This great late-‘60s Lovin’ Spoonful tune is the perfect opportunity to answer readers’ requests for another little sample from Danny Cox’s latest reunion with his old guitar-pickin’ buddy Bobby Murnahan. Just listen and at the end this track you’ll hear Dan and Bob trading choruses on “(Sittin’ Back) Lovin’ You.”
As reported here last week, Danny and Bobby grew up together in Lawrence County, Ohio. It’s rare they can get together these days, but whenever Murnahan travels back this way from his Colorado home — as he did last month — we try to get him to join us in The Flood band room.
About the Song
The vehicle for this Cox-Murnahan moment is John Sebastian’s 1966 composition, which was the opening track for Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful, the third studio album by Greenwich Village’s own folk-rock mavens.
Today the disc just barely makes the list of top 50 albums released in that stellar year of rock which saw Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, The Beatles’ Revolver, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, The Rolling Stones’ Aftermath and so many more.
Not that Hum was ho-hum. On the contrary, as reported here earlier, that one album spawned four (count ‘em, four) charting singles for the Lovin’ lads, including “Summer in the City,” “Rain on the Roof,” “Nashville Cats” and "Full Measure.”
And while “Lovin’ You” was not among the disc’s hit singles for The Spoonful, a month after the album’s debut in November 1966, the song was covered by Bobby Darin who took it into the Top 40.
After that, the tune also became a successful number for four different female artists, including Anne Murray (1969), Helen Reddy (1973), Dolly Parton (1977) and Mary Black (1983).
For more on the history of the song — including a side note on The Flood’s early infatuation with it — see our earlier Flood Watch article by clicking here.
