![]() Offstage, Donovan was a frequent guest collaborator and companion to other celebrities of the time he contributed lyrics to The Beatles's song "Yellow Submarine" and dated George Harrison's sister-in-law Jenny Boyd (later to marry Mick Fleetwood). Donovan brought his parents along on tour, with his father Donald introducing him to the audience. Later he would contribute the title song for the 1969 comedy If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) (also appearing onstage in the movie), and star in The Pied Piper (1972). He also contributed to the stage and film worlds, writing the title song for the movie Poor Cow (1967) and adapting William Shakespeare's "Under The Greenwood Tree" for Britain's National Theatre. As a pop performer, he made frequent guest appearances on television in the UK and US most notably in America on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (1967). Working with Most, Donovan enjoyed hits on both sides of the Atlantic through the end of the decade. ![]() New and bigger deals offered led to lawsuits, and Donovan vanished from the record market for a few months while matters were being settled.Įmerging with new management and production teams, Donovan followed up his first US #1 single, "Sunshine Superman" (dedicated to John Lennon and Paul McCartney), with his signature hit "Mellow Yellow", which reached #2 on the US charts late in 1966. (John Carr usually played drums at Donovan's sessions, although John Bonham was also sometimes around.) Epic Records in the US expressed an interest in picking Donovan up for the American market, with Clive Davis offering a contract, and Allen Klein was also interested in taking over Donovan's management. In 1966 Mickie Most became Donovan's new producer, and his sidemen began to include future Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones (who arranged several Donovan tunes, augmenting the sound they were aiming for) and Jimmy Page. ![]() Donovan went on to the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, where he was welcomed.Īfter his first two mostly-folk albums in England (distributed in the US by Hickory Records), produced by his managers, Donovan immersed himself in the pop sounds of the "British Invasion" bands, and both his writing and choices in the studio reflected this. (Donovan can be seen keeping Dylan and Baez company in Dylan's Dont Look Back (1967)). Press headlines announced "DYLAN DIGS DONOVAN!" and he joined Dylan and Joan Baez on the road, though he didn't perform with them onstage. When Dylan toured England in 1965, the two met for a well-publicized "summit" at his hotel suite after an hour's private talk, they emerged smiling arm-in-arm to a waiting press conference. Promoted first as mainly a folk performer and a kind of British rival to Bob Dylan, evidence of Donovan's own blossoming style as writer and musician was undeniable as early as his second album, with its hints at jazz and a different kind of pop sense from Dylan's. His first singles were respectable UK hits in 1965, and made a minor impact on the American market that year. Donovan's first appearance (in cap and denim) led to a short residency on the show, which in turn led to a recording contract with England's Pye Records. Beginning with taping some publishers' demos for other songwriters, Donovan was soon demoing his own material, and the tapes found their way to the ears of Elkan Allan, producer of Britain's popular rock show Ready, Steady, Go! (1963). Albans circle, Donovan played and sang between performances by an R&B group called the Cops and Robbers, and so impressed the group's managers that they expressed interest in signing him up as a performer. On a beach trip to Southend with members of the St. Their songs included traditional and recent folk music, songs by their friends (like Mick Softley) and the beginnings of Donovan's own writing, about what he'd seen and experienced away from home. Albans music scene, north of London, but traveled to different parts of the country, frequently with longtime friend "Gypsy Dave", who played kazoo and passed the hat while Donovan played guitar and harmonica and sang, for their keep. Though interested in rock-n-roll through artists like Buddy Holly and The Everly Brothers, Donovan embraced the folk-music boom that swept both England and America in the early 1960s, and also the Beat Generation writers and poets. Before starting college in his teens, the young man had run away from home more than once on one outing at fourteen, he found an old guitar in a trash can, still good enough to learn the basics on. When Donovan was ten his family moved south to England, resettling in Hatfield. Music was always part of his home life, with both traditional Scottish/Irish songs at family and local celebrations, and popular music through radio and live performances. Donovan Philips Leitch was born May 10, 1946, in Glasgow, Scotland.
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