The Lovin' Spoonful is a Canadian-American folk-rock band formed in Greenwich Village, 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" 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, the Spoonful took their earliest influences from jug band and blues music, reworking them into a popular music 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 and the Rolling Stones. As psychedelia 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, 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, 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

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, 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, the Spoonful arrived at Heathrow Airport 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 and Manchester, appeared on the television programs Top of the Pops, Ready Steady Go! and Thank Your Lucky Stars, played on BBC Radio and attended a party at the London home of the Irish socialite Tara Browne. 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 on Wardour Street, Soho, central London. Several of Britain's top performers were in attendance, including John Lennon, George Harrison, Ray Davies, Brian Jones, Steve Winwood, Spencer Davis and Eric Clapton. The band were warmly received, and Lennon and Harrison joined them afterwards into the morning at The May Fair Hotel in Piccadilly. The next night, following their performance at the Blaises Club in Kensington, the band befriended Jones as well.

After flying to Stockholm 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 house in the Wicklow Mountains, the party was attended by many prominent Swinging London figures, including members of the Rolling Stones, Peter Bardens, 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, 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.

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's Greek Theatre went forward as normal.

"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.

Another song from Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful, the country-tinged "Nashville Cats", was issued as a single in . 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, helping it reach number 87 on the Hot 100 chart. In KRLA Beat, the local publication of the Southern Californian radio station KRLA, "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 magazine ranked the Spoonful as the third best performing singles artist of the year, after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. 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. The following day, Sebastian told reporters that the group had probably played their last show together, 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, In September1967, Buddha issued his debut single, "As Long As You're Here", which reached number 101 on Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart the following month. In late1967, he began recording his first solo album, Alive and Well in Argentina, which was released in June1968. 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, Tim Buckley and the Fifth Avenue Band.

Yanovsky played in Kris Kristofferson's band on a 1970 European tour,

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.

Musical style and development

Songwriting

Led by their primary songwriter John Sebastian, the Spoonful took their earliest influences from blues 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". 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 songwriting team as among his biggest influences.

  • Steve Boone – bass guitar, keyboards, vocals
  • Jerry Yester – guitar, vocals

Membership timeline

Discography

Studio albums

  • Do You Believe in Magic (1965)
  • Daydream (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 (1967)

Notes

References

Sources

Books

Liner notes

  • The Lovin' Spoonful on the Internet Archive