Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?

"Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?"
U.S. picture sleeve
Single by the Lovin' Spoonful
from the album Do You Believe in Magic
B-side"Didn't Want to Have to Do It"
ReleasedApril 1966[a]
RecordedSeptember 1965[4]
StudioBell Sound, New York City
Genre
Length2:00
LabelKama Sutra
Songwriter(s)John Sebastian
Producer(s)Erik Jacobsen
The Lovin' Spoonful U.S. singles chronology
"Daydream"
(1966) 		"Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?"
(1966) 		"Summer in the City"
(1966)
Audio
"Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind?" on YouTube

"Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" is a song written by John Sebastian and first released by his band the Lovin' Spoonful on their 1965 debut album Do You Believe in Magic. It was the second single released from the album and the most successful, reaching number 2 on the American Billboard charts for the week of June 11, 1966 (number 1 was "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones).[7] It also reached number 2 in Canada. In New Zealand, the song charted at number 5.[8]

Billboard called the song an "easy rockin' ballad" that would be an "off-beat winner for the hot group."[9] Cash Box described the song as an "easy-going, lyrical blues-tinged item which claims that romantic decisions are extremely difficult to make."[10]

The song has continued to be popular and has been included in many compilations of music of the period. In 1996, Denny's restaurants used the song for their $1.99 breakfasts.[11]

The song was used on an episode of The Wonder Years titled "Cocoa and Sympathy."

In the 1999 film Dudley Do-Right, the song is given a big-band-style arrangement, and it starts with a swing dance battle between Snidely Whiplash and Dudley for Nell Fenwick, and evolves into a big production number. The lead vocals in this version are by Steve Tyrell.

The Christian parody band ApologetiX included a parody, "Did You Ever Ask Where Cain Got His Wife?", on their 2010 album Soundprooof.

  1. ^ Savage, Jon (2015). 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded. London: Faber & Faber. p. 556. ISBN 978-0-571-27762-9.
  2. ^ Anon. (May 23, 1966). "Chris Montez – Top Seller for Quality Records" (PDF). RPM. p. 7 – via WorldRadioHistory.com.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Music Capitals was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Edmonds, Ben (2002). Do You Believe in Magic (Liner notes). The Lovin' Spoonful. Buddha Records, Kama Sutra Records. 74465 99730 2.
  5. ^ Perone, James E. (2018). Listen to Pop! Exploring a Musical Genre. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-4408-6377-6 – via Google Books.
  6. ^ Nelson, Paul (1980). "Folk Rock". In Miller, Jim (ed.). The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock and Roll (Revised and Updated ed.). New York City: Random House. pp. 231–234. ISBN 0-394-73938-8 – via the Internet Archive.
  7. ^ "The Hot 100 Chart". Billboard.
  8. ^ "flavour of new zealand - search listener". FlavourOfNZ.co.nz. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  9. ^ "Spotlight Singles" (PDF). Billboard. April 30, 1966. p. 18. Retrieved 2021-03-04.
  10. ^ "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. April 30, 1966. p. 18. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  11. ^ "Music Viewpoint;Restart Me Up;In Today'S Music For Advertising, Everything Old Is New, And Everything New Is Old. What'S Goin' On? | Opinion - Adage". Creativity-online.com. May 1, 1996. Retrieved September 29, 2016.


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