Do you believe in Magic?

I’m participating in a  Generation Fabulous bloghop. Our topic for today is “Summer Songs.” Favorite, most memorable, whatever makes it feel like summer every time you hear it.

I knew right away which song I would choose. Out of curiosity, I checked to see when the song first came out.
Why was I so shocked to learn that it was August 1965??  I can do the math, but really?

This song still makes me feel like that goofy young teenage girl I was when I heard it the first time. Did John Sebastian really promise to see me tomorrow, sort of late at night? To go out dancin’?? Yahhhh! Blow your mind!

It’s got all the right words to set a teenage girl into a swooning tailspin: a bunch of adorable guys (I mean, look at Zal with that hair! Too cute! ) singing about a young girl’s heart and feeling happy “like an old time movie.” Yes! That was me. Stuck in my life, looking for escape…and, well, magic. And boys, of course.

 And the part about “trying to tell a stranger ’bout-a rock ‘n’ roll”: that was OUR music! You couldn’t explain it to anyone. Did anybody beside us kids get it? No! Did Ed Sullivan, even when he had the Beatles on his show? No. Clueless.

Rock ‘n’ roll did free my soul, but I couldn’t have put those words to it. Luckily, the Spoonful did, and just listening to this song again, I’m wearing a smile that won’t wipe off my face, no matter how hard I try.

(Oh, yeah, that part about  the magic’s in the music and the music’s in me? I heard that one from a drummer I dated briefly. Sadly, it wasn’t true.)

But thanks to these boys–and they practically were boys in 1965–I can feel that eager-to-be-grown-up-and-outta-here urgency every time Sebastian strums that autoharp of his.

Yes, I believe.
Do you believe like I believe?

Love the screaming girls and the bored-looking boys in the video.

Kama Sutra Records. Remember?

13 Responses to Do you believe in Magic?

  1. Amy says:

    I love this song! I’m going to be hitting the hop later in the day, but I had to stop in and see what was up. I can’t believe that was 1965!?

  2. My daughter just turned 12. Thanks for taking me back to those squealing-swooning moments of my own tweenhood. I remember visiting a friend from school who showed me her hidden loot of Tiger Beat magazines. (“Don’t tell my mother. She’ll take them away.”) We hid in her bedroom and sighed over pictures of David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond, etc. Oh, those mop-haired boys. I never knew John Sabastian by name, so thanks for giving me the inside scoop over another cute mop-haired boy. (And I won’t tell YOUR mother about the youtube videos hidden in your bookmarks.) ; )

    • Risa Nye says:

      I had bubblegum trading cards of the Beatles taped to the inside of my closet door. And they were really bad pictures, too. Didn’t matter. I was in LOVE! Yeah, those mop-tops were damn cute…
      Thanks for stopping by!

  3. I DO believe in magic. I remember this song, but I never knew they used an autoharp. Love the video.

  4. Great song! I’m loving this blog hop and hearing what music is meaningful to each person. Great video that takes one back to that time.

  5. Can’t get this out of my head now!

  6. I loved this song! Now I’ll be singing it all day. 🙂

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