This was Donovan's first big hit when he went psychedelic ... and one of my favorite all time hits of the mid-to-late 60's. If there seems an excessive amount of nerdiness in this video, it is as intentional as the psychedelic sequences are as well. After all, any song that invokes the name of the two comic book superheroes, Superman and Green Lantern, was bound to attract the attention of 12 and 13-year-old junior high school nerds and geeks, which is where I found myself ... collecting comic books in 1966 and 1967. Of course Superman or Green Lantern "had nothing on" Marvel Comics' Spiderman, The Fantastic Four, X-Men, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, and Silver Surfer. Still, in all fairness to DC comics, I never missed an episode of Batman on TV either. Talk about nerdiness: sometimes I think there was a nerdiness epidemic going on then. Was Laugh-In ever REALLY all that funny?
How one related to this song back then though very much depended on the age one was when hearing it. There are definite references to "tripping" and LSD. Two members of the future Led Zeppelin played with Donovan on this song: Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. Just found that out ... never knew it. No wonder the lead guitar and bass sounded so great. But whatever the meaning this song has, it was ultimately a happy song. Even on one of the darkest days of my life in 1967, it managed to bring a smile and some real sunshine. You just could not listen to this song without feeling cool ... and this is one rock oldie that still sounds great to hear in the summer.
"Sunshine Superman" was released in July 1966 in the US and December 1966 in the UK. It peaked at #1 (and would be Donovan's ONLY #1 hit song) on both Billboard and Cash Box on the week of September 3, 1966. It charted at #2 in the UK in early 1967.