Donovan - Greatest Hits

Like most people, my introduction to Donovan came via his 1966 number one hit Sunshine Superman. I was thirteen years old at the time and heavily into top-forty radio and comic books, especially Superman and the Green Lantern, so Sunshine Superman was a big deal for me.



It wasn't until a few years later that I began to understand the psychedelic aspects of that song.

Sunshine came softly through my a-window today
Could've tripped out easy a-but I've a-changed my ways...

Donovan had a string of top-forty hits during the late sixties, and in 1969, the year I turned sixteen, those hits, along with some of his earlier material, were released on an album called Donovan's Greatest Hits.

My introduction to Donovan's Greatest Hits came in the form of an eight-track tape my buddy Waco carried around in his '64 Chevy Impala. Riding around town listening to Donovan's Greatest Hits is how I became a lifelong Donovan fan.

To this day, whenever I hear Season of the Witch, I flashback to a warm summer night on the parking lot of the local tastee-freeze where a group of cars are parked in a circle, each one with its emergency lights or turn signals flashing while Season of the Witch is blaring from the eight-track player in Waco's Chevy.

I'm pretty sure it was the first, and probably the only, freak-out in our little town.

*****

Album: Donovan - Greatest Hits
Original Release: 1969
Label: Epic

Greatest Hits is the first in a long line of Donovan compilation albums and is by far and away his most successful, reaching number 4 on the U. S. charts.

A large part of its success was due to the fact that he was continuing to release top forty radio hits , songs like Atlantis, To Susan on the West Coast Waiting, Barabajagal and Riki Tiki Tavi.

People would hear these songs on the radio and then pick up Greatest Hits while they were at the record store. That radio play plus the fact that Donovan's Greatest Hits contained several cuts that were previously unavailable on any U. S. albums made it a must have.

And, for people who didn't discover Donovan until the seventies or later, it is the quintessential Donovan album.

Donovan is an interesting, but elusive artist - part pop star, part guru, part folk singer -his songs are an incredible blend of pop, folk, jazz, blues, pyschedelia...no two songs sound alike, yet they are instantly recognizable as Donovan songs.

From the funky Barabajagal, featuring Jeff Beck, to the poppy Wear Your Love Like Heaven (one of the fist pop songs I remember to be used in an advertising campaign - Heaven Sent or perhaps Heaven Scents perfume or shampoo - those days are a little hazy), to the pure folk ballad, Colours and on to the sublime Mellow Yellow (about an electric dildo, or so the story goes), Donovan is one of the most under-rated rock personalities from the sixties.

For the better part of his early career he was managed and produced by Mickie Most, who also managed or produced Herman's Hermits and The Animals. And went on to form his own record label, RAK with artists like Suzi Quatro, Hot Chocolate, Smokie and Kim Wilde. Most died in 2003.

Here's a little classic Donovan for your viewing and listening pleasure...