Nashville Cats

"Nashville Cats" is a song by the American folk-rock band the Lovin' Spoonful. Written by John Sebastian, the song appeared on the band's 1966 album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful, and it was also issued on a single released the same day as the album. The single peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking the seventh and final time the band reached the American Top Ten.

Composition and recording

John Sebastian composed "Nashville Cats" as an ode to the Nashville A-Team, a loose group of session musicians based in Nashville, Tennessee. He later recalled that after the Lovin' Spoonful played a show in Nashville, he and Zal Yanovsky, the band's lead guitarist, were amazed by an unknown guitarist, who played the bar of the Holiday Inn hotel at which the band was staying. Sebastian composed the song weeks later at his home in East Quogue, New York.

Though the Lovin' Spoonful's music blended influences from blues, country and folk music, their music was focused towards the popular music market. Each of the band members enjoyed elements of country music, particularly Yanovsky, whose lead guitar playing often drew from influences like the rockabilly guitarist Carl Perkins. Steve Boone, the band's bassist, recalled that though the group's earlier songs had sometimes hinted at country, on "Nashville Cats" they "consciously tried to make it sound country, like we were really Nashville cats".

"Nashville Cats" features an electric guitar, a pedal steel guitar and what Sebastian terms "sponge rubber guitar playing" on rhythm guitar. The pedal steel guitar had been leftover from a previous session, and Sebastian quickly learned to play it in the 45 minutes before the band began recording.

Like Boone, the rock author John Einarson describes the song as "pure country". By contrast, the author David Dachs describes the song as a parody, and the journalist Peter Doggett writes that though it was a sincere tribute from Sebastian, the song sounds "condescending" and a "pastiche of Southern slang". The author James E. Perone considers the song an example of pop music.

Release and promotion

Released as psychedelic music began to reach its height in popularity, "Nashville Cats" stood in contrast to the music being recorded by the Lovin' Spoonful's peers. The band were cynical of the possibility of the single succeeding in the pop charts, but they hoped it could become a crossover hit in the country music market. The band's record label, Kama Sutra Records, were similarly skeptical of the single's chances; as a hedge, they opted to add "Full Measure" – a song more suggestive of psychedelia – as the B-side. Kama Sutra issued "Nashville Cats" as a single in the U.S. in late November 1966, simultaneously with the release of the album on which it appeared, Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful. The single exceeded expectations and became a Top Ten hit; on December 17, 1966, it entered Billboard magazine's Hot 100 chart, and it peaked six weeks later at number eight. Since October 1965, the band had had six singles enter the Hot 100, and "Nashville Cats" was their seventh and final single to do so.

Kama Sutra issued "Nashville Cats" in the U.K. on December 2, 1966. The single reached number 23 on Melody Maker magazine's single chart. The Lovin' Spoonful had achieved quick success in the country months earlier, when their single "Daydream" reached number two on the British charts in May 1966, but the band's subsequent singles failed to perform as well. The anonymous reviewer for the Bucks Examiner newspaper suggested that the band's declining fortunes stemmed from their recent releases lacking the striking quality needed to succeed in the singles market, adding that though "Nashville Cats" was "very good", it was "a strange choice for a single".

The Lovin' Spoonful's version of "Nashville Cats" failed to appear on any country charts, but the American bluegrass duo Flatt and Scruggs recorded a cover which reached number 54 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart in 1967.

Charts

Notes

References

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