The Lovin' Spoonful Discography
The Lovin' Spoonful is an American folk-rock band which was originally active between 1964 and 1968. During their original tenure, they released five studio albums, two soundtrack albums, four compilation albums, and fourteen singles in the United States. Between October 1965 and January 1967, their first-seven singles reached the Top Ten in the United States on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart, and the magazine's 1966 end-of-year issue ranked the group as that year's third-best-performing singles artist, after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Though the Lovin' Spoonful achieved success during the transition to the album era, they and their label remained focused on the singles market; the group's 1966 album Daydream was their only studio album to break the Top Ten of the Billboard Top LPs chart, and its performance was bested only by a 1967 compilation album, The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful, which RIAA certified for gold that year. The Lovin' Spoonful saw diminished success in 1967, when only two of their singles entered the top twenty in the U.S. Following further chart disappointments, the group disbanded in 1968.
The Lovin' Spoonful's albums and singles were originally issued by Kama Sutra Records in the United States and by Pye International Records in the United Kingdom. The band was not directly signed to Kama Sutra but was instead signed to Koppelman-Rubin, an entertainment company, which negotiated a deal with the label in June 1965. As part of the arrangement, MGM Records distributed the records, which Kama Sutra released on its label for Koppelman-Rubin. MGM's contract with Kama Sutra expired in 1967, and Kama Sutra's leadership founded Buddah Records (later renamed Buddha), transferring their five-year deal with the Lovin' Spoonful in the process. In 2023, John Sebastian, the Lovin' Spoonful's primary songwriter, sold the publishing and artist royalties rights for all of his compositions to AMR Songs, an American catalog marketing company.
The Lovin' Spoonful's music has been regularly collected on compilation albums. In the years after the band's breakup, many of their original multi-track master-tapes were lost and presumed destroyed. The group's earliest CD reissues were instead made from the best available stereo masters, leaving the material sounding substandard when compared to reissues of other 1960s music. In 2000, after the first-generation master-tapes were rediscovered, Buddha issued Greatest Hits, which was the first digital remaster of the band's material. BMG Heritage Records, a reissue division of Sony BMG, issued digital remasters of the band's first four studio albums on CD in 2002 and 2003, along with previously unreleased bonus material.
Albums
Studio albums
| Year | Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. release | U.K. release | US |
CAN |
FIN |
NOR |
UK | ||
| 1965 | Do You Believe in Magic |
|
|
32 | — | — | — | — |
| 1966 | Daydream |
|
|
10 | — | 9 | — | 8 |
| Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful |
|
|
14 | 8 | — | 9 | — | |
| 1967 | Everything Playing |
|
|
118 | — | — | — | — |
| 1968 | Revelation: Revolution '69 |
|
|
— | — | — | — | — |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||
Notes
- ^ RPM published its first Top LPs chart on January 2, 1967.
- ^ Revelation: Revolution '69 is credited to "The Lovin' Spoonful featuring Joe Butler", but it only includes Butler playing with session musicians. Later authors therefore generally omit the album when listing the band's discography.
Soundtrack albums
| Year | Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. release | U.K. release | US | |||
| 1966 | What's Up, Tiger Lily? |
|
— | 126 | |
| 1967 | You're a Big Boy Now |
|
|
160 | |
| "—" denotes releases that were not released in that territory. | |||||
Live albums
| Year | Title | Album details |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Live at the Hotel Seville |
|
Compilation albums
| Decade | Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US |
CAN | ||||
| 1960s | What's Shakin' |
|
— | — | |
| The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful |
|
3 | 3 |
| |
| The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful Volume Two |
|
156 | — | ||
| 24 Karat Hits: A Double Dozen of All Time Best Sellers by the Lovin' Spoonful |
|
— | — | ||
| 1970s | The Very Best of the Lovin' Spoonful |
|
— | — | |
| John Sebastian Song Book Vol.1 |
|
— | — | ||
| Once Upon a Time |
|
— | — | ||
| The Best ... Lovin' Spoonful |
|
183 | — | ||
| The File Series |
|
— | — | ||
| 1980s | Greatest Hits |
|
— | — | |
| Distant Echoes |
|
— | — | ||
| The EP Collection |
|
— | — | ||
| The Collection |
|
— | — | ||
| 1990s | Anthology |
|
— | — | |
| Summer in the City |
|
— | — | ||
| The Very Best of the Lovin' Spoonful |
|
— | — | ||
| Collector's Edition |
|
— | — | ||
| 2000s | Greatest Hits |
|
— | — | |
| Platinum & Gold Collection |
|
— | — | ||
| Singles A's and B's |
|
— | — | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | |||||
Notes
- ^ What's Shakin' is a compilation of various Elektra performers from the mid-1960s. The Lovin' Spoonful account for four of the fourteen tracks.
Year-end rankings
| Year | Album | Year-end rankings | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | ||||
| 1966 | Daydream | 85 | ||
| 1967 | The Best of the Lovin' Spoonful | 23 | ||
EPs
| Year | Title | EP details | Peak chart positions |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK | |||
| 1966 | Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind |
|
3 |
| Jug Band Music |
|
7 | |
| Summer in the City |
|
— | |
| 1967 | Day Blues |
|
— |
| Nashville Cats |
|
— | |
| Lovin' You |
|
— | |
| Something in the Night |
|
— | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. | |||
Notes
- ^ The EP – short for Extended Play, a single-sized record with extra playing time – was a common format in Britain in the 1960s. This is a list of EPs released in the UK, though promotional EPs were also released in the US and other countries.
