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The Essential Donovan
''The Essential Donovan'' is a greatest hits album by the Scottish musician Donovan. Originally released in 2004, it was re-released to higher acclaim as a part of Sony Legacy's Essential series in 2012. Release The album was released to coincide with Donovan's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Critical reception In a review for the original 2004 issue, AllMusic's John Bush states that it "merely reissues ''Donovan's Greatest Hits''"; he notes that "the music is obviously excellent, beginning with Donovan's wistful debut 'Catch the Wind' and progressing through his psychedelic pop hits of the late '60s, but ''Donovan's Greatest Hits'' presents the same material with perspective and a flair that this series compilation lacks." Reviewing the 2012 reissue, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that the album is "perhaps better compared to the 1992 box '' Troubadour: The Definitive Collection'', another two-CD set that delved deeply into Donovan's career", goi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donovan
Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965 and subsequently scored multiple international hit singles and albums during the late 1960s. Donovan discography, His work became emblematic of the flower power era with its blend of Folk music, folk, Pop music, pop, Psychedelic music, psychedelica and jazz stylings. Donovan first achieved recognition with live performances on the pop TV series ''Ready Steady Go!'' in 1965. Having signed with Pye Records that year, he recorded singles and two albums in the folk vein for Hickory Records, scoring three UK hit Single (music), singles: "Catch the Wind", "Colours (Donovan song), Colours" and "Universal Soldier (song), Universal Soldier", the last written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. He then signed to Epic Records, CBS/Epic in the US and became more successful internationally, beginning a long collaboration w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunshine Superman (song)
"Sunshine Superman" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released as a single in the United States through Epic Records (Epic 5–10045) in July 1966, but due to a contractual dispute the United Kingdom release was delayed until December 1966, where it appeared on Donovan's previous label, Pye Records (Pye 7N 17241). The single was backed with "The Trip" on both the US and UK releases. It has been described as " ne of theclassics of the era", and as "the quintessential bright summer sing along". "Sunshine Superman" reached the top of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States (Donovan's only single to do so) and subsequently became the title track of his third album. When finally released in the UK, it reached No. 2. A different mix of "The Trip" (without harmonica) is also included in the album. The single version of "Sunshine Superman" was edited down from its original four-and-a-half minutes to just over three, and this version ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barabajagal (song)
"Barabajagal" is a song by British singer/songwriter Donovan, released by him in 1969. It was later used as title track to the album '' Barabajagal''. The instrumental backing is provided by the Jeff Beck Group, with backing vocals by Lesley Duncan, Suzi Quatro and Madeline Bell. Background The song was recorded in May 1969 at the Olympic Studios in London. Other songs were recorded with the Jeff Beck Group but were not released until the reissue of the ''Barabajagal'' album in 2005. The first UK pressings of the single use the full title "Goo Goo Barabajagal (Love Is Hot)" and give the B-side the title "Bed With Me". Subsequent pressings (most UK copies) shorten the title to "Barabajagal" and rename the B-side "Trudi". The title is a made-up name for a seductive lover mentioned in the song. Donovan later clarified that the name was inspired by the phrase "goo goo ga joob" which appears in The Beatles' song "I Am the Walrus". The single is credited to Donovan with Jeff Beck G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantis (Donovan Song)
"Atlantis" is a song written and performed by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. Produced by Mickie Most for Donovan's seventh studio album '' Barabajagal'' (1969), the song tells of a mythological antediluvian civilization based on the fictional island mentioned in an allegory on the hubris of nations in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'', with much of the verses spoken as a quiet monologue. The song was first released by Pye Records as a single in 1968 and became a worldwide success. It reached number one in the Netherlands and in Switzerland in 1969, while also reaching the top five in the Austria, New Zealand, and West Germany. In the United States, it was initially released as the to "To Susan on the West Coast, Waiting", but was promoted to the A-side after receiving significant airplay, eventually reaching number seven on the US ''Billboard'' . In the singer's native country, the single managed only a modest number 23 on the UK Singles Chart. "Atlantis" has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laléna
"Laléna" (also spelled "Lalena") is the title of a composition by Donovan. ''Billboard'' described the single as a "beautiful and intriguing original ballad." ''Cash Box'' said that "sweet strings accent a hauntingly beautiful folk-flavored ballad which gets stronger with each listen." ''Record World'' said that Donovan "uses his reedy voice exquisitely." History In 2004, Donovan revealed that the song was inspired by the actress Lotte Lenya and that the song's lyrics, addressed to a societally marginalized woman, were Donovan's reaction to Lenya's character in the film version of ''The Threepenny Opera'': "Laléna" was first premiered during a February 17, 1968 appearance on ''Once More With Felix'' in an arrangement not dissimilar to the eventual single version, although it also featured a harpsichord as well as a different line of lyric which went "with your days of misery and your nights of revelry". The song was then performed sporadically throughout the year in a jazzi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurdy Gurdy Man
"Hurdy Gurdy Man" is a song by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was recorded in April 1968 and released the following month as a single. The song gave its name to the album '' The Hurdy Gurdy Man'', which was released in October of that year in the United States. The single reached number 5 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the U.S. and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart. Donovan wrote " Hurdy Gurdy Man" while in Rishikesh in India, where he was studying Transcendental Meditation with the Beatles. The recording features a harder rock sound than Donovan's usual material, supplying a range of distorted guitars and aggressive drums. It also features an Indian influence with the use of a tambura, a gift to Donovan from George Harrison, who also helped write the lyrics. The song may have been influenced by " Green Circles", a psychedelic 1967 song by Small Faces. The similarity is in the melody of the descending verse, the strange vocal delivery, and the topic of being visited by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jennifer Juniper
