Donovan

Donovan Phillips Leitch came out of Maryhill, born in 1946, and walked into the British folk scene in early 1965 with a guitar, a harmonica and a head full of songs. Appearances on Ready Steady Go! made his name that year, and after signing with Pye he scored three UK hits in the folk vein: "Catch the Wind", from What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid, "Colours", from Fairytale, and a version of Buffy Sainte-Marie's "Universal Soldier".

Then he went electric and strange. Signing to CBS/Epic in America and teaming up with producer Mickie Most, he made Sunshine Superman, whose title song topped the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1966, and "Mellow Yellow" followed it to US No. 2. The album also holds "Season of the Witch", a slinky, menacing groove that sounds like fog rolling in over the flower children. "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" came in 1967, "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and "Atlantis" after that, and his blend of folk, pop, psychedelia and jazz became the sound of flower power itself. He ran with Joan Baez, Brian Jones and the Beatles, and in 1968 taught John Lennon the finger-picking style Lennon used on "Dear Prudence" and "Julia".

After he split from Most in 1969 the hits dried up and critics later sneered at his hippie image, but a revival came in the 1990s, Rick Rubin produced Sutras in 1996, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame took him in in 2012.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.