The LOVIN' SPOONFUL Band History part 1 |  

as a 16 year old in china, banned from yt and all other things good, i just started downloading anything old, no one told me about these guys, but they just sound so sweet and genuine. This is what good pop music is.

The Spoonful were incredibly adept at producing the 'feeling' of their music. I sweat when I listen to 'Summer In the City'; I smile when I hear 'Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind'; I feel for the singer during 'Didn't Want to Have to Do It'; I'm in a 10-gallon hat during 'Nashville Cats'; and on and on. Pure genius, and what I appreciate most about their music was the lack of repetition. We never knew what to expect from them, or the next track on the album. Personally, I loved it all. Even the heavily orchestrated 'Darling Be Home Soon', a beautiful song. Delighted that their music will live on.

They were a great band, a favorite of mine at the time....great songs that still stand up.

They were one of my favorite bands and their masterpiece “Summer In The City” brings me back to a nearly perfect time and place, in my young life, August fifth, nineteen sixty-six where I met my first girlfriend and got my drivers license!

I had to rewatch this again, just saying you did a GREAT JOB highlighting this band bringing out all the great players in the band. Thanks!

The Byrds were actually singing in two part harmony with three voices ( Roger and Gene in unison) which gave them that incredible unique vocal sound.

Great Job. Nice to hear a Rock Historian that knows what he is talking about.

One of the greatest American bands of ALL TIME

Utterly fascinating🎉 Thanks Matt for the interesting background info on John Sebastian's home: didn't know people like Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly were regular visitors. Not a bad upbringing😂

Sebastian (under his actual name of Pugliese) played blues harp on the Doors "Roadhouse Blues".

Boy, this takes you back in time!! Sebastian was a stand-out!!

These guys were great. Full Measure is one of my favs. I like the way John's voice breaks up on Six O'clock. Very bluesy. Thanks for this.

Thank you for setting me straight. First, I'm 72 and went through just about everything in the sixties having lived just outside NYC. My problem, a sheltered childhood and I'm a bit slow on the take. 2nd, I have close to 4,000 LP's. Around the time of the release of "Hums" was when my parents' marital problems and the overwhelming force of the sixties counterculture began to affect me. I always thought "Hums" was their 2nd LP. My bad. I remember a "snow day" and sitting watching a beautiful snow fall and listening to "Hums" and "If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears" by The Mama's and the Papa's. My life was beginning to change. My relationship with my father began to deteriorate to the point of almost abuse. He hated me because my grades were not good enough (he was a physician and had an almost unattainable standard of academic achievement) and I was beginning to form an opinion about the Vietnam War which he did not share (he was a staunch Republican who loved Spiro Agnew). There was one bright shining yearly ritual; my mother shipped me off to a 2-month summer camp in Maine for 7 summers. It would not be an exaggeration to say that single act may have saved my life. First, it got me away from the toxicity of their marriage and two; fostered a self-reliance that I could survive without them. But "Hums" will always resonate for me as a pivot point in my life. By the way, your presentations are spot on.

I shared this on the lovin' spoonful facebook page. Also, I think the most innovative element was they took ancient piano stride lines and played them on electric guitars and updated old country blues songs so they sounded modern and not corny.

Love Matt's breakdown of 60's bands. Big fan.

Love the Lovin' Spoonful. I only knew their singles until at one of those old used CD shops I happened upon a little Japanese box that included CDs of all their albums. Bought it for maybe $10 and immersed myself. Lots of great songs, very few duds. These days I mostly listen to a 2-LP best-of compilation but sometimes I'll dig out the Japanese box and play the albums. Great band.

Yaaay!! I kept on thinking there should be more discourse on the Lovin Spoonful and I got my wish.

I just came across your channel today, and it's the best thing I've found in a long time. I fell in love with 60s music as a young child in the early 90s, being an emotionally-sensitive introverted person the messages rang loudly for me. Thank you for your work! Their messages are frighteningly relevant today, and I'm glad you're talking about the history today.

I believe after "Do You Believe In Magic came "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice" as their second single, and "Daydream" was their 3rd single.

Part 1 of The Lovin' Spoonful Band History is just fabulous and I learned a lot from Matt Williamson's narrative and presentation about the Spoonful, one of my favorites as a grew up in the 1960s.

