Track Listing

1. Mellow Yellow
2. Colours
3. Hurdy Gurdy Man
4. Catch the Wind
5. Lalena
6. Epistle to Dippy
7. Sunshine Superman
8. There Is a Mountain
9. Jennifer Juniper
10. Wear Your Love Like Heaven
11. Season of the Witch
12. Atlantis [*]
13. To Susan on the West Coast Waiting [*]
14. Barabajagal [*]
15. Riki Tiki Tavi [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4727 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-30
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
Greatest Hits is the budget option for those who've concluded that two discs of Donovan is a disc too many and zero is one too few. Troubadour, Sony's 1992 Donovan box set, boasts nearly three times the tracks this 15-song single-disc retrospective offers, but Greatest Hits delivers what it promises: "Colours" and "Catch the Wind" from his folkie phase and "Mellow Yellow," "Sunshine Superman," and "Wear Your Love Like Heaven" from the lad's best-pal-a-flower-ever-had period. Also included are plenty more catchy folk-rock hits cut between 1964 and 1970 as well as four bonus tracks, including the delightfully earnest "Atlantis" and "Barabajagal," with the celebrated first-edition Jeff Beck Group providing backing. Donovan's blissed-out liner notes ("Whatever you think this song is about, it probably is") round out the package quite quaintly. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

A Great Sampler-Donovan A 60's Requirement
To be brief, Donovan was a sixties Icon. To have a sixties collection, Donovan must be a part of it, crossing boundries and providing further definition as to what the 60's were truly about.

This collection is an excellent introduction to Donovan's many "faces". From his Dylanesque (many people called him the "British Bob Dylan", to his Psychedelic phases where many of his hits came from, to the more mature and rock crafted phase, and then full circle to more introspective.

If you like is Folk music, (Colours, Universal Soldier, Catch The Wind, etc) you can branch out to his "Summer Day Reflection Songs" CD which provide a true example of his Folk phase. (This is one of my favorite CD's, and this area of his music is highly underated).

For others who wish to hear more of his latter period, the "Love Is Hot, Truth Is Molten" CD (Australian Import)is excellent with great sound quality and stereo versions and of course the all inclusive "Troubadour" Box set covers much.

Many people forget his impact, having written the hit "Museum" covered by Herman's Hermits, to his "backup session players" which included The Jeff Beck Group ad Ron Wood, Madeline Bell, Suzie Quatro "Barabajagal", Paul McCartney and George Harrison (Mellow Yellow), and the then developing Jimmy Page, John Bonham, and John Paul Jones , (just listen to "Hurdy Gurdy Man"), Jim Gordon and Gabriel Mekler "Susan On The West Coast Waiting", "Atlantis". This CD is an excellent buy, with jems such as "There Is A Mountain", (very tropical) to Atlantis, (Great song and Lyrics").

A must buy you a collector. If you like this period of music, this is required. Worth it for "Sunshine Superman" alone. This CD is an excellent value, has all the major hits, with great good sound quality so you will not be disapointed.

Good Listening!

WARNING!! Alternate Versions!!
When Donovan first released his "Greatest Hits" album back in the sixties, it featured new versions of two of the songs, "Colours" and "Catch the Wind". Those versions were only available on the "Greatest Hits" album. This CD adds tracks to that album, and remasters all the songs, but replaces the "new" versions of those two songs with the original album versions. Both versions are really good, and I'd highly recommend this CD, but warn you that if you're expecting the "Greatest Hits" versions of "Colours" and "Catch the Wind", you won't find them here.

60s Nostalgia In A Cost-Effective Donovan Hits Package
In his updated liner notes to "Epistle To Dippy," Donovan writes, "Whatever you think this song is about, it probably is." Amid the flowery, quasi-mystical prose which decorated his songs and liner notes, it was a moment of clear truth.

It could also apply to the rest of the set, which joins catchy pop melodies to World Music rhythms breaded in organic, cerebral myths and ideology. Many keep their freshness: "Sunshine Superman" was recently sampled in a rap song, while "Season Of The Witch" (great line: "Beatniks striking to get rich...") and "Mellow Yellow" retain some self-mocking wit with the second-hand smoke. "Atlantis" and "Barabajagal" remain fun relics.

But Donovan the hippie troubadour trumps Donovan the folky, earthy poet. "Colors" and "Catch The Wind" (here on their original, Hickory Records singles from 1964) catch Bob Dylan's style but not soul. "To Susan On The West Coast Waiting" (which Donovan describes as "a Dear John letter in reverse") is too pretty and slight to be an effective anti-war song. Yet these, Donovan's other hits here, and his lyrical world-view (which, judging from the liner notes, he still has) are a basic thread of Sixties pop culture. This makes Donovan's music essential to studying that period, and "Greatest Hits" the most cost-effective way to do it.