Daydream (The Lovin' Spoonful song)

John Sebastian composed "Daydream" in November 1965, during a 19-day tour through the American South.[1] The Lovin' Spoonful served as a support act during the tour for the American girl group the Supremes, and the two groups traveled together on the same bus.[2][3] The Lovin' Spoonful generally enjoyed the experience but found the schedule physically exhausting, and Sebastian additionally missed his girlfriend Loretta "Lorey" Kaye.[4] On a rainy day near the tour's end, Sebastian was feeling particularly depressed and sought to raise his own spirits by writing a song.[4][5] While riding the bus to their November 27 show in Greensboro, North Carolina,[6] he composed "Daydream", finishing the song in around twenty minutes.[4][5]

Sebastian initially hoped to compose a song like the Supremes' 1964 singles "Baby Love" and "Where Did Our Love Go", both of which he thought had a "straight eighth feel".[3] Employing a "trick figure" he had devised months earlier to play Motown songs on guitar,[5] his arrangement of "Baby Love" for a single guitar transformed into "Daydream".[7] The song employs swing, a rhythmic feel commonly heard in both jazz and blues,[8] but Sebastian later clarified that, like both of the Supremes' songs, the shuffle "[is not] all the way expressed".[9]

The verses of "Daydream" use a I–VI^m7–ii–V chord progression and the refrain uses IV–i^°7–I–VI^m7.[10] The musicologist Walter Everett writes that because the song's verses always end with half cadences, it means the song never "[achieves] a full-cadence closure" but instead fades out while still feeling incomplete.[11] The Lovin' Spoonful's guitarist Zal Yanovsky later compared the song's melody to that of "Got a Date With an Angel", a 1934 hit by the American jazz musician Hal Kemp,[3][12] and Paul McCartney of the Beatles described it as a having a "traditional, almost trad-jazz feel".[13]

The author Richie Unterberger connects "Daydream" to the Lovin' Spoonful's jug band roots, writing that its only major difference from 1920s and '30s jug band recordings is its electric arrangement.[14] The journalist Paul Williams similarly writes the song owes much to the jug band tradition,[15][16] adding that the lyrics, which describe a love-fueled bliss boosted by beautiful weather,[7] seem almost ad-libbed by Sebastian.[15][16] Unterberger writes that, when paired with the song's bright melody and lyrics, its arrangement morphs the number into a pop song.[14] The author James E. Perone also characterizes it as pop music,[17] and the critic Paul Nelson considers it, alongside the Lovin' Spoonful's other singles, as being representative of folk rock.[18]

Amid a busy TV and live-date schedule, the Lovin' Spoonful recorded most of their second album Daydream over four days, from December 13 to 16, 1965.[19] "Daydream" was among the songs recorded during the sessions, which took place at Bell Sound Studios in New York City and were produced by the band's regular producer, Erik Jacobsen.[3][19]

The song's backing track consisted of only two guitars: Sebastian played his 1958 Les Paul electric and Yanovsky borrowed Sebastian's Heritage Gibson acoustic. Due to the song's staccato rhythm, the two musicians struggled to keep in sync. They soon abandoned the song to work on other compositions, returning to it when Jacobsen spliced different takes together to establish a complete guitar track.[20] The band next overdubbed several elements: Steve Boone added honky-tonk piano,[12] Joe Butler played spoons and a slapstick[3] and Yanovsky added extra electric guitar parts on his Guild Thunderbird.[12] Sebastian sang vocals, played harmonica and whistled.[12]

The finished recording staggers the entrance of four differently textured guitars, an arrangement which Everett describes as "Beatlesque".[21] The last guitar to enter features a volume-control pedal,[21] a device which had only recently begun to be employed in popular music and would be used on many recordings in 1966.[22] Paired with a guitar, the device hides the initial attack and decay of the instrument's tone while allowing the player to more easily control volume changes than through using the guitar's volume control knob.[22][nb 1]

Kama Sutra Records issued "Daydream" as a single in the United States in February 1966.[23] The following month, it served as both the opening- and title-track of the Lovin' Spoonful's second album.[3]

Kama Sutra Records ad for the "Daydream" single

The release of "Daydream" furthered speculation from the press and public about a link between the Lovin' Spoonful and drug use.[24] Fuelling speculation was the lyrics' use of the term "dream", which by 1966 was sometimes used to connote the experience of taking psychedelic drugs.[25] Accompanying the single's release, a trade ad appearing in Billboard made several drug allusions, drawing the ire of the band, who had regularly sought to distance themselves from drug associations.[24][nb 2]