Singles
| Year | Single details | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
Album | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US |
AUS |
CAN |
FIN |
GER |
NL |
NOR |
SWE |
UK | |||||
| 1965 | "Do You Believe in Magic" b/w "On the Road Again"
|
9 | — | 3 | x | x | x | x | x | — | non-album single | ||
| "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" b/w "My Gal" (from Do You Believe In Magic)
|
10 | — | 2 | x | x | x | x | x | — | non-album single | |||
| 1966 | "Daydream" b/w "Night Owl Blues" (from Do You Believe in Magic)
|
2 | — | 1 | 20 | 30 | 11 | — | 1 | 2 | Daydream | ||
| "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" b/w "Didn't Want to Have to Do It" (from Daydream)
|
2 | — | 6 | 26 | — | 20 | 2 | 3 | x | Do You Believe in Magic | |||
| "Jug Band Music" b/w "Didn't Want to Have to Do It"
|
x | x | 2 | x | x | x | x | x | x | Daydream | |||
| "Baldheaded Lena" b/w "On the Road Again" (from Do You Believe in Magic)
|
x | x | x | x | x | x | x | 1 | x | ||||
| "Summer in the City" b/w "Butchie's Tune" (from Daydream)
|
1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 8 | non-album single | |||
| "Rain on the Roof" b/w "Pow (Theme from 'What's Up, Tiger Lily?')"
|
10 | 31 | 12 | 28 | — | 13 | — | 11 | — | Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful | |||
| "Nashville Cats" b/w "Full Measure"
|
|
26 |
|
38 | — | 11 | 7 | 12 | 26 | ||||
| "Good Time Music" b/w "Almost Grown"
|
x | x | x | x | x | — | x | x | x | What's Shakin' | |||
| 1967 | "Don't Bank on It, Baby" b/w "Searchin'"
|
x | x | x | x | x | — | x | x | x | |||
| "Darling Be Home Soon" b/w "Darlin' Companion" (from Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful)
|
15 | — | 8 | — | — | 16 | — | — | 44 | You're a Big Boy Now | |||
| "Six O'Clock" b/w "The Finale" (from You're a Big Boy Now)
|
18 | — | 12 | — | — | x | — | — | — | non-album single | |||
| "She Is Still a Mystery" b/w "Only Pretty, What a Pity"
|
27 | — | 3 | — | x | x | x | x | — | Everything Playing | |||
| "Money" b/w "Close Your Eyes"
|
48 | — | 28 | x | — | x | x | x | — | ||||
| 1968 | "Never Goin' Back (to Nashville)" b/w "Forever" (from Everything Playing)
|
73 | — | 49 | x | — | x | x | x | — | non-album single | ||
| "(Till I) Run with You" b/w "Revelation: Revolution '69"
|
128 | — | — | x | x | x | x | x | x | Revelation: Revolution '69 | |||
| 1969 | "Me About You" b/w "Amazing Air"
|
91 | x | 70 | x | x | x | x | x | x | |||
| 1970 | "Younger Generation" b/w "Boredom"
|
— | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | John Sebastian Song Book Vol.1 | ||
| 2011 | "Alley Oop" b/w "Night Owl Blues" (unedited version)
|
— | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | Do You Believe in Magic (2002 CD remaster) | ||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart. "x" denotes single not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
Notes
- ^ Go-Set published the first Australian national chart on October 5, 1966.
- ^ The song was later included on the album Do You Believe in Magic.
- ^ The song was later included on the album Daydream.
- ^ Before the single's U.S. release in April 1966, Quality Records issued it in December 1965 in select Canadian cities to test its potential performance in the American market.
- ^ "Jug Band Music" was released as a single exclusively in Canada. The song debuted on Toronto's CHUM Chart the week ending May 2, 1966, and it debuted on Canada's national chart two weeks later.
- ^ "Baldheaded Lena" debuted on the Kvällstoppen chart on June 28, 1966.
- ^ Kama Sutra issued the single in the U.K. instead backed with "Bald Headed Lena".
- ^ The song was later included on the album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful.
- ^ Kama Sutra issued the single in the U.K. instead backed with "Warm Baby".
- ^ Though marketed as the single's B-side, "Full Measure" received strong airplay in several markets, especially Los Angeles. The song's regional success helped it reach number 87 on the national chart.
- ^ The song was later included on the album Everything Playing.
- ^ The song was later included on the album Revelation: Revolution '69.
- ^ The song did not enter the Billboard Hot 100 but instead peaked on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart.
- ^ Billboard reviewed "Me About You" in its February 1, 1969, issue, and the single debuted on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart that same week. Cash Box magazine reviewed the single in its January 18, 1969, issue, and the single debuted on the magazine's singles chart a week later.
- ^ The single's face label credits "The Lovin' Spoonful featuring John Sebastian".
- ^ Recorded in August 1965 during the sessions for Do You Believe in Magic, "Alley Oop" was not released until 2002, when Buddha included it as a bonus track on the album's CD remaster. Sundazed Music issued the song in 2011 on a limited edition 7-inch vinyl record for Record Store Day.
Year-end rankings
| Year | Single | Year-end rankings | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US |
BEL (FL) |
NL | ||
| 1965 | "Do You Believe in Magic" | 89 | — | — |
| 1966 | "Daydream" | 38 | — | 90 |
| "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" | 48 | — | — | |
| "Summer in the City" | 35 | 87 | 19 | |
| "—" denotes releases that did not rank. | ||||