I love how john lennon took inspiration from john sebastian's mid-60s look with the little round glasses and sideburns

They had seven US top 10 hits among them the # 1 hit Summer in the City.The other American group to achieve this at the time was Gary Lewis and the Playboys who also had a US chart topper with This Diamond Ring but they are largely forgotten by now. By 1966 the British Invasion was beginning to wind down as Folk Rock was becoming the new hot trend helping American groups regain control of the charts after two years of UK domination.The Brits never went away but it was more even by 1967.

This is a very good video. I always liked the Loving Spoonful, but never knew a lot about their background, so this video is very interesting and informative. Will watch the next parts.

I knew Zal and Rose. The two of them did more for the city of Kingston than anyone I ever knew. In fact, still today their kid is running two of our most successful and beloved businesses, Zal spent a lot of time working with the humane society and raising funds for them. I know, I know about the controversies but, his life was dedicated to saving animals and his city. Miss you Zal.

You mentioned the band The Critters they sing one of my all time favorite songs Mr Dieingly Sad great band.

Great in-depth video' ...great band' ...thankfully they didn't become The Monkees' thanks for sharing.

The spoonful were one of the major inspiration for a young Stephen Stills to get out of the folk scare and go electric and write his own tunes.

What a COOL upbringing John had, Waaay Cool story!!!

Those early songs are deeply ingrained in my young teenage psyche. They still make me emotional to hear.

Zally said "Denny, you know there aren't many Who can sing a song the way that you do, let's go south" Denny said "Zally, golly, don't you think that I wish I could play guitar like you" Zal, Denny and Sebastian sat (At the Night Owl) And after every number they'd pass the hat...

The old photos of the scene back in those days are so interesting.

Omg another great documentary. Lovely band! Many great songs and Never gets tiring.

Matt, This history was so good that I am writing before looking at part 2. I see that one of your links is for Simon Wordsworth's book "Do You believe in Magic" which I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to the even mildly obsessive Spoonful fans. I was pleased to see you discuss "What's Shakin'" which was my introduction to the Paul Butterfield Blues band which prompted me to buy "East West" which is still one of my top ten sixties albums. And Al Kooper who produced the electric side of Tom Rush's "Take a Little Walk with Me," started the Blues Project and its offshoot Blood, Sweat, & Tears. brought the Zombies' "Odessey and Oracle" to the US for release (all this after playing organ on Dylan's records), and was the Zelig of 60s/70s music. I saw the Blues Project in the fall of '66, and they were first band that I saw that sounded powerful live. The package tours of the time sounded like a bad car radio. May I request a history of the Blues Project (okay, not really 60s 'pop') and another NY band, the Youngbloods - including Jerry Corbitt's solo album on Polydor which had a very early use of the moog. Sorry about carrying on, but living through the sixties, the radio was always on when the turntable wasn't spinning, and this stuff was the soundtrack of my teen tears. Just another superb job Matt. My only wish is that these histories aren't longer, though your videos are a like a 45 rpm single - straight to the point and leaving the listener begging for more.

Fantastic channel.Keep it up please.Appreciate your hard work very much.Love this kind of stuff.

Excellent video...loved the band's music for years and now know the backstory...thank you!

EXCELLENT job, both the info, music selection and really appreciate the effect put into the accompanying slide show. One of my favorite episodes. 👍👍

Love your work! I've watched all your Beatles videos thanks.

Zal was probably more difficult than he had to be. In my part 2, there will be some other explanations on why rifts occurred within the band. Thanks for the comment!

A really interesting and comprehensive project! You did a great job of putting it all together!

Anyone here from NYC in the 70’s there used to be a commercial for the Fresh Air Fund..which gave inner city kids the opportunity to go away and visit the country. Anyway for one of their commercials the Used Summer in The City..during the chorus they showed Black and White pictures of the gritty inner city…then when it hit the chorus it showed the country. Probably the first time I took notice of the song as it was impactful. . I have not found it on RU-vid yet. Loving Spoonful were fantastic… a real sixties outlier, no one like them. Zal was a fantastic creative player…..loved that Guild

These videos are great and the production is soooooo good. I am a huge 60s pop fan so finding this channel is a real treat :) Nice Racket Squad LP! I love their second album

Thank you for refreshing my consciousness regarding The Lovin' Spoonful! (There were so many great bands back then, and one tends to forget). The Spoonful were very big here in Sweden, and I think they had three hits at the same time in our top 20 at one point in 1966!