"Jennifer Juniper" is a song and single by the Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan, released in 1968. It peaked at number 5 in the UK Singles Chart, and at number 26 in the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. AllMusic journalist Matthew Greenwald noted that "capturing all of the innocence of the era perfectly, it's one of his finest singles". Song The track was written about Jenny Boyd, sister of Pattie Boyd, shortly before she went with The Beatles and Donovan to Rishikesh. She married Mick Fleetwood and was, at one time, the sister-in-law of George Harrison and, later, Eric Clapton. The song was arranged by John Cameron and features a wind section with Cor anglais, flute, French horn and bassoon, plus shaker and harp. The last stanza of the song is sung in French. ''Cash Box'' called it a "gentle voiced ballad" with "glittering arrangement with hushed drumming, soft flute trills and a delightful small combo orchestration" and "pretty lyrics of innocence and naturalist imagery," and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wear Your Love Like Heaven
"Wear Your Love Like Heaven" is a song and US single by British singer-songwriter Donovan, released in 1967. It became the opening track of his 1967 double-disc album ''A Gift from a Flower to a Garden''. It peaked at No. 23 in the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The song was originally written toward the end of the sessions for ''A Gift from a Flower to a Garden'', after Epic Records head Clive Davis mentioned the lack of a hit single among the songs recorded to date. It was one of just two tracks on the album produced by Mickie Most, the other being the single's B-side "Oh Gosh". The song mentions seven dye and pigment colours, which stemmed from Donovan's love of painting: Prussian blue, scarlet, crimson, Havana lake, rose carmethene, alizarin crimson and carmine. According to ''Billboard'', the single has a "vital lyric message backed by a solid dance beat". ''Cash Box'' said that it has "a message of love that should prove itself one of the chanter’s brightest sellers" an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
There Is A Mountain
"There Is a Mountain" is a song written and performed by British singer-songwriter Donovan in 1967. Background The lyrics refer to a Buddhist saying originally formulated by Qingyuan Weixin, later translated by D. T. Suzuki in his ''Essays in Zen Buddhism'', one of the first books to popularize Buddhism in Europe and the US: Before a man studies Zen, to him mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after he gets an insight into the truth of Zen through the instruction of a good master, mountains to him are not mountains and waters are not waters; but after this when he really attains to the abode of rest, mountains are once more mountains and waters are waters. Featured musicians are Donovan (vocals and acoustic guitar), Tony Carr on percussion, Harold McNair on flute and arrangement and Danny Thompson on bass. The B-side of the single is "Sand and Foam", an acoustic album cut about a nighttime visit to a Mexican beach Donovan took while on vacation. It was drawn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Epistle To Dippy
Epistle to Dippy is a song and single by Donovan, released in 1967 outside the United Kingdom only. Written in the form of an open letter to an old friend who had been the saxophone player in their school band The Macabres, the song had a strong pacifist message in addition to its florid psychedelic imagery. The real "Dippy" was, at the time, serving in the British Army in Malaysia. When Dippy heard the song he subsequently contacted Donovan, who was able to buy him out of the armed service. Donovan's manager Ashley Kozak prevented the song from UK release, to avoid controversy over drug-taking implications in the lyric in the wake of the singer's arrest for possession of marijuana six months prior. The version of the song released as a single stemmed originally from the sessions for '' Sunshine Superman'' at EMI Studios in January 1966. Musicians featured include Donovan on vocals and acoustic guitar, Jimmy Page on electric guitar, John Cameron on harpsichord and arrangement, D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mellow Yellow
"Mellow Yellow" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. Released in the US in 1966, it reached No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Outside the US, "Mellow Yellow" peaked at No. 8 in the UK in early 1967. Content The song was rumoured to be about smoking dried banana skins, which was believed to be a hallucinogenic drug in the 1960s, though this aspect of bananas has since been debunked. According to Donovan's liner notes for the album '' Donovan's Greatest Hits'', the rumour that one could get high from smoking dried banana skins was started by Country Joe McDonald in 1966, and Donovan heard the rumour three weeks before "Mellow Yellow" was released as a single. According to ''The Rolling Stone Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll'', he admitted later the song made reference to a vibrator; an "electrical banana" as mentioned in the lyrics. Donovan stated, "I was reading a newspaper and on the back there was an ad for a yellow dildo called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Season Of The Witch (song)
"Season of the Witch" is a song by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan released in August 1966 on his third studio album, '' Sunshine Superman''. The song is credited to Donovan, although sometime collaborator Shawn Phillips has also claimed authorship. Because of a dispute with Donovan's record company, a UK edition with the song was not released until June 1967. In 1967, Brian Auger and the Trinity included a version with Julie Driscoll on vocals on their album 'Open'. In 2019, Lana Del Rey covered the song for the soundtrack of the film ''Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark''. Composition and recording "Season of the Witch" was recorded at the CBS studios in Hollywood, California, where most of ''Sunshine Superman'' was recorded. According to Donovan, he and Phillips wanted a "rock-combo sound" for the song and chose some local musicians from the local clubs. They included Lenny Matlin on keyboards, Don Brown on lead electric guitar, Bobby Ray on bass and "Fast" Eddie Hoh on dru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
