The Essential Donovan

Performer: Donovan
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel includes: Donovan; The Jeff Beck Group. Producers: Terry Kennedy, Peter Eden, Geoff Stephens, Mickie Most. Compilation producer: Bob Irwin, Al Quaglieri. Includes liner notes by Jaan Uhelszki. This is part of Sony's The Essential Collection series. Liner Note Author: Jaan Uhelszki. Recording information: 1965-1969. Photographer: Harry Goodwin. Containing an economical sampling of the music from Sony's TROUBADOUR box set (and a track list that is remarkably similar to DONOVAN'S GREATEST HITS), THE ESSENTIAL DONOVAN is highly recommended for the casual Donovan fan. His egregious tag as "the British Bob Dylan" and his sometimes-silly hippie vibe notwithstanding, Donovan wrote some of the catchiest singles of the late 1960s, and this disc brings these together in one succinct, chronologically sequenced package. The collection kicks off with the singer/songwriter's earliest recordings for the Hickory label with the folkie, guy-and-his-guitar charm of "Catch the Wind" and "Colors." When Donovan signed to Epic in 1966, however, he began the string of singles for which he is best known and that epitomized the strange yet breezy pop of the times. This includes "Sunshine Superman," "Mellow Yellow," "Epistle to Dippy," and "There Is a Mountain," each holding up as a delectable pop gem. The gentle "Jennifer Juniper" and the raucous "Barabajagal" (recorded with the Jeff Beck Group) keep the dynamics shifting, and round out this excellent singles set.

He began as a Guthrie/Dylan-style folkie, but soon Donovan Leitch adopted a more psychedelic flower-power stance. His knack for sunny, wistful pop songs produced a batch of giant 1960s hits. His fragile manchild voice and image made him a hippie pinup boy, but there was a deep wellspring of emotion behind songs like "Catch the Wind" and "Colours." By the '70s, Donovan had largely dropped off the radar, but he made a resounding comeback in the '90s with the spare, affecting, Rick Rubin-produced SUTRAS.

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