Singer/guitarist John Sebastian had a big hit in the '70s with his theme to the "Welcome Back, Kotter" TV show, but he made a lasting contribution to pop-rock by writing and singing hits for the Lovin' Spoonful in the '60s.
Sebastian was born
March 17, 1944, in New York. He dropped out of college to play guitar and sing on the Greenwich Village folk scene with such musicians as Fred Neil and Tom Rush. He also recorded with the Even Dozen Jug Band.
In 1964, Sebastian met singer/guitarist Zal Yanovsky at the house of future Mamas and the Papas singer Cass Elliot. Yanovsky played in the electric folk group the Mugwumps with Elliot and Denny Doherty (also later with the Mamas and the Papas). Sebastian joined the Mugwumps briefly before their dissolution.
Sebastian and Yanovsky then formed the Lovin' Spoonful, named after a line in Mississippi John Hurt's "Coffee Blues." They added Steve Boone on bass and Joe Butler on drums. The band's sound was a mix of pop, folk, psychedelic rock and electric jug music.
The band's first single, the Sebastian-penned "Do You Believe in Magic?" (RealAudio excerpt), went top 10 in 1965. "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice" followed suit the next year. The Spoonful hit #2 with "Daydream" and "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?"
Their only #1 hit was their most hard-rocking, "Summer in the City," one of the most popular seasonal songs in music history. Roots rocker John Mellencamp, when inducting the Spoonful into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month, said: "The summer of '66, [I was] in eighth grade discovering my freedom. The song on the radio was 'Summer in the City.' They played that song all summer long ... [It was] the footnote to my brain, my heart, my soul."
The bubble burst on the Spoonful's success after Boone and Yanovksy reportedly set up an acquaintance in a drug bust. After being arrested in Berkeley, Calif., on charges of marijuana possession, the two Spoonful members apparently gave up the name of a friend in exchange for not being prosecuted. The news created a stir, and many in the pro-drug culture of the time began to boycott the band's records. Yanovsky quit the Spoonful in 1967 and was replaced by Jerry Yester. But after the 1968 LP Everything Playing, Sebastian ended the band to go solo.
He appeared at Woodstock before issuing his debut solo LP, John B. Sebastian (1970), featuring "I Had a Dream." The effort proved to be his best-selling solo album. The Tarzana Kid (1974) featured Little Feat's Lowell George.
In 1976, Sebastian topped the Billboard Hot 100 with "Welcome Back," the theme from the John Travolta sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter." It was the second-biggest-selling single of the year. After that hit, Sebastian didn't record until Tar Beach (1993). He spent the years in between touring, writing music for the "Care Bears" children's TV show and penning a children's book, "J.B.'s Harmonica." In 1994, he formed a jug band called the J-Band, who issued I Want My Roots (1996) and Chasing Gus' Ghost (1999).
Boone, Butler and Yester still play together as the Lovin' Spoonful.
Other birthdays on Friday: David Grisman, 55; Harold Brown (War), 54; Scott Gorham (Thin Lizzy), 49; Wally Stocker (Babys), 46; Mike Lindup (Level 42), 41; Van Conner (Screaming Trees), 33; Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), 33; Melissa Auf Der Maur (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins), 28; and Nat "King" Cole, 1919–1965.
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