U.K. label Edsel is prepping a series of expanded two-fer reissues of most of The Lovin' Spoonful's catalogue.
The original group - singer/songwriter John Sebastian, guitarist Zal Yanovsky, bassist Steve Boone and drummer Joe Butler - emerged from New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood in the 1960s. In the middle of the decade, they rode a wave of success thanks to folk-pop tunes like "Do You Believe in Magic," "Daydream," "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" and the No. 1 hit "Summer in the City." Their first seven singles were Top 10 hits, and they enjoyed a stint as one of the more notable, popular faces of the American folk scene. But by 1969, with both Sebastian and Yanovsky having left the group (the latter opened up a successful restaurant in Canada, the former eked out a moderately successful solo career that included the catchy theme song to the TV show Welcome Back, Kotter), The Spoonful broke up after one final album (which is not included in this batch of reissues).
Edsel's campaign collects six of the band's LPs - Do You Believe in Magic (1965), Daydream (1966), the soundtrack to the Woody Allen film What's Up Tiger Lily? (1966), Hums of The Lovin' Spoonful (1966), the soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola's You're a Big Boy Now (1967) and Everything Playing (1967) - on four discs (the first two-fer is spread across two discs). All are expanded with bonus tracks, which have been previously released on standalone reissues. All of these titles will be released on February 7.
Hit the jump for track lists.
The Lovin' Spoonful, Do You Believe in Magic / Daydream (Demon Edsel (U.K.) EDSD-2096, 2011)
Disc 1: Do You Believe in Magic
- Do You Believe in Magic
- Blues in the Bottle
- Sportin' Life
- My Gal
- You Baby
- Fishin' Blues
- Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?
- Wild About My Lovin'
- Other Side of This Life
- Younger Girl
- On the Road Again
- Night Owl Blues
- Alley Oop
- Younger Girl (Demo)
- Blues in the Bottle (Alternate Vocal)
- Wild About My Lovin' (Alternate Vocal)
- Other Side of This Life (Alternate Instrumental)
Disc 1, Tracks 1-12 released as Kama Sutra LP KLPS-8050, 1965
Disc 1, Tracks 13-17 were bonus tracks on Buddha reissue - 74465 99730-2, 2002
Disc 2: Daydream
- Daydream
- There She Is
- It's Not Time Now
- Warm Baby
- Day Blues
- Let the Boy Rock and Roll
- Jug Band Music
- Didn't Want to Have to Do It
- You Didn't Have to Be So Nice
- Bald Headed Lena
- Butchie's Tune
- Big Noise from Speonk
- Fishin' Blues (Alternate Instrumental)
- Didn't Want to Have to Do It (Demo)
- Jug Band Music (Alternate Instrumental)
- Daydream (Demo)
- Night Owl Blues (Alternate Extended Take)
Disc 2, Tracks 1-12 released as Kama Sutra LP KLPS-8051, 1966
Disc 2, Tracks 13-17 were bonus tracks on Buddha reissue - 74465 99731-2, 2002
The Lovin' Spoonful, What's Up Tiger Lily? / Hums of The Lovin' Spoonful (Demon Edsel (U.K.) EDSS-1048, 2011)
- Introduction to Flick
- Pow (Theme From "What's Up Tiger Lily?")
- Gray Prison Blues
- Pow Revisited
- Unconscious Minuet
- Fishin' Blues
- Respoken
- A Cool Million
- Speakin' of Spoken
- Lookin' to Spy
- Phil's Love Theme
- End Title
- Lovin' You
- Bes' Friends
- Voodoo in My Basement
- Darlin' Companion
- Henry Thomas
- Full Measure
- Rain on the Roof
- Coconut Grove
- Nashville Cats
- 4 Eyes
- Summer in the City
- Darlin' Companion (John Sebastian Solo Demo)
- Rain on the Roof (Instrumental)
- 4 Eyes (Alternate Vocal/Extended Version)
- Full Measure (Instrumental)
- Voodoo in My Basement (Instrumental)
- Darlin' Companion (Alternate Vocal/Alternate Mix)
Tracks 1-12 released as Kama Sutra LP KLPS-8053, 1966
Tracks 13-23 released as Kama Sutra LP KLPS-8054, 1966
Tracks 24-29 were bonus tracks on Buddha reissue of Hums of The Lovin' Spoonful - Buddha 74465 99732-2, 2003
The Lovin' Spoonful, You're a Big Boy Now / Everything Playing (Demon Edsel (U.K.) EDSS-1049, 2011)
- You're a Big Boy Now
- Lonely (Amy's Theme)
- Wash Her Away (from the Discotheque)
- Kite Chase
- Try and Be Happy
- Peep Show Percussion
- Girl, Beautiful Girl (Barbara's Theme)
- Darling Be Home Soon
- Dixieland Big Boy
- Letter to Barbara
- Barbara's Theme (from the Discotheque)
- Miss Thing's Thang
- March
- The Finale
- She is Still a Mystery
- Priscilla Millionaira
- Boredom
- Six O'Clock
- Forever
- Younger Generation
- Money
- Old Folks
- Only Pretty, What a Pity
- Try a Little Bit
- Close Your Eyes
- She is Still a Mystery (Alternate)
- Only Pretty, What a Pity (Alternate)
- Try a Little Bit (Alternate)
Tracks 1-14 released as Kama Sutra LP KLPS-8058, 1967
Tracks 15-25 released as Kama Sutra LP KLPS-8061, 1967
Tracks 26-28 were bonus tracks on Buddha reissue of Everything Playing - Buddha 74465 99733-2, 2003
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I *think* all of these bonus tracks are the same as the 2003 reissues. It's too bad they didn't double up on the soundtracks because those are the only two I'm missing.
The soundtracks have popped up on various labels over the years, but were not part of the 2003 BMG/Heritage reissues for some reason. I think this marks the one trillionth label that has reissued the Spoonful at some point in the past forty years.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Spoonful, and would gladly repurchase their catalog from a label that showed their music the love it deserves, but this ain't it.
Another Spoonful-related question I've posed multiple times over the years and have never gotten answered: Why are there apparently no surviving recordings of vintage Spoonful concerts--not even on bootleg? Concert posters for the Spoonful fetch hundreds of dollars at Wolfgang's vault, but the concerts themselves would appear to have been lost to posterity. Why?
I agree re:live spoonful, we were teased about 10 years ago of a Night Owl set. My understanding is Sebastian nixed it for quality issues (throw me a bone at least!), go to the Spoonful website & you can link to a Japanese release info. I also heard that Yester has a quality tape of a '68 era show. I have a friend who does a ton of downloads of Beatles, etc & he can find nothing for me.
I was also hoping for mono releases, but will be left with needle drops, I'm afraid...& hope for The Big TNT Show.
Oh, and Razor and Tie/BMG Special Products did release a "Tiger Lily"/"Big Boy" 2-fer back in 1998.
Waste of time. What they should have done is released mono/stereo two-fers of these albums.
Varese Sarabande was suppose to release an early live show at the Night Owl, but some of the Spoons voted it down because of the quality and performance. I think this is the same tape Yester owns, but it is not 1968. I remember him telling me he had an "early, lousy" tape of a show when I asked about live stuff. Alley Oop and That's Alright Mama were on it. There use to be a Japanese site that had all the info.