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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
It almost feels as though The Lovin' Spoonful have been edged out of history, sidelined as a whimsical footnote to the West Coast Sound. Yet few of their contemporaries matched such huge, magnificent hits as "Daydream" or "Summer In The City", and few in history have matched the transcendent "Do You Believe In Magic?", a record that can still turn January into June ("I'd tell you about the magic that can free your soul/But it's like trying to tell a stranger about rock'n'roll..."). Legend has it that The Spoonful auditioned en masse for The Monkees. They'd have been good at it, having the right candy-sweet sound and a warm good humour always in evidence. But it wouldn't have lasted: lead songwriter John Sebastian was too wilful and idiosyncratic, the closest thing to an American Ray Davies on songs like "Younger Generation", a prescient meditation on the hippy generation's future parental dilemmas. Greatest Hits is a fine introduction to this great and perennially underrated band. --Taylor Parkes
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CD
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The Lovin' Spoonful were formed (as were the Mamas and Papas) following the break-up of a folk-rock group in the sixties called the Mugwumps that only lasted a few months.
In Britain, they are mainly remembered for Summer in the city (a top ten UK hit and an American chart-topper) and Daydream (a number two hit in both Britain and America), though they also had some minor UK hits. They were far more successful in America, where they had many more big hits, beginning with their first single, Do you believe in magic, an American top ten.
One of their songs, Nashville cats, takes an affectionate look at country music's musicians. The group never ventured into country music themselves, though Dolly Parton did a fine cover of Lovin' you on her Here you come again album and John Sebastian (lead singer of the Lovin' Spoonful) was a guest on the same singer's Treasures album in the nineties.
The original version of Lovin' you is included in this compilation. Some other great songs to be found here include You don't have to be so nice, Did you ever have to make up your mind, Younger girl and Darling be home soon.
Yet perhaps the most interesting song is Younger generation, which takes an amusing look at the problems of growing up and how attitudes change as one gets older.
The good-time music of the Lovin' Spoonful sounds as good today as it ever did. There are many compilations around though there is very little difference between the track listings of most of them. If you enjoy good-time sixties music, this is for you.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By T. Smith
Format:Audio CD
I have only good thoughts about this collection. Full of top quality songs arranged with imagination and recorded to give a sixties time-capsule of delight. Even the less well known songs quickly become embedded in your brain. I know some people dismiss this type of music as lightweight but it is in fact monumental. Creative melodic songwriting of this scale is so hard to achieve and this selection serves as a fitting testimony to the "genius" of John Sebastian.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By GlynLuke
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Of all the groups (we didn`t have bands then) from the sixties, there are two that stand out for me, whose music not only seems to exemplify that confused decade but transcend it, sounding even better now than they did at the time. One is The Mamas & The Papas, the other is this foursome. For a while, the Lovin` Spoonful were almost as big as the Beatles in the States, and with good reason. John Sebastian, surely one of the most talented and versatile musicians of the last fifty years, wrote or co-wrote an astonishing number of perfect pop songs (including on his later solo albums, well worth seeking out) usually with a dreamy, delirious feel to them, or else with a healthy dose of the jugband sound to which he`s always been devoted.
Over the years there have been several Spoonful compilations carelessly thrown together, that you should avoid at all costs. Either the sound is shoddy or the vocals are lost in the muddied mix, or they`ve used `alternate` versions which bear little relation to the official releases. No such worries with this generously assembled 67-minute, 26-track feast of Spoonful magic. It`s the best and most comprehensive collection of this wonderful group`s songs I`ve come across. Nearly everything you could wish for is here - despite one or two ommissions such as the engagingly languid Boredom. More songs might have been included given that at least another ten minutes were available to the compilers, but few such compilations are perfect, though this one comes close.
What you do get is such a stream of glorious, intelligent, melodic songs that you won`t want it to come to an end, numbers such as the sweetly gentle You Didn`t Have To Be So Nice, the wonderful Wild About My Lovin`, the coyly tender Younger Girl (covered as a single by The Critters), lyrically exhilarating Jug Band Music, uncharacteristically Motown-ish Summer In The City, the appropriately countrified Nashville Cats, Lovin` You, the deliciously slow and sensuous Coconut Grove, the blissful Darling Be Home Soon, bouncy Darlin` Companion (a onetime Johnny & June Cash staple), the ebullient She`s Still A Mystery, the wrily pensive Younger Generation, the timeless Daydream...and, oh joy, two immaculate lesser-known songs: the wondrous song Full Measure, and equally impressive Never Going Back, a lovely song by John Stewart, also covered well by Peter, Paul & Mary.
The opening track is a kind of Spoonful signature song, the irrepressible, timeless Do You Believe In Magic?
When I hear these songs, I think I do.
Over the years there have been several Spoonful compilations carelessly thrown together, that you should avoid at all costs. Either the sound is shoddy or the vocals are lost in the muddied mix, or they`ve used `alternate` versions which bear little relation to the official releases. No such worries with this generously assembled 67-minute, 26-track feast of Spoonful magic. It`s the best and most comprehensive collection of this wonderful group`s songs I`ve come across. Nearly everything you could wish for is here - despite one or two ommissions such as the engagingly languid Boredom. More songs might have been included given that at least another ten minutes were available to the compilers, but few such compilations are perfect, though this one comes close.
What you do get is such a stream of glorious, intelligent, melodic songs that you won`t want it to come to an end, numbers such as the sweetly gentle You Didn`t Have To Be So Nice, the wonderful Wild About My Lovin`, the coyly tender Younger Girl (covered as a single by The Critters), lyrically exhilarating Jug Band Music, uncharacteristically Motown-ish Summer In The City, the appropriately countrified Nashville Cats, Lovin` You, the deliciously slow and sensuous Coconut Grove, the blissful Darling Be Home Soon, bouncy Darlin` Companion (a onetime Johnny & June Cash staple), the ebullient She`s Still A Mystery, the wrily pensive Younger Generation, the timeless Daydream...and, oh joy, two immaculate lesser-known songs: the wondrous song Full Measure, and equally impressive Never Going Back, a lovely song by John Stewart, also covered well by Peter, Paul & Mary.
The opening track is a kind of Spoonful signature song, the irrepressible, timeless Do You Believe In Magic?
When I hear these songs, I think I do.
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4.6 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
The lovin spoonful
Good CD this, great to hear the Spoonful again. The CD arrived on time and was well packaged, very pleased.
Published 1 month ago by K.M.Walate
4.0 out of 5 stars
Huh?
How can this be a Greatest Hits collection when Daydream seems to be missing? It's otherwise great, but, no Daydream? Nightmare.
Published on 9 July 2009 by Misdemeanour
5.0 out of 5 stars
Almost great
I had most of the tunes on a couple of old vinyl collections which I have not listened to for years (in the absence of a record player). Read more
Published on 7 July 2009 by Brian Cleaver
4.0 out of 5 stars
Feelgood pop on a great-value CD
The Lovin' Spoonful had a brief but glorious career in the second half of the sixties, as part of America's answer to the Beatles. Read more
Published on 13 Jun 2005 by Peter Reeve
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mind bending
What can you say about The Lovin'Spoonful? A truly great band of an era when songs were melodic and gentle (well, some of them anyway). All the Spoonful's hits are great. Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2003
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