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    • Source: Do You Believe in Magic (album)

      • Do You Believe in Magic is the debut studio album by the folk-rock band the Lovin' Spoonful. It was released in the United States in November 1965, on the Kama Sutra label. Release in the United Kingdom followed in March 1966. The album features the hits "Do You Believe in Magic" (U.S. No. 9) and "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" (U.S. No. 2).
      Do You Believe in Magic was re-released on CD in 2002 with five bonus tracks.


      Background


      In 1964, John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky were active in the folk-music scene in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood of New York City. The pair were members of an early rock group, the Mugwumps, but after it dissolved in late 1964, they began planning to form their own group, which they envisioned as an electric jug band. Sebastian later recalled that they "were both aware of the fact that this commercial folk music model was about to change again, that the four-man band that actually played their own instruments and wrote their own songs was the thing." In early 1965, they recruited the local rock musicians Steve Boone and Joe Butler to play bass guitar and drums, respectively.


      Recording and production




      = Recording history

      =
      The earliest recordings on Do You Believe in Magic date to June 1965, when the producer Erik Jacobsen fronted a session for the Lovin' Spoonful with his own money at Bell Sound Studios in New York City. The band recorded several songs during the session, including "Do You Believe in Magic". Among those invited to participate were the local folk musician Jerry Yester, who added both piano and backing vocals, the session musician Gary Chester, who played tambourine, and the arranger Alan Lorber, who assisted with the vocal arrangement. Harry Yarmark engineered the session.
      Jacobsen and Bob Cavallo, the band's manager, brought an acetate disc of the session to numerous record labels, most of which turned down an opportunity to sign the Spoonful. Later in June, the band signed with Koppelman-Rubin, an entertainment company, who signed them to Kama Sutra Records. The label saw no need to re-record "Do You Believe in Magic", and they pressed copies of the June recording to be the band's debut single. It was issued in the U.S. on July 20, 1965, backed with "On the Road Again", and it remained on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for thirteen weeks, peaking in October at number nine.
      The release of "Do You Believe in Magic" propelled the Spoonful to nationwide fame in the U.S. within weeks. Amid a busy touring schedule, the band were forced to work to a tight deadline to ensure the album was completed as quickly as possible. To ensure expediency, they opted to record several well-rehearsed covers from their typical live set list. The band recorded ten tracks in July and August, mostly at Bell Sound in New York. One additional session took place in August at RCA Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, where the band were playing at clubs on the Sunset Strip. Sessions for the album concluded with "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?", recorded in September.


      = Techniques

      =
      Do You Believe in Magic was recorded on two-track recording equipment, which Jacobsen mixed down to mono.
      The Spoonful were among the first rock bands to use the autoharp, a stringed instrument mostly associated with folk music which would feature prominently in the band's sound. The instrument includes buttons which, when depressed, produce preset combinations of chords. The instrument's limitations meant it was typically used as a rhythm instrument, but Sebastian retuned his so he could play the minor seventh chords in the intro of "Do You Believe in Magic". In the rehearsal room before the band's first session, Sebastian also developed a new technique of amplifying the instrument, which involved affixing a ukulele contact microphone onto its back, when he then plugged into an amplifier. To generate more bottom end, the band overdubbed piano underneath, which Sebastian later said "create[d] the effect of a huge autoharp".
      On "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?", Sebastian and Yanovsky simultaneously finger-picked on their guitars to evoke the sound of a piano.


      Songs


      The Spoonful often sought to avoid being typecast by their sound, and Sebastian suggested at the time of its release that the album showcased how "we make a lot of different sounds, so that no one specific sound could really be characterized as what we 'sound like.'" The various artists covered on the album are the Jim Kweskin Jug Band ("My Gal" and "Wild About My Lovin'"), the folk musician Fred Neil ("The Other Side of This Life"), the folk group the Holy Modal Rounders ("Blues in the Bottle"), the blues musician Henry Thomas ("Fishin' Blues") and the girl group the Ronettes ("You Baby"). Sebastian later said that the Kweskin Jug Band was particularly influential on the Spoonful, and that they "redid several of their tunes with only a minimal electric difference".
      Sebastian wrote all five of the album's original compositions. Some of his songs were heavily indebted to the jug band style, such as "On the Road" again, which derived from a song by the Memphis Jug Band, and "Younger Girl", which reworked the melody of the 1930 song "Prison Wall Blues" by Gus Cannon's Jug Stompers. "Do You Believe in Magic" blended influences from jug band and folk music with popular music, like the British Invasion and Motown.
      Pointing to the success of the Beatles and the Byrds, the Spoonful's label encouraged the band to trade lead vocal responsibilities; Sebastian sang lead on most songs, but the drummer Joe Butler also sang twice ("You Baby" and "The Other Side of This Life") as did Yanovsky ("Blues in the Bottle", "On the Road Again" and an unreleased track, "Alley Oop"). The album closed on an instrumental number, "Night Owl Blues", the title of which referenced a club in Greenwich Village, New York City, where the Spoonful developed their sound in early 1965.


      Release and reception



      Do You Believe in Magic first went on sale on October 23, 1965, when the Spoonful held an autograph session in Pleasant Hill, California. Kama Sutra Records issued the album across the United States in November. In conjunction with the release of the album, the label issued the non-album single "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice". The album entered Billboard's Top LPs chart on December 4, 1965, and it initially ran on the chart for 19 weeks, peaking in February 1966 at number 71. Pye International Records issued the album in the United Kingdom in March 1966, but it did not chart.
      In April 1966, after the album fell off the U.S. charts, Kama Sutra issued another single from it, "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" The single peaked in June at number two on Billboard's chart, and Do You Believe in Magic re-entered the Top LPs chart that month. The album spent 16 more weeks on the chart, reaching a new peak in August at number 32.
      In a review for The Village Voice, the critic J. R. Goddard wrote that though the Lovin' Spoonful was made up of talented musicians, the album was "so dull and poorly engineered". Writing in retrospect for AllMusic, the critic William Ruhlmann wrote, "The album elaborated upon Sebastian's gentle, winning songwriting style... The album also revealed the group's jug band roots in its arrangements of traditional songs... The Spoonful would be remembered as a vehicle for Sebastian's songwriting, but Do You Believe in Magic was a well-rounded collection that demonstrated their effectiveness as a group."


      Track listing


      All tracks are written and sung by John Sebastian, except where noted.

      Note

      Track lengths are per the original LP liner notes. Lead vocal and songwriting credits are from the 2002 CD remaster.


      Charts




      Notes




      References




      = Sources

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