"Daydream" entered the Billboard Hot 100 on February 26 and remained on the chart for twelve weeks, peaking at number two for two weeks in mid-April. It was the Lovin' Spoonful's third consecutive single to reach the top ten and their highest charting single to date.[28] The single was kept from the top spot on Billboard's chart by the Righteous Brothers' "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration",[29] but it reached number one on Cash Box magazine's chart and also reached the top spot in Canada.[30][31] On Billboard's 1966 Year-End singles chart, "Daydream" ranked number 38, one of three singles by the Lovin' Spoonful to make the chart.[32][nb 3] The song's success expanded the band's popularity such that they were able to headline their concerts rather than perform as a support act.[34][nb 4]

"Daydream" became a major international hit.[37] Before the single's release in early 1966, the Lovin' Spoonful was successful in North America but remained generally unknown in the United Kingdom.[38][39] Neither of their first two singles had charted in the country.[40] To expand the band's popularity to an international audience, their management organized several concert and television appearances in England and Sweden for the end of April 1966.[38] To coincide with the tour, Pye International Records issued "Daydream" as a single in the U.K. on April 1.[41] By mid-May, "Daydream" had reached number two on all of the major British singles charts and number one on Wonderful Radio London's Fab 40 chart.[40][42] It additionally reached number one on the Swedish Kvällstoppen chart.[43]

Paul Williams reviewed "Daydream" in the third issue of his American magazine Crawdaddy!, one of the earliest publications devoted to rock and roll criticism. Williams described the song as "the sort of thing that could get tiring and repetitious, but doesn't".[15][16] He counted the Lovin' Spoonful as one of the few groups with authentic roots in folk music, adding that rather than simply turning jug band songs electric, the band instead worked to incorporate new sounds from rock music into their productions. He concluded that the song was both popular and good, and he expected it to be another top ten hit for the band.[15][16] The review panel for Billboard similarly predicted "Daydream" would equal the success of the Lovin' Spoonful's most recent single, "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice",[44] which reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1966.[28] The review panel for Record World called "Daydream" "wonderful", writing that it managed to sound both contemporary and "oldtime" simultaneously.[45]

Among British critics, Derek Johnson of New Musical Express described "Daydream" as both "tuneful and pleasantly hummable", but also "not very meaty and maybe a shade corny."[46] Reviewing the latest releases in Melody Maker's "Blind Date" column, the singer Dusty Springfield also described the song as "corny", but she used the term favorably. She compared its sound to the American jazz pianist Fats Waller, adding that she liked the Lovin' Spoonful "just for daring to do this number".[47] The anonymous reviewer for the Whitstable Times also wrote that on first listen, the song sounded both "corny" and "outdated" because it was so out of step with contemporary trends, but that it soon proved unforgettable after repeat listens.[48] The critic for the Liverpool Echo wrote that with the new single, the Lovin' Spoonful "may be heralding a new era for pop music."[49]

The simple arrangement of "Daydream" was out of step with contemporary pop music trends,[50] and it inspired numerous similar compositions from British musicians.[13] Soon after the song's release, the Beatles and members of the Rolling Stones lauded the Lovin' Spoonful as the "hot new group".[25] John Lennon and George Harrison first met the Lovin' Spoonful after attending their concert at the Marquee club in London on April 18, 1966.[51][52] A week later, the Beatles recorded a version of Lennon's composition "I'm Only Sleeping" in the style of "Daydream", but they abandoned the arrangement for the final version issued on their 1966 album Revolver.[53][54][nb 5]

In an attempt to write a song in the same vein as "Daydream", Paul McCartney composed "Good Day Sunshine",[13][55] which the Beatles recorded in June during the sessions for Revolver.[56] "Good Day Sunshine" uses no guitars, but like "Daydream" it features honky-tonk piano, a shuffling beat, applied dominants and similarly themed lyrics.[57][nb 6] The Lovin' Spoonful met all four of the Beatles in August 1966, before the band's Shea Stadium show during their 1966 US tour,[58] but Sebastian did not learn of the Lovin' Spoonful's influence on "Good Day Sunshine" until McCartney mentioned it in a 1984 interview.[59][60] Sebastian later reflected that he often wondered about the Lovin' Spoonful's impact on other artists, but the Beatles' originality meant that "when they did cop an idea from somebody else it never occurred to you."[61]

After seeing the Lovin' Spoonful perform in England during their April 1966 tour,[62] Ray Davies, the principal songwriter of the Kinks, was regularly influenced by their sound.[63] "Daydream" directly inspired him in writing the Kinks' 1966 single "Sunny Afternoon",[13][55] which they recorded in mid-May.[64] The author Barry Miles additionally suggests "Daydream" inspired the Small Faces' 1968 single "Lazy Sunday".[13] The pop group the Bee Gees recorded a faithful cover of "Daydream" in mid-1966, but it went unissued.[65]

According to Steve Boone in his autobiography,[20] except where noted:

• John Sebastian – vocal, electric guitar, harmonica, whistling
• Steve Boone – honky-tonk piano
• Joe Butler – slapstick,[3] spoons
• Zal Yanovsky – electric and acoustic guitars

• "Daydream" at Discogs (list of releases)
• "Daydream" (Demo version) on YouTube