
Name
The band's name was inspired by some lines in a song of Mississippi John Hurt called the 'Coffee Blues' . John Sebastian and others in the jug-folk scene of the time such as Geoff Muldaur credit Fritz Richmond for suggesting the name.
The song "Coffee Blues" is a tribute to Maxwell House
Coffee, which Hurt describes, "rapping" in the beginning of the song,
as being two or three times any other brand, ergo, he only needs one
spoonful to make him feel all right, what he describes as "my lovin'
spoonful" in the song. The song is part of a group of songs with a long
history in recorded blues that generally use the term "a spoonful" to
suggest sex, and in some cases use of a drug such as cocaine.[26] The term "lovin' spoonful" has been conjectured as referring to the amount of ejaculate released by a male during a typical orgasm.
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