I am so torn about The Lovin' Spoonful. They've made my picks before with their lamenting song Summer in the City, and again I have fallen in love with one of their hits, Darling Be Home Soon which was on the soundtrack to a very unheralded Francis Ford Coppola movie called “You're a Big Boy Now” which featured …. Rip Torn and Karen Black! (sweet!)
Still, I have yet to be able to recommend a full album as some of their songs (Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind? and Do You Believe in Magic specifically) drive me crazy, and crazy in a bad way. But even as their positively glowing and shrieking innocence can become syrupy and irritating, it can also be downright adorable.
Noddy Holder, lead singer of Slade who totally rocks up the song in this video calls it “gentle and sexy”, while the perpetually cranky writers at allmusic call it “turgid”. What a bunch of jerks. No one that has missed someone they loved so much it hurts could not be swayed by this song. And even people like me, who cringe and go into tick like discomfort with the sounds of some of their more popular hits will find themselves totally taken with these happy people and their gentle, sexy music.
Spazz Joe Cocker, who I might add used to be surprisingly handsome (kind of a mix between David Gilmour and Jaws from the Bond movies) also covered the song. It is very Joe Cockery, and kind of gives the ballad more balls.
But what do you think?