Donovan – Mellow Yellow (Live Royal Variety Performance 1981)

“Mellow Yellow” – Single by Donovan from the album Mellow Yellow
B-side “Sunny South Kensington” (USA) / “Preachin’ Love” (UK)
Released October 1966 (US) /February 1967 (UK)
Label Epic
Songwriter Donovan
Producer Mickie Most
Charted No.2 in US; No.8 in UK; No.3 in New Zealand; No.8 in Australia, No.16 in West Germany; No.2 in Canada; No.7 in Norway.

Donovan had originally written the song as a throwaway sing-a-long for private parties, and was surprised when producer Mickie Most chose it to be the follow up single to “Sunshine Superman”. The song was arranged by session musician John Paul Jones and became one of his first to achieve international success. At first Donovan was disappointed in the horn sound, until Jones came up with the idea to use “hats” (horn mutes) to achieve the required “mellow” mood. In addition, Donovan tuned his acoustic guitar to a D-major drone to mimic slide blues players.

Paul McCartney can be heard as one of the background revelers on this track but contrary to rumour, the “quite rightly” whispering line in the chorus is not McCartney, but rather Donovan himself. Donovan had a small part in coming up with the lyrics for “Yellow Submarine”, so McCartney returned the favor by helping out on the title track and playing uncredited bass guitar on portions of the Mellow Yellow album.

When this song came out in 1966, there was a widespread rumor that it was about getting high on banana skins. The idea was that you scraped the fibers off of a banana skin and cooked them over a low fire. This was supposed to release the hallucinogenic qualities. Of course, it was never true!