Tag: John Sebastian

Apr 14 2012

Popular Culture (Music) 20120413: The Lovin’ Spoonful

First of all, I apologize for missing Wednesday’s installment of My Little Town.  If anyone is interested why, I shall be happy to explain in the comments.  Briefly, yesterday was very busy.

The Lovin’ Spoonful were a short lived band that several well known hits.  Their music was more catchy than substantive, but better than much of the pap that was available at the time.

This is the only time that I intend to write about them, but they were quite popular for a few years.  There is controversy about the origin of the name for the band, and we shall address that first.

Sep 10 2010

Original v. Cover — #42 in a Series

City Pictures, Images and Photos

The calendar tells us that summer is to soon draw to a close, despite weather that may suggest otherwise.  This week’s selection pays homage to the season, and in August of 1966 became the only #1 hit for a popular group at the time that placed ten songs on the Top 40 charts during the mid to late 1960s.  The song represented a significant departure from the folk-oriented songs that were a staple of this group’s work.  During an instrumental bridge, the song includes a series of car horn sounds, starting with a Volkswagen Beetle horn, and concluded with the sound of a jackhammer to lend authenticity to the topic of the song.  This number has since been ranked #393 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.