[1] The two first met on February 9, 1964,[2] at a party held to watch the English rock band the Beatles make their American television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.
[3] The two were greatly influenced by the Beatles' performance;[4] Sebastian later recalled that they "were both aware of the fact that this commercial folk music model was about to change again, that the four-man band that actually played their own instruments and wrote their own songs was the thing.
[8] The earliest recordings on Do You Believe in Magic date to June 1965, when the producer Erik Jacobsen fronted a session for the Lovin' Spoonful with his own money at Bell Sound Studios in New York City.
[11] Jacobsen and Bob Cavallo, the band's manager, brought an acetate disc of the session to numerous record labels, most of which turned down an opportunity to sign the Spoonful.
[11] Amid a busy touring schedule, the band were forced to work to a tight deadline to ensure the album was completed as quickly as possible.
[10] One additional session took place in August at RCA Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles,[10] where the band were playing at clubs on the Sunset Strip.
[31] In contrast to other acts working in the genre, the Spoonful generally avoided "message songs" and protest music,[15] a choice Sebastian ascribed to the band's lack of familiarity with politics.
"[32] The Spoonful often sought to avoid being typecast by their music,[34] and Sebastian suggested at the time of the album's release that it showcased how the band was not defined by any specific sound.
[36][nb 2] The Spoonful's management was mindful of the success of groups with multiple vocalists, like the Beatles and the Byrds, and they encouraged the band to trade lead vocal responsibilities;[38] on Do You Believe in Magic, Sebastian sang lead on most songs, but the drummer Joe Butler also sang twice ("You Baby" and "The Other Side of This Life") as did Yanovsky ("Blues in the Bottle", "On the Road Again" and an unreleased track, "Alley Oop").
[10] The album closed on an instrumental number, "Night Owl Blues", the title of which referenced a club in Greenwich Village, New York City, where the Spoonful developed their sound in early 1965.
[41][42] The tour coincided with the peak of "Do You Believe in Magic" on the Billboard singles chart,[20] and it represented a high point for the band's members, who felt they had been better received in California than anywhere else.
[43][44] Do You Believe in Magic first went on-sale on October 23, when the band held an autograph session in San Francisco's East Bay area after a week of appearances at the city's hungry i club.
[50] Billboard magazine's review panel predicted it would match the success of the "Do You Believe in Magic" single,[51] but the album peaked at number 71 in February 1966.
[70] In The Village Voice, J. R. Goddard wrote that, though the Spoonful was made up of talented musicians, the album was "so dull and poorly engineered",[71] a complaint the band themselves echoed in the year after its release.
[75][nb 7] In Britain, Melody Maker's review panel determined the Spoonful was a "strange American group" whose style did not "fall into any particular brand",[79] and the Liverpool Echo wrote they were "zany" but especially talented musically.
[87] In contrast, Robert Christgau contended that on Do You Believe in Magic "the filler was prime too" because the band's "folk-rock revved a jug-band strain that was plenty lively to begin with".
[83] Similarly, in his review for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann wrote that though the Spoonful were typically remembered for Sebastian's songwriting, the album provided "a well-rounded collection that demonstrated their effectiveness as a group.