Donovan Announces ‘Sunshine Superman’ 50th Anniversary North American Tour

Donovan will tour North America this fall to celebrate his 1966 hit single “Sunshine Superman” turning 50. The ’60s folk-rock icon promises the Sunshine Superman Tour will be a hit parade, with performances of its namesake song, as well as “Mellow Yellow,” “Hurdy Gurdy Man,” “Jennifer Juniper,” and more. Tickets are on sale now at donovan.ie.

The 21-city tour kicks off August 30 at Guild Hall in the East Hamptons, hits New York’s Carnegie Hall on September 15—which will mark his 50th anniversary of playing the famed venue, and includes dates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Toronto. A portion of the tour’s proceeds will benefit the Donovan Children’s Fund, a division of the David Lynch Foundation, which helps bring transcendental meditation to at-risk students in underserved schools throughout the United States.

Born Donovan Leitch in Glasgow, Scotland in 1946, he and his family moved to Hertfordshire, England when he was ten. By 1965, at 18 years old, Donovan released his first single, “Catch the Wind,” and appeared at the Newport Folk Festival at Pete Seeger’s behest. Donovan was heavily influenced by the U.K. acoustic folk scene, including Bert Jansch and Davey Graham, and later incorporated jazz, Latin, and Indian elements into his sound, which can be heard on “Sunshine Superman.” Released in 1966, “Sunshine Superman” was Donovan’s first and only single to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

The Sunshine Superman Tour coincides with a new greatest hits collection, The Essential Donovan, and a signature model by Gibson, the Donovan Model J-45, inspired by the guitar on which he composed, recorded, and performed his ’60s works.