The Lovin' Spoonful played an evening concert at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk in the summer of 1996, waves crashing in the background. Former drummer Joe Butler sang lead up front. There must have been 5,000 people there, and it was magical. There were tons of small children dancing like crazy on the sand to the timeless classics that were hits at least 25 years before they were even born.

Second time I'm watching these two episodes, excellent job 👏👏👏

The best 60´s channel on youtube. Well researced and presented...Really good

When I was a teenager, Jan Carl was my boss. And someone told me Jan was once the drummer for the Lovin Spoonful.

Thanks so much - so many good times back then!

Cheers Matt , I enjoyed this. I bought all the spoonful's CDs in the 90s 👦👍🎶

I do believe in the magic of music.

I’ve got the What’s Shakin and Do You Believe in Magic LPs and a compilation. All marvellous music

Great video and detailed history.

Super informative. Thank you.

Amazing doco, I learnt so much🙏

Fun ! Love your series ! Thank you for your great work …And … also I’m saying hello from Halifax NS ! : )

Would love to hear you do an episode on The Cyrkle.

Great stuff, they were of course kind of folk rock I guess but I always thought some of their songs had a kind of 'punk' attitude too. Amazingly talented band...

I love the Sonics version of On The Road Again, as I've never really did a deep dive into the Lovin Spoonful, I just know found out it was a John Sebastian song! Love the videos btw

My new book on Zal Yanovsky (From Amazon Books) should answer a lot of these viewer comments. Great video and channel - keep up the good work Pop Goes the 60's!

Love the Spoonful and their unique approach. It does seem like so many groups were so different from each other, all with varying influences that make up their own cool sounds. You touched briefly on another fascinating subject when you mentioned previous bands the members belonged to. It's amazing how many of these mid-60s groups had ties to each other. Possibly, a subject for a future video, Matt?

SO glad I found your channel! This was particularly good! That Elektra album sounds fantastic! They REALLY influenced what direction The Greatful Dead would take? And with The Byrds and all that? ...I was still in diapers at the time!

Now I have to go listen to the Best Of CD again but, really, I wish I had all their records. There were always a ton of beat-to-hell copies of them in used record stores and thrift shop bins when I was a kid. One pair of names I'm missing in the early part of this survey is Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, of the Holy Modal Rounders. They were very active in the folk/blues/bluegrass scene, and well worth a look if you haven't done them already.

I Was a Teenage Folk-rocker! Love The Spoonful! Got all those records, What's Shakin' and Tiger Lily--and a Knob Lick Upper 10,000 LP included! Joe Butler was a great rock drummer, really bashed his kit!

Summer in the City .. stands up …

Always thought The Lovin' Spoonful were just a really good Beatlesque American group until I got their Greatest Hits and discovered songs like Night Owl Blues and others that were very UnBeatlesque (is that a word?). Obviously adore Summer in the City and their other great top ten songs, but there was certainly a lot more depth to this band than many others of the era. John Sebastian really was one of the top song writers from the amazing 60's! (P.S. Matt - love your videos and channel - please keep at it, much appreciated!).

Great information! I did not know their music that well at all. I might check them out

Excellent!

I don't know where I read it, but I read that Cass Elliot (possibly "Mama Cass" at the time) told John that she had a friend he should meet. She brought Zal over and they started the band. She liked to hook people up with each other, and she seemed to have a knack for it.

New subscriber here . I would like to say that your channel is the real deal and not some silly fanboy crap . The music of the sixties and seventies for the most part have proved to be the best unlike today’s corporate show biz. Yes that probably did start in the early years of pop/rock music but is getting down right phoney, (don’t get me started on the Rock andRoll Hall of Fame) . Thanks for keeping it real .

Nice, very nice.

Thanks for the overview. hardly know anything of these fine blokes, cept for those few tracks I've heard.. pardon mate, i thought you we're John Cowsill. don't know why, Cheers.

I met John Sebastian he gave me the full story behind the false start on the classic filmed concert “the big TNT show”

Very enjoyable video. I've been a fan of the Lovin' Spoonful since I first heard them in the mid-60s, but I had no idea they were part of the Greenwich Village scene. Just had a look at Dave Van Ronk's book "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" and there's no mention of John Sebastian in it.

YOU SIR, ARE AMAZING! Been subed since 1st visit a few weeks back. Knew about Zal BUT not about Felix. Then I scan the list of muscians ....STEFAN GROSSMAN !!!! WTF ? Only knew him thru the colaboration on CROSSCURRENTS with DANNY KALB (ex of BLUES PROJECT ). THANK YOU , LOVE THE DETAIL. Have passed the word about YOU and RICK BEATO !

