The The Lovin' Spoonful

The Lovin’ Spoonful were a wonderfully American response to the British Invasion bands of the mid-'60s, mixing folk, blues, and jug band looseness and attitude with a warm and sunny pop sense to produce several radio staples like “Do You Believe in Magic,” “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?,” “Younger Girl,” “Daydream,” “Didn’t Want to Have to Do It,” and “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” all of which are contained in this two-disc set, which combines the Spoonful’s 1965 album Do You Believe in Magic with 1966’s Daydream and adds several bonus tracks of alternative takes, demos, and instrumental backing tracks. The end result is a great way to meet this fun, warm, and delightful American band.

The band's second LP was very strong; this time, most of the tunes are originals, with the exception of a cover of "Bald Headed Lena." Joe Butler and Yanovsky are featured on some lead vocals, and the album includes two more hits, "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" and "Didn't Want to Have to Do It."

The band is billed here as "the Lovin' Spoonful Featuring Joe Butler." Just when everybody had written them off after Sebastian's departure, this flawed gem came out of left field. Butler's smooth voice had graced a few tracks on all of the past LPs, in addition to having a few of his own tunes included. He comes into his own here, but unfortunately, his three originals are the weakest songs on the LP, especially the ultra-hip sound collage "War Games." However, the great pop team of Bonner and Gordon came up with three strong tunes, including the hit "Me About You" (previously done by The Turtles) and the fine "(Till I) Run with You" (the title of the LP as written on the label), with John Stewart supplying the best track, the gorgeous "Never Going Back."

With a fun, bright, and wonderful run of hits like "Do You Believe in Magic," "Daydream," and "Summer in the City" behind them, the Lovin' Spoonful began running out of gas by the spring of 1967, and the two albums paired here, You're a Big Boy Now and Everything Playing, both released later that year, show a band that was creatively exhausted. You're a Big Boy Now, the soundtrack to a film written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, did generate a couple of good songs, the title tune and the lovely "Darling Be Home Soon," while Everything Playing yielded the joyous "She Is Still a Mystery" and "Six O'Clock," but these were really the last great gasp of a truly great American band. Serious fans of the group will want to have these for the sake of completion, and this two-fer is a good way to get both of them at once, but taken together, it's a swan song.

The Youngbloods could not be considered a major '60s band, but they were capable of offering some mighty pleasurable folk-rock in the late '60s, and produced a few great tunes along the way. One of the better groups to emerge from the East Coast in the mid-'60s, they would temper their blues and jug band influences with gentle California psychedelia, particularly after they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area…

Time Life presents 'Flower Power: Music Of The Love Generation.' Our 10-CD, 175-track set is full
of the artists and songs who defined the Baby Boomer generation - it's a box full of memories that will bring listeners back in time to an unforgettable era.This late 60s and early-'70s pop culture phenomena had many facets, from free love and psychedelia to anti-war and hippies. This vivid youth movement was reflected in the music the world listened and has never been the same again.

Time Life presents 'Flower Power: Music Of The Love Generation.' Our 10-CD, 175-track set is full of the artists and songs who defined the Baby Boomer generation - it's a box full of memories that will bring listeners back in time to an unforgettable era.This late–60s and early-'70s pop culture phenomena had many facets, from free love and psychedelia to
anti-war and hippies. This vivid youth movement was reflected in the music… the world listened and has never been the same again.

This collection of 8 discs may be the most comprehensive collection of its type. There are a total of 120 songs from almost as many artists. There are a few artists represented more than once, with The Kingston Trio represented by 9 songs, every one memorable. The era represented by these songs spans about ten years. The earliest songs in this collection date back to the late 1950's. The latest songs date to about 1968.

2016 3-CD set. The 60s Summer Album features 60 summertime sounds of the sixties in a sleek and summery digipak design. Featuring Fleetwood Mac, Nina Simone, Jefferson Airplane, The Byrds, Santana, The Lovin' Spoonful, Andy Williams, Neil Sedaka, The Fifth Dimension, Sly & The Family Stone, Harry Nilsson, The Box Tops, Johnny Nash and many others.