It Was 50 Years Ago Today: “Daydream” by The Lovin’ Spoonful
April 12, 1966
“Daydream” by The Lovin’ Spoonful
#1 on the Cashbox Top 100, April 9-15, 1966
The ’60s are often thought of as the years where pop music went through its most accelerated period of growth, characterized by free-for-all experimentation and new subgenres premiering on the radio seemingly every other month. Yet for all its innovations, the era’s “new” music was also deeply indebted to sounds from the past, ranging from the first-wave rock ‘n’ rollers from the ’50s, to the Delta bluesmen from the ’20s and ’30s, to classical music of both European and Indian origin. Less widely remembered, however, was the brief fashion for the music of less exotic source: the populist entertainment of the early 20th Century, termed vaudeville in the US and music hall in Britain. Irony was typically a part of the equation — the music favored by one’s parents and grandparents is too old-fashioned and familiar to be thought of as great art — but equally important was the rosy-hued nostalgia for an era perceived as simpler and more peaceful.
The vaudeville influence made its greatest impact in the UK, perhaps as a way of reasserting traditional “Britishness” against the tide of its native sons adopting/co-opting blues and R&B. Herman’s Hermits’ tinny instrumentation and Peter Noone’s vocal mugging alluded to the variety tradition, a connection made explicit on their version of “I’m Henry VIII, I Am.” The modified music hall structures explored by the Kinks on hits like “A Well Respected Man” and “Sunny Afternoon” proved equally adept as vehicles for keen-edged satire and sincere nostalgia. Even bands that didn’t fully embrace the vaudeville aesthetic made an obligatory stop at the music hall, from the Beatles’ “When I’m Sixty-Four,” to the Rolling Stones’ “Something Happened to Me Yesterday,” to the Small Faces’ “Lazy Sunday.”
The Brits didn’t have a monopoly on antiquated music, however. The Lovin’ Spoonful was the greatest American proponent of old-timey sounds, spiking their chipper folk-rock with heaping doses of country blues and jug band music. While the Spoonful’s inclinations typically tended to rootsier sounds, the group did break out the soft-shoe shuffle for the 1966 single “Daydream” – there’s even video of the band performing it in vaudevillian boaters and bowties. The loping rhythm, melodic vocal line, and minimal percussion give “Daydream” its old-fashioned feel, further emphasized by a sweet touch of harmonica and a whistling solo. However, the crisp, unfussy production, highlighted by touches of electric guitar and bass, ensures “Daydream” is no musty period piece, but a light, summery confection. The lyrics cleverly toe the line between lovey-dovey ballad (“I’m lost in a daydream / dreamin’ ’bout my bundle of joy”) and winking suggestions that the narrator’s elation may be powered by something more potent than just sunshine and his baby’s love (“fall on my face on somebody’s new-mowed lawn”).
“Daydream” gave the Lovin’ Spoonful its first and biggest UK hit, likely because of its kinship with the similarly retro tunes flourishing on that side of the Atlantic. The song climbed to #2 on both the UK Singles Chart and the Billboard Hot 100, but peaked at #1 on the more fluid Cashbox chart. (By Billboard‘s reckoning, the group’s lone chart-topper would be the more conventionally rocking “Summer in the City,” released later in 1966.) While “Daydream” proved influential across the Atlantic — Paul McCartney credited it with inspiring “Good Day Sunshine” — its success was more of an anomaly in the United States. Nevertheless, “Daydream” did presage one of the biggest hits of 1966: the wheezing, creaky novelty tune “Winchester Cathedral,” by a studio group billed as the New Vaudeville Band. Despite its success, “Winchester Cathedral” was so deeply unhip that it probably killed the old-timey phase in American pop. Fortunately, the Lovin’ Spoonful had enough tricks up their sleeve that they — and the breezy, charming “Daydream” — easily soared over the retro wreckage.
It Was 50 Years Ago Today examines a song, album, movie, or book that was #1 on the charts exactly half a century ago.
