Happy Birthday John Sebastian

John Benson Sebastian Jr. (born March 17, 1944, in Greenwich Village, New York City) is an American songwriter and harmonica player. He is best known as a founder of The Lovin' Spoonful, a band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.   His tie-dyed denim jacket is prominently displayed there.


His group The Lovin' Spoonful played a major role in the mid-'60s rock revolution, but what leader, singer and songwriter Sebastian had in mind was actually a counter-revolution. 

"We were grateful to the Beatles for reminding us our rock & roll roots, but we wanted to cut out the English middlemen, so to speak, and get down to making this new music as an 'American' band."  - John Sebastian

At first they'd taken older material from blues, country, folk and jug band sources - what we now term "roots music" - and made it sound modern. Then, in a series of original songs composed and sung by John Sebastian, they did the reverse, creating thoroughly modern music that sounded like it contained the entire history of American music. Which it did.

John with David Grisman
After 40 years of separate roads, John and fellow 
Even Dozen Jug Band member David Grisman 
reunited at a benefit concert in California, 
and devised their 2008 project, Satisfied, 
an album of acoustic duets.

Prior to pop success with The Lovin' Spoonful, Sebastian was an instrumental player in the early '60s Jug Band Revival that went hand-in-hand with the folk boom of the period.  The New York based Even Dozen Jug Band was the Elektra label's answer to the Jim Kweskin band and featured (among others) John Sebastian, and David Grisman.

Sebastian's group, The Lovin' Spoonful became part of the American response to the British Invasion and was noted for such folk-flavored hits as "Jug Band Music," "Do You Believe in Magic," "Summer in the City," "Daydream,"  and "Nashville Cats".   When the group's first single "Do You Believe in Magic" became a Top-Ten Hit (#9 on Billboards Hot 100) in 1965, John Sebastian and The Lovin' Spoonful became one* of the most successful Jug-Bands ever.

 *[Original Jug-Band musician Gus Cannon's "Walk Right In" was a #1 hit for The Rooftop Singers in 1963, the only time a jug band song topped the charts. These one-hit wonders even made an appearance at that year's Newport Folk Festival before fading into obscurity.  The song's success brought Cannon himself back into the Stax Records studios in Memphis for his last recording that same year at age 79. The album, called "Walk Right In," features Cannon on banjo and old friends Will Shade on jug and Milton Roby on washboard.]

ABOUT JOHN SEBASTIAN