Editing Donovan (section)

====Mellow Yellow====
[[File:Royal Albert Hall, London - Nov 2012.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The [[Royal Albert Hall]], London]]
On 24 October 1966, Epic released the single "[[Mellow Yellow]]", arranged by [[John Paul Jones (musician)|John Paul Jones]] and purportedly featuring [[Paul McCartney]] on backing vocals, but not in the chorus.<ref name="classicbands"/> In his autobiography Donovan explained "electrical banana" was a reference to a "yellow-coloured vibrator".<ref>Donovan, ''Donovan in Concert'', released on Atlantic July 1968, re-issued on BGO February 2002. ASIN B0000011LU.</ref> The song became Donovan's signature tune in the US and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 3 on the Cash Box chart, and it earned a gold record award for sales of more than one million in the US.<ref name="The Book of Golden Discs"/>

Through the first half of 1967, Donovan worked on a double-album studio project, which he produced. In January he gave a concert at the [[Royal Albert Hall]] accompanied by a ballerina who danced during a 12-minute performance of "Golden Apples". On 14 January, [[NME|New Musical Express]] reported he was to write incidental music for a [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] production of ''[[As You Like It]]'', but this did not come to fruition. His version of "[[Under the Greenwood Tree]]" did appear on "[[A Gift from a Flower to a Garden]]".

In March Epic released the ''[[Mellow Yellow (album)|Mellow Yellow]]'' LP (not released in the UK), which reached No. 14 in the US album charts, plus a non-album single, "[[Epistle to Dippy]]", a Top 20 hit in the US. Written as an open letter to a school friend, the song had a pacifist message as well as psychedelic imagery. The real "Dippy" was in the [[British Army]] in Malaysia. According to Brian Hogg, who wrote the liner notes for the Donovan boxed set ''[[Troubadour: The Definitive Collection 1964–1976|Troubadour]]'', Dippy heard the song, contacted Donovan and left the army. On 9 February 1967, Donovan was among guests invited by the Beatles to Abbey Road Studios for the orchestral overdub for "[[A Day in the Life]]", the finale to ''[[Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band]]''.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Day in the Life:One Family, the Beautiful People, and the End of the Sixties|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OfMWwVXsl0EC&pg=PT78 |access-date=20 February 2013|isbn = 9780786748006|last1 = Greenfield|first1 = Robert|date = 17 June 2009| publisher=Hachette Books }}</ref>