Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind?

Album: Do You Believe In Magic (1965)
Charted: 2
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Songfacts®:

  • In this song, John Sebastian asks if you've ever had to decide between two beautiful girls, in this case, one with beautiful blue eyes and lots of money, and the other kind of mousy but very appealing. In the last verse, we learn that they are sisters.

    The song was inspired by a pair of sisters he met at a summer camp where he was a counselor.
  • The song's question was fantasy - neither sister was interested in Sebastian, even though he taught himself the autoharp (an unusual string instrument) in an attempt to impress them.
  • Running just a shade under two minutes, this song appears on the first Lovin' Spoonful album, Do You Believe In Magic. Sebastian wrote it long before the band formed.

    It was the band's fourth single, and like all of their first seven issued in the United States, it went Top 10. The song stayed at #2 for two weeks in the summer of 1966, held off by the grim Rolling Stones song "Paint It Black."

Comments: 5

  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 25th 1966, the Lovin' Spoonful performed at the ‘Beach Boys Summer Spectacular’ concert* at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles...
    At the time the NYC quartet's "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" was at #4 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; the two previous weeks it was at #2* and that was its peak position on the chart {See next post below}...
    * Must have been a great concert; besides the Beach Boys other acts were the Byrds, Percy Sledge, Chad & Jeremy, the Leaves, Love, the Outsiders, and Capt. Beefheart.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn May 1st 1966, "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind?" by the Lovin' Spoonful entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 at position #65; and on June 5th it peaked at #2 (for 2 weeks) and spent a 11 weeks on the Top 100 (and for 6 of those 11 weeks it was on the Top 10)...
    The two weeks it was at #2, the #1 record for both those weeks was "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones...
    It reached #6 on the Canadian RPM Singles chart...
    It was their 2nd straight #2 record, "Daydream" also reached #2 for 2 weeks; but their next release, "Summer In The City", did peak at #1 (for 3 weeks)...
    Guitarist Zal Yanovsky passed away on December 13th, 2002 at the young age of 57...
    May he R.I.P.
  • Jorge from Medellin, South AmericaDoes anybody know other versions of this song? artists that have already performed this song, even with different names? most important: any of you have the mp3 for the cover made by vonda sheppard for Ally McBeal?
  • Brandon from Seattle, WaThere is a song by the Monkees called "Look out Here Comes Tomorrow", of which also has a narrator who explains his dilemma between two girls, but even though I really like both of the songs, I personally think the Monkees tune is more heart felt.
  • Henry from Kingston, NyThere's something about this song, maybe just the way it's sung, that makes it one of favorite songs ever. I still don't know what.
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