Search - Lovin Spoonful :: Do You Believe in Magic / Hums (2 on 1)

Pulls Together Two Classic Albums

08/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This 1995 release brings together in one package the contents of two of their better Kama Sutra albums, Do You Believe In Magic? -first released in 1965 - and Hums Of The Lovin' Spoonful, initially released in 1966.



Included in those albums were five of their biggest hit singles: Do You Believe In Magic? [# 9 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in the fall of 1965 and their debut hit] and its flipside On The Road Again; Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind? [# 2 in summer 1966]; Summer In The City [# 1 for three weeks in August 1966]; Nashville Cats [# 8 in January 1967] and its B-side Full Measure [# 87 at that same time].



Also included are My Gal, Night Owl Blues [named after the Night Owl Cafe where they first worked together], and Darlin' Companion which, respectively, would also be released as the flipsides to the singles You Didn't Have To Be So Nice [# 10 in January 1966], Daydream [# 2 in April 1966], and Darling Be Home Soon [# 15 in March 1967].



Their wonderful versions of Blues In The Bottle and Younger Girl also have to be heard, but especially their variation on the W.C. Handy tune Hesitating Blues which they call Wild About My Lovin' [track 8].



For years my wife and I would travel the 120 miles to Kingston, Ontario where we would invariably dine at one of our favourite restaurants - Chez Piggy's. All those years I never knew that the resident co-owner was none other than the group's lead guitarist and sometimes vocalist Zal Yanovsky. I only found out when reading his obituary in a local newspaper the day after he died on December 15, 2002. I wish I had known beforehand because I would have loved to have had a few words with him.



Their jug-band style, which brought together members of the Even Dozen Jug Band and The Mugwumps [which had also included Mama Cass Elliot] represented the happier music of the Turbulent Sixties, and in this compilation you get 23 glowing samples of what I mean, together with three pages of liner notes by Bruce Pollock, author of When The Music Mattered: Rock In The 1960s.



Highly recommended."