The Lovin' Spoonful Greatest Hits
Compilation album by
ReleasedFebruary 22, 2000
Recorded1965–1968
GenreFolk rock
Length67:28
LabelBuddha
Producer
The Lovin' Spoonful chronology
Live at the Hotel Seville
(1999)
The Lovin' Spoonful Greatest Hits
(2000)

The Lovin' Spoonful Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the folk rock group the Lovin' Spoonful. Released in 2000 on Buddha Records, the compilation marked the first digital remaster of the band's material taken from the original multi-track master tapes, which had been rediscovered after having been lost for decades. The album contains every Top 40 hit single enjoyed by the band in the United States including its only chart-topper, "Summer in the City." The original recordings were produced by Erik Jacobsen, and originally released on Kama Sutra Records.

Release and reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
MSN Music (Consumer Guide)A−[2]

After the Lovin' Spoonful's dissolution in 1968,[3] many of the band's original multi-track master tapes were lost.[4][5] The band's earliest CD reissues were instead made from the best available stereo masters,[5] leaving the material sounding substandard when compared to reissues of other 1960s music.[6] After rediscovering the first-generation master-tapes, Buddha Records issued Greatest Hits as the first digital remaster of the band's material.[1][7]

Greatest Hits was released on February 22, 2000.[8] The compilation features 26 tracks,[1] including the Lovin' Spoonful's first seven singles, all of which reached the U.S. Top Ten upon initial release.[2] In his review of the album for AllMusic, Hal Horowitz described its sound as possessing "a crispness and definition previously unheard", and he counted it as the band's most essential one-disc compilation.[1] The critic Robert Christgau described it as a slight improvement on the band's 1990 compilation Anthology, and he added that there are only a few weak tracks in the selection which "slow down its historical mission of evoking the balmy upsurge to the Summer of Love like no other body of music".[2]

Track listing

All tracks are written by John Sebastian and produced by Erik Jacobsen, except as noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Do You Believe in Magic" (Kama Sutra 201 Billboard No. 9)  2:07
2."You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" (Kama Sutra 205 Billboard No. 10)J. Sebastian, Steve Boone 2:29
3."Daydream" (Kama Sutra 208 Billboard No. 2)  2:21
4."You Baby"Barry Mann, Phil Spector, Cynthia Weil 2:56
5."Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" (Kama Sutra 209 Billboard No. 2)  1:59
6."Wild About My Lovin'"traditional 2:36
7."Younger Girl"  2:20
8."On the Road Again" (Kama Sutra 201b)  1:51
9."Didn't Want to Have to Do It" (Kama Sutra 209b)  2:36
10."Jug Band Music" (Kama Sutra 301x RPM No. 2)  2:53
11."Summer in the City" (Kama Sutra 211 Billboard No. 1)J. Sebastian, Mark Sebastian, Steve Boone 2:45
12."Rain on the Roof" (Kama Sutra 216 Billboard No. 10)  2:13
13."Pow! (Theme from What's Up, Tiger Lily?)" (Kama Sutra 216b)J. Sebastian, Skip Boone, Steve Boone, Joe Butler, Zal YanovskyJack Lewis2:26
14."Nashville Cats" (Kama Sutra 219 Billboard No. 8)  2:35
15."Lovin' You"  2:29
16."Darlin' Companion" (Kama Sutra 220b)  2:22
17."Coconut Grove"J. Sebastian, Yanovsky 2:43
18."Full Measure" (Kama Sutra 219b Billboard No. 87)J. Sebastian, Steve Boone 2:42
19."Darling Be Home Soon" (Kama Sutra 220 Billboard No. 15)  3:34
20."Lonely (Amy's Theme)" (Kama Sutra 231b withdrawn)  3:20
21."You're a Big Boy Now" (Kama Sutra 231 withdrawn)  2:32
22."Six O'Clock" (Kama Sutra 225 Billboard No. 18) The Lovin' Spoonful and Joe Wissert2:43
23."She Is Still a Mystery" (Kama Sutra 239 Billboard No. 27) The Lovin' Spoonful and Wissert3:01
24."Money" (Kama Sutra 241 Billboard No. 48) The Lovin' Spoonful and Wissert1:55
25."Younger Generation" The Lovin' Spoonful and Wissert2:42
26."Never Going Back" (Kama Sutra 250 Billboard No. 73)John StewartChip Douglas2:48
Total length:67:28

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Horowitz, Hal. "Greatest Hits [Buddha]". AllMusic. Archived from the original on May 14, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Christgau, Robert (March 29, 2013). "The Lovin' Spoonful". MSN Music. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
  3. Miles 2009, p. 232.
  4. Rucker 1996, p. 423: "Many of the masters for Spoonful recordings have long been destroyed, which makes more reissues unlikely."
  5. 1 2 Anon. (1995). Do You Believe in Magic / Hums (Liner notes). The Lovin' Spoonful. Kama Sutra, Replay. 75517 49500 2. Digitally remastered from the best available stereo master tapes. Unfortunately, all efforts to locate the multitrack session tapes over the years have been unsuccessful.
  6. Ruhlmann, William. " Do You Believe in Magic/Hums". AllMusic. Archived from the original on February 27, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  7. Anon. (2000). Greatest Hits (Liner notes). The Lovin' Spoonful. Buddha. 74465 99716 2. ... digitally remastered for the first time from the long lost first generation master tapes.
  8. Marine, Craig (February 21, 2000). "Playlist". San Francisco Examiner. pp. B-2, B-9 via Newspapers.com. The record, due out on Feb. 22 ...

Sources

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