Donovan facts for kids

Donovan performing in Washington (2007)

Donovan Phillips Leitch (born May 10, 1946 in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish-born pop singer and guitarist, who was popular in the 1960s. Early in his career he was compared to Bob Dylan, but he developed his own musical style, which included elements of jazz and Indian music. (Donovan and Dylan met during 1965, and became friends.)

Donovan's best-remembered songs include "Catch The Wind", "Mellow Yellow", "Sunshine Superman", "Happiness Runs", and "Hurdy Gurdy Man". He helped The Beatles with their song "Yellow Submarine", and two Beatles (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) sang on his song "Atlantis".

Donovan was one of the first pop musicians to denounce the use of drugs, after his own arrest for hashish possession in 1966, and his seeing friends begin to use "hard drugs" like heroin and speed (amphetamine). The liner notes to his 1967 album A Gift From a Flower to a Garden called upon young people to "stop the use of all drugs, and heed the quest to seek the Sun." (He later resumed occasional marijuana use, and drinking alcohol.)

After the 1960s, Donovan's music was not as popular as it had been, but it is remembered now as part of the flower power era. Many of his songs now appear in television commercials. He continued to make albums regularly through the 1980s, and sometimes in the 1990s. He also continued to tour, and some of his later albums are of live performances. He published an autobiography, The Hurdy Gurdy Man, during 2005.

Two of Donovan's children, Donovan Leitch and Ione Skye, are actors.

Images for kids

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  Donovan (1965)

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  Donovan before a show in Washington, D.C. on August 10, 2007.

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  Donovan performing in Washington, D.C. in 2007.