The Very Best Of The Lovin' Spoonful

Some 'Best Of' compilations are meticulously-curated labours of love; others are lazy cash-grabs. This The Very Best Of The Lovin' Spoonful CD released in 1998 is nearer the latter end of that continuum than the former. There are some (uncredited) liner notes, but they're on the perfunctory side; the track-listing and credits contain a few errors; and the handful of photographs are unimpressive. Nevertheless, the music itself (26 tracks of it in all) remains strong enough for it to be worth the while: I must have owned it for at least 15 years and it still gets played every now & then.

I only knew 'Summer in the City' and maybe one or two of their other songs before I bought a similar compilation on cassette in '89 or '90. I was greatly impressed to discover a round dozen or more classic pop-rock numbers therein and very little in the way of filler. Between '65 and '68. John Sebastian turned out one winning melody after another: 'Daydream', 'Do You Believe in Magic', 'She's Still a Mystery', 'Darling Be Home Soon' (probably my very favourite song of his), 'Six O'Clock', '(Sittin' Here) Lovin' You', 'You're a Big Boy Now', etc., etc.

There are some numbers I like less, for example 'Nashville Cats' and 'Jug Band Music'; and a few others whose lyrics haven't aged well, such as those that seem to emphasize the youth of this or that girlfriend, most pointedly in the song 'Younger Girl', where one can't help worrying how much younger exactly.

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