Ex-Lovin' Spoonful member Yanovsky dies

TORONTO, Canada (Oldies Music News Website) - Zal Yanovsky, a guitar player with the Lovin' Spoonful, a 1960s group known for hits such as "Daydream," "Do You Believe in Magic" and "Summer in the City," has died at age 57, his family said.

Yanovsky died of a probable heart attack Dec. 13 in Kingston, 150 miles east of Toronto, where he had lived since leaving the band in 1967, news reports said.

Led by John Sebastian, the Lovin' Spoonful was one of the most popular American groups in the mid-1960s. It was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in 2000.

Yanovsky referred to the induction as "a big media event that's over in two seconds," the Kingston Whig-Standard newspaper reported.

Born in Toronto, Yanovsky went to New York to try to forge a musical career and eventually met Sebastian.

Denny Doherty, another Canadian musician who played with the Mamas and the Papas, said he and Yanovsky used to perform on the streets for change before heading to New York.
"I remember (Yanovsky) came in one day and sang `Do You Believe in Magic' and I thought it was nice. I didn't see him again until the song was a hit," the Whig-Standard quoted Doherty as saying Sunday.
In a 1999 interview with the Kingston Life Magazine, Yanovsky said he was kicked out of the band in 1967.