The Lovin' Spoonful

Taking their band name from a Mississippi John Hurt blues verse, John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky had been early-'60s New York folkies before founding the Spoonful and heading toward radio triumph with effervescent pop. Notorious merrymakers onstage, the band settled down in the studio to combine folk and jug-band elements with accessible melodies and pop hooks. "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind" and "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" were sweet love songs; "Do You Believe in Magic?" remains one of the sunniest and best rock & roll anthems. A very casual, somewhat flat-voiced crooner, Sebastian sang with an aw-shucks sincerity. Finger-picking his guitar, Yanovsky kept the tunes airy and stirring. The fine "Summer in the City," with its effective drill-hammer and car-honk sound effects, is as heavy as the band ever got, its key signature remaining a sense of wonder and deliberate naivete. The Buddha Greatest Hits is the perfect intro; with John Sebastian MIA, Live at the Hotel Seville doesn't really work. (PAUL EVANS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide