The Lovin’ Spoonful was America’s answer to the Beatles, and their sunny, feel-good songs like “Do You Believe in Magic?” went straight to the top of the charts. Start the new year with some classic rock ’n’ roll served up right by The Lovin’ Spoonful, presented by the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Center for the Arts.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers are set to perform Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, at 7 p.m. in UAB’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center, 1200 10th Ave. South. Tickets start at $25. Buy tickets. Discounts are available for UAB students and employees. Call 205-975-2787 or visit the Alys Stephens Center Box Office from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
From their freewheeling first single “Do You Believe in Magic?” The Lovin’ Spoonful exploded onto the charts in 1965, sending their first seven singles soaring onto Billboard’s Top 10 charts virtually overnight. Their unprecedented string of sunny, feel-good hits included the harder rocking “Summer in the City,” “Daydream,” “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice,” “Darling Be Home Soon,” “Jug Band Music,” “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind,” “Lovin’ You,” “Didn’t Want to Have to Do it,” “Rain on the Roof,” “Six O’clock,” “Nashville Cats,” “Coconut Grove” and “She’s Still a Mystery (to Me).”
Formed in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1965, the band took its name from Mississippi John Hurt’s song “Coffee Blues,” with its line “I wanna see my baby, ’bout a lovin’ spoonful.” The band was so influential that music legend Paul McCartney cited “Daydream” as his inspiration for “Good Day Sunshine,” and even John Lennon called them “tunesmiths.”
Today The Lovin’ Spoonful tours with founding member Steve Boone, Jeff Alan Ross (Badfinger, Peter Asher), Bill Cinque (Neil Diamond), longtime drummer Mike Arturi and Rob Bonfiglio (The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson Band, Wilson Phillips). Together they faithfully celebrate the rich, good-time catalog of hits that made The Lovin’ Spoonful one of the world’s most beloved groups to emerge from the ’60s. The Lovin’ Spoonful was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.