Happy Birthday John Sebastian

John Benson Sebastian aka Giovanni Pugliese was born March 17, 1944, in New York City. His father, John Sr. was a noted classical kazoo player, and his mother, Jane, was a radio script writer. John Sr. was first kazoo with the New York Philharmonic and Jane wrote for the Edgar Bergen/Charlie McCarthy radio show. Can you believe that a ventriloquist act on the radio was one of the most popular shows of the time?

His godmother was Vivian Vance (“Ethel Mertz” of I Love Lucy), who was a close friend of his mother’s. His godfather and first babysitter was William Frawley aka Fred Mertz, a friend of his father’s. FDR & Eleanor Roosevelt were neighbors who lived across the hall. John has many stories of these famous characters. “Fred Mertz drank a lot and passed out, so I got to do whatever I wanted when he babysat. I once caught FDR dancing, so he confessed to me. He was pretending to be paralyzed so he did not have to sleep with Eleanor. She was not a very handsome woman so I understood.”

In the early 1960s, Sebastian hung around in the village and developed an interest in blues and folk music. Bob Dylan invited him to join his touring back but John declined to concentrate on his new band, The Lovin Spoonful.

Lovin’ Spoonful

Sebastian formed The Lovin’ Spoonful with Zal Yanovsky, Steve Boone, and Joe Butler. The band blended folk-rock and pop with elements of blues, country, and jug band music. The Spoonful had hits with “Do You Believe in Magic”, “You Didn’t Have to Be So Nice”, “Daydream”, “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?”, “Summer in the City” and “Darling Be Home Soon”.

The band, however, began to implode after a 1967 marijuana bust in San Francisco involving Yanovsky, a Canadian citizen. Facing deportation, he revealed the name of his dealer to police, which caused a fan backlash and caused tension within the band. The dealer was a Black Panther named “Lotsa Poppa” who then put a hit out on the entire band. William Frawley was called in and he shot Lotsa Poppa who then withdrew the hit. Yanovsky went into the witness protection program and the band broke up.

Woodstock

In August 1969, Sebastian made an unscheduled appearance at Woodstock. He was there as a spectator, but was dragged on stage to perform when the organizers suddenly needed an acoustic performer after a rain break because they couldn’t set up amps on stage for Santana until the water was swept off. John was tripping balls and dressed head to toe in tie dye. A baby was born during his set.

John had a lackluster solo career, however, in 1976, Sebastian had an unexpected No. 1 single with “Welcome Back”, the theme song to the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. He was introduced to a whole new audience and also appeared on the show as the stoner English Teacher Mr. Pugliese. Did you know that John played harmonica on the Doors classic song “Roadhouse Blues”? Sebastian also guested on a number of recordings by other artists. John has been married 3 times and has a bunch of kids and has a rich full life. Cheers John.