Cherry Red [Release date : 27.03.26]

The Lovin Spoonful lineup – John Sebastian, Zal Yanovsky, Joe Butler and Steve Boone – coalesced in New York’s folk music hub, Greenwich Village in 1964, honing their sound in the city’s nightclubs before they began recording for Kama Sutra Records.

In analysing one pivotal year of a tumultuous decade, American music historian Andrew Grant Jackson labelled 1965, the year the Lovin Spoonful released their debut album, Do You Believe In Magic, as the “most groundbreaking of all”.

In a febrile political climate, and unlike an emerging peer group that included The MC5, Jefferson Airplane and Country Joe And The Fish, the band assiduously avoided politics.

And focus on the music paid off.

This 7 CD Boxset of Remasters comprises their first 4 studio albums:

CD1: Do You Believe In Magic (1965)
CD2: Daydream (1966)
CD4: Hums Of The Lovin Spoonful (1966)
CD5: Everything’s Playing (1967)

And:
CD3: Original Soundtrack from the movies “What’s Up Tiger Lily” and “You’re A Big Boy Now”. (1966/7)
CD6: Revelation: Revolution w/Joe Butler (1969)
CD7: Zalman Yanovsky: Alive And Well In Argentina (1969)

Do You Believe in Magic, an album of Sebastian compositions, fleshed out with the Folk Rock and Jug Band songs they played on stage, broke the Billboard Top Forty, and scored two Top Ten singles.
Likewise Daydream and Hums… the latter’s ‘Summer In The City’ single reaching the no.1 spot.
The sweetly romantic ‘Rain On The Roof’ also charted, and was a huge hint as to the direction his songwriting was headed.

The NME, Record Mirror and Allmusic gave the albums four out five stars.

It’s clear that Sebastian was a gifted songwriter and musician, capable of playing many instruments, in many styles.

His band went head to head with The Beatles, The Stones and Mary Poppins (!) in the album charts, and still went Top Ten, twice.
His joyful, tuneful songs became as much part of teenage culture as the psychedelic, politically inspired material being released by US Westcoast bands.

The later albums, one led by Joe Butler (without Sebastian), and two of movie soundtracks, skimmed the Billboard Top 100. Good value for completists, and a window into Sebastian’s talent as a soundtrack man, something he followed up bigtime in the 80s on the Care Bear movies.

There have been multiple Spoonful / Sebastian compilations, this is one of the better ones, focused on the recordings that made the band famous and indeed, successful.

Footnote: Sebastian played an unannounced acoustic set at Woodstock, after rainfall necessitated a partial power down.

Guitarist Zal Yanovsky recorded one solo album, Alive And Well In Argentina, which opened to mixed reviews. Some liking its experimental, off the wall, cod psychedelic sound, others dismissing its lack of focus.

Ultimately he became a restaurateur with his wife Rose in 1979, in Canada, the country of his birth.

He died of a heart attack in 2002, aged 57.

Steve Boone bought the ITI Studios, recording Little Feat and Robert Palmer among others. He now lives on an 11 acre farm in North Carolina with his wife, Lena. He is 83 years old.

Joe Butler moved into musical theatre, later joining the original Broadway cast of “Hair”.
He went on to found the Circle Theater Company, alongside Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Lanford Wilson.
His daughter Yancy has appeared in many tv series and movies.
He is 85 years old.

Sebastian lives in Woodstock, NY with his wife, Catherine.
He is aged 81.

*****

Review by Brian McGowan

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