They were my first concert and will mever forget that obviously even got to meet some of the members so many great songs that werent hits even which is real tell tale of a great band

Fantastic band ❤️

Great band! When I was a student in Holland end of the sixties, I made a songbook with the texts of their songs. Yeah good time folk rock! and so much fun! Many interesting pics in your 2 videos that I never saw before. Good story, but your choice of your favorite mentioned songs by album would be different for me. I would have mentioned for their first album also Blues in the bottle, Fishin’ blues, Other side of this life,; for the Daydream album also. Let the boy Rock and Roll and Bald headed Lena; for Hums (for me their best) :also Bes’’ Friends, Henry Thomas and Full Measure, such great songs; for What’s up Tiger Lily the fabulous Pow!, for Everything Playing also Money, Boredom and Old Folks. And they were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the solo career of John and also of Zal you can make maybe sometime another video. But thanks anyway!

Lovin Spoonful is one of my favorite folk rock band of the 60’s. Daydream is my favorite album of theirs. I love Daydream and You didn’t Have to Be So Nice. I love Sebastians vocals and the easy going music. I think I was first introduced to the band through a McDonalds commercial in the 90’s where they played the song Do You Believe in Magic. I thought it was just a commercial song than I found out it was from the band Lovin Spoonful and I’ve been a fan since.

Lucky enough to see John on stage at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970 and he brought Zal out on stage. Then about 10-years ago met John wben he played in London with his Jug band album tour. A TRUE GENTLEMAN. LOVE HIS AMAZING SONGS...... MY FAVS DARLIING BE HOME SOON AND YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW AND SUMMER IN THE CITY. ROCK ON JOHN. GREAT SHOW AS USUAL.

My Goodness, Just finished the Turtles, subscribed to your channel and as I'm watching this one, your narration and story telling has me captivated. I have ADHD but you make this so comprehensive to follow. Love it!! Thanks again. Do you play any instruments?

I really dug that tune by J.S. called, "Four Eyes!"

'Do You Believe in Magic', makes me believe in magic.

I was just listening to the Daydream album couple days ago at a friend's pad.( on reel to reel) that's a really great album

Saw them in port st lucie fla. Awesome

A youngster like me I love this kind of music i am a 32 year old male

If you read the history of momma cass you will see she was everywhere she helped put people togeather the spoonfull CSN and others she was something great show love spoonfull summer in the city cheers

Summer In The City is an alltime rock classic! I used to think the lead vocals were some old black singer! I couldn't believe upon hearing it on radio first few times that it was follies John Sebastion! Sebastion also played Woodstock, and of course wrote & sang "Welcome Back," the theme song to TV hit Welcome Back Kotter.

He wasn't very prolific, but all of Steve Boone's contributions are stellar. He's the primary writer of You Didn't Have To Be So Nice. I feel like his Butchie's Tune in particular showcases the great talents the band beside Sebastian had, with Joe Butler's soft vocal and Zally's brilliant Floyd Cramer-on-guitar licks.

Always loved the spoonful

Top Notch ❤️

You ought to do a video on the Kit Kats.

This why I watch “ pop goes the sixties “ ! Luv the Lovin spoonful . Spoiler alert. How John Sebastian ended up playing at Woodstock ?

Can you do a history of The Electric Prunes? Their story is an interesting and varied one...

The Knob Lick Upper 10,000?! What the huh?

I think that Full Measure is a masterpiece of a song. Too bad it was overlooked. A beautiful song.

"What's Shankin" I owned that.

Do you think you could investigate or dig a little deeper into the reason for John sebastian leaving the Spoonful? There is some ambiguity when it comes to John's reason leaving the band, just to clear up misconceptions... if you could make a video explaining why that would be awesome. Or just some more on the Spoonful, either way it would mean the world.

Nice topic Matt. These guys especially Sebastian mislabeled as a pop singles band, like you said. They were better than that. Some of their songs and guitar work are pretty complex. Sebastian was a powerhouse. In my opinion he could have used a better supporting cast.

ahh, sounds i grew up with (born in '57) John held a autoharp on an early album cover. Thought it was different but cool. Gifted one years later. ha, story was, the band was offered an endorsement deal with Guild guitars. John was playing a 'Burst Les Paul and wouldn't hold anything else for photos.

When will you be doing part 2?

phil moslowitz private eye in search of the secret egg salad recipe ...