Donovan Biography

Donovan Philips Leitch was born in 1946 in Glasgow, Scotland, and grew up in Hertford, England. He grew up in a family which loved folk music, both English and Scottish, and so Donovan began playing guitar when he was fourteen. By the time he was a teenager, Donovan was playing in local clubs around St. Albans, perfecting his technique and networking with fellow musicians. In 1964, Donovan was offered the opportunity to record a 10-track demo. The demo led to a management contract, and subsequent introductions led Donovan to Mickie Most, who would become one of his key producers and co-writers for the next few years of his career. In 1966, Donovan signed with Epic Records, and he and Most began work on Donovan’s debut album.

Sunshine Superman was an enormous hit both as a single and an album, with the single reaching number one and selling more than one million copies. Additional albums followed over the next two decades, including Mellow Yellow (1967), A Gift from a Flower to a Garden (1967), The Hudy Gurdy Man (1968), Barabajagal (1969), Open Road (1970), H.M.S. Donovan (1971), Cosmic Wheels (1973), Essence to Essence (1973), and Donovan (1977), bringing the hits “Mellow Yellow,” “There is a Mountain,” Hurdy Gurdy Man,” and “Season of the Witch.” Albums continued in the 1980’s and 1990’s, including Neutronica (1980), Lady of the Stars (1984), One Night in Time (1993), Sutras (1996), and Pied Piper (1998.)

In the new millennium, Donovan continues to perform and record, having released the albums Sixty Four (2004), Brother Sun, Sister Moon (2004), and Beat Café (2004), Ritual Groove (2010) and The Sensual Donovan (2012.) He published his autobiography, The Hurdy Gurdy Man, in 2005, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.