Very few songs capture real magic.
In 1965 John Sebastian asked, “Do You Believe in Magic?” and the world responded. The first single released by The Lovin’ Spoonful was an infectious two-minute pop anthem that soared up to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and put the new electric group on the map.
At just 21 years old, frontman Sebastian was already deeply entrenched in the thriving Greenwich Village folk scene. Born and raised in New York City by a noted classical harmonica player and a writer of radio programs, his young life was surrounded by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Burl Ives, whose purely expressed and masterfully-crafted songs instilled in Sebastian an appreciation for the art.
Sebastian departed NYU early to pursue his music career, armed with the confidence reserved for the truly gifted. And the proof was in the pudding.
The ambitious and driven singer and songwriter Sebastian played with the Even Dozen Jug Band and The Mugwumps before joining forces with guitarist Zal Yanovsky, bassist Steve Boone and drummer Joe Butler to form The Lovin’ Spoonful. Quickly, the four musicians found their sound in a mixture of folk, jug band, and rock. They were ready to take on the world. Unfortunately, record companies disagreed.
Led by The Beatles, the British Invasion was in full throttle and record execs of the day couldn’t imagine that the Spoonful’s folk-influenced sound would attract a significant fan base.
“We were turned down by every record company in New York City,” said Sebastian in a 2008 Mix Online interview. “But we’d play each night.” The Spoonful had not yet found their audience.
Then one night, from the stage at the Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village, Sebastian and Yanovsky noticed a teenage girl enthusiastically dancing among the club’s typically older folk crowd. Something had changed.
“We looked at each other, and without saying a word shared a common thought: Our moment had arrived!” Sebastian said. “Sure enough, the following week the audience had changed. Those 50-year-old beatniks had drifted off, replaced by a horde of 16-year-old girls.”
Inspired, Sebastian went home and began writing “Do You Believe in Magic.”
The song that emerged was an undeniably catchy testament to the transformative and magical power of music. In essence, “Do You Believe in Magic” was a celebration of rock n’ roll itself.
Recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York, the song became something no one expected, least of all the record execs who had rejected it in the first place. “Do You Believe in Magic” was released in the summer of 1965 on Kama Sutra Records and climbed to No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 that fall. And the hits kept coming.
The song was just the first in an extraordinary streak of seven consecutive Top 10 singles for the Spoonful. Songs including “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” “Daydream,” “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?” and the eventual No. 1 smash “Summer in the City” turned the Lovin’ Spoonful into one of the era’s defining American groups.
And the magic persisted way beyond the 60s.
The Lovin’ Spoonful was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Shaun Cassidy recorded a hit cover of “Do You Believe in Magic” in 1977, while Aly & AJ later recorded their own version.
A full sixty years later, “Do You Believe in Magic” still sounds like exactly what Sebastian intended: the pure, irresistible feeling of discovering just how powerful a great song can be.
Related: 1965 Folk Rock Song, Written by Pete Seeger, Became a Career-Defining No. 1 Hit
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