Donovan - I Like You (1973)

After the introspection of fatherhood and family life contained in the songs of H.M.S. Donovan, Donovan turned his attention to popular music again in 1972. It had been three years since "Atlantis" entered the top 10. Since that time, Donovan had released a mildly successful album with band Open Road and a solo children's album that failed to make the charts in the UK and did not even see a release in the US.

In hopes of fomenting success, Donovan brought in Mickie Most to share the producer duties on his next album. The Cosmic Wheels sessions were recorded in Morgan Studios in London, England. In the UK at that time, glam rock ruled the top of the charts, defined by bands and artists such as T. Rex, Alice Cooper, and David Bowie among others. Several of these bands and artists claimed Donovan as a key influence in their music. This praise coupled with the chart success of the genre likely had great influence on the musical direction Cosmic Wheels would take.

While Donovan was recording Cosmic Wheels, Alice Cooper was recording their 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies in the same studio. Alice Cooper guitarist Michael Owen Bruce suggested asking Donovan to sing co-lead on the title track with Vincent Damon Furnier (who later took the name Alice Cooper for himself). Donovan agreed, and the resulting song helped propel Billion Dollar Babies to #1 in the US.

Cosmic Wheels reached the top 20 in both the US and UK, enjoying the same chart success as many of Donovan's previous albums. By 1973 the music business had shifted to promoting album-oriented rock, relegating singles to less promotion and fewer sales. An edited form of "I Like You" reached #66 in the U.S. and became the last charting single Donovan would have.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Donovan
• 1973

[commercialize]

I always imagine this in a movie were Michael Cera plays a socially awkward teen

[youphillxyz]

A great song - video is a bit slow though

[WildAlaskanBlossom]

I better go to bed it's 2 am

[WildAlaskanBlossom]

The picture is moving.

[matizzle32]

@Marlens93

Shit ME TOO. Off to bed..even though it's 3 pm.

[Kangaroocreekgangclu]

@Marlens93 Holy shit the same thing just happened to me. Bed time.

[Marlens93]

@youphillxyz I read your comment and for some reason the picture began to move slow, I think I'll go to bed

[susanstreet1]

New to me but a Donovan beautiful song.x

[whittingham4665]

1st dec 1990 jennifer juniper fontana syp 1 it got to number 68 for 1 week uk 

yours sincerely john

[whittingham4665]

dear beckmesser100 you are obviously a learned donovan fan and i love your sounds but! i have to tell you that dons last chart hit was jennifer juniper ( with those two idiots from saturday childrens television show years ago ) anyway keep up the great work!

[whittingham4665]

hip hip hooray for celia hammond

[whittingham4665]

I like you too don!