By ALAN NIESTER 

Special to The Globe and Mail

Monday, December 16, 2002 – Print Edition, Page R7

It was 1965. Beatlemania was in full swing, the Fab Four having put a stranglehold on both the Western world's pop-music charts and its entire public consciousness. The British Invasion was sending wave upon wave of new bands across the ocean, and simply being British was enough to propel almost anyone with the requisite accent to the top of the charts.

But by 1965, U.S. forces were beginning to gather, and a reactionary wave of American bands such as the Beau Brummels, the Turtles and the Byrds were beginning to make inroads into the charts. The hunt was on for "the American Beatles," and for a brief period, from 1965 to 1967, a New York band named the Lovin' Spoonful made as much of a claim to the title as any other group.

Singer-guitarist Zalman (Zal) Yanovsky, who died Friday at age 57 on his farm outside Kingston of an apparent heart attack, was a founding member of the Lovin' Spoonful. Along with co-founder John Sebastian, Mr. Yanovsky helped forge a unique folk-meets-the-Beatles pop sound that garnered the band a long string of hits, including such classic pop staples as Summer in the City, You Didn't Have to Be So Nice, Daydream and others.

Mr. Yanovsky, who was born in Toronto, took to the stage in the city's coffeehouse scene of the early sixties. His first big break came when he befriended Halifax singer-songwriter Denny Doherty, who conscripted Mr. Yanovsky into his band the Colonials. The Colonials morphed into the Halifax Three, and became part of New York's influential Greenwich Village folk scene.

By 1963 (after Mr. Doherty and Mr. Yanovsky attempted a short-lived career in a surf trio called D and Z, and recorded one unsuccessful single called The Slurp), Mr. Yanovsky had joined with future Mamas and Papas singer Cass Elliot in Cass Elliot and the Big Three, and then its later incarnation, the pioneering folk-rock band known as the Mugwumps. It was in the fecund and nurturing New York folk scene that Mr. Yanovsky first met Mr. Sebastian.

While Mr. Sebastian's roots were more purely folk-inspired, Mr. Yanovsky brought with him a burgeoning blues and roots feel. Along with the rhythm section of Steve Boone and Joe Butler, Mr. Yanovsky and Mr. Sebastian formed a new band, the Lovin' Spoonful, named after a phrase from a Mississippi John Hurt blues song.

The band's infectious and happy-go-lucky blend of folk-inspired harmonies crafted on to tight, three-minute, British Invasion-styled melodies was an instant success, with singles such as Do You Believe in Magic? and Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind? establishing the Lovin' Spoonful as potential heirs to the Beatles' throne. The Spoonful's inclusion of both jug band (Jug Band Music) and country (Nashville Cats) elements into the mix made them one of the first pop outfits to attempt to extend the elements of teenage pop into wider areas, and Mr. Yanovsky was the driving force in moving the group's sound in these then-exotic directions.

By 1967, however, things began to unravel for both Mr. Yanovsky and the band. Mr. Yanovsky was busted for marijuana possession in San Francisco, an event that precipitated his departure from the band and its ultimate demise. His attempt at a solo musical career was short-lived. He released one album, 1968's Alive and Well and Living in Argentina, then did some touring with folk singer Kris Kristofferson before returning to Southern Ontario in the early seventies.

Mr. Yanovsky settled in Kingston, where he shifted gears entirely, entering the restaurant trade with a coffeehouse called Dr. Bull's, then the more upscale Chez Piggy, a renowned establishment that was constructed by Mr. Yanovsky in a renovated 1810 livery stable. The restaurant became, and has remained, one of Kingston's best-known dining establishments since its unlikely conception, with Mr. Yanovsky playing a major role in its construction, cooking, and day-to-day operations. He became one of Kingston's most visible citizens, and a noted good-will ambassador for the city.

Mr. Yanovsky, who was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996, leaves his wife, Rose Richardson, daughter Zoe, grandson Max and sister Buba, as well as his first wife, actress Jackie Burroughs.

A private family service is scheduled for today in Kingston.

Zal Yanovsky, musician, restaurateur; born in Toronto on Dec. 19, 1944; died near Kingston on Dec. 13, 2002