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Donovan Philips Leitch (usually known simply as Donovan) (born May 10, 1946) is a British musician. He spent his early years in Glasgow, and although he contracted a bout of polio as a child he fortunately suffered no permanent injury.

In 1956 the family moved to Hatfield, England. Influenced by his family's love for Scottish and English folk music, he began playing guitar at fourteen. He and longtime friend Gypsy Dave travelled the country playing folk songs. He began writing original songs in the early Sixties and by late 1964 he had recorded his first ten-track demo tape at a London basement studio; this included the original recording of what was to be his first single, 'Catch The Wind'. The tape was subsequently heard by Elkan Allen, producer of the television pop show Ready Steady Go! which led to the unknown young performer (then only 18) being invited to appear on the show.

Donovan made his TV debut on 6 February 1965. Unusually for pop programs of the time, he played and sang live, and after his performance he was interviewed by host Cathy McGowan. His appearance was so well-received that he was invited back for the next two weeks, and this in turn led to a recording contract with Pye Records.

His first UK single, a re-recorded version of 'Catch The Wind', was released soon after his third 'Ready, Steady Go' appearance and it shot to #4 on the UK charts, selling more than 200,000 copies. On April 11 he performed with the biggest stars of the year at the annual New Musical Express poll winners' concert at the Empire Pool, Wembley. The single was subsequently released on the small Hickory label in the USA, where it managed an impressive #30 chart placing.

Donovan had been billed as a British version of Bob Dylan and this image brought with it a certain degree of criticism, so not surprisingly the meeting between the two musicians later in April 1965 made headlines. However, the initially wary Dylan was impressed, as can be seen in the scenes featuring them in D.A. Pennebaker's film of Dylan's '65 UK tour, Don't Look Back, which was released in 1967 and as a result he was invited to tour with Dylan and Joan Baez.

Donovan's second single 'Colours' was released in May, reaching #4, accompanied by his debut LP 'What's Been Did And What's Been Hid', which reached #3 in the UK album charts. Retitled 'Catch The Wind' for the US, it reached #30 there.

He made his first trip to the USA at this time, performing in New York with Pete Seeger and Revered Gary Davis and appearing on Hullaballoo and Shindig, as well as performing to critical and audience acclaim at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival in July.

His next recording was a four-track EP, 'Universal Soldier', which included his renowned cover of the Buffy Saint-Marie title track, along with three other overtly anti-war tracks. As Australian rock historian Glenn A. Baker has observed, this was quite a radical move for an emerging pop performer -- the Vietnam war still had majority popular support in 1965 -- and Donovan's pioneering pacifist stance is often overlooked by his critics. Despite its contentious subject matter, the record was a significant commercial success, topping the British EP chart for eight weeks and even reaching #14 on the singles chart. It was also released in Australia, where it reached #17 on the singles chart.

'Colours' was also released in the USA but it fared rather poorly, reaching #40 on the Cash Box charts but only reaching #61 on the Billboard chart. At this point Donovan's success was greater in sales than in radio airplay, since American Top 40 radio tended to avoid folk-style recordings, preferring more highly arranged pop records. The Catch The Wind LP had also charted better in Cash Box than Billboard, reflecting the fact that Billboard's charts factored in radio airplay, whilst Cash Box did not.

A single version of "Universal Soldier" was issued in the USA in late August 1966 and it mimicked the chart performance of 'Colours', reaching #45 in Cash Box but only #53 in Billboard. Pye released Donovan's second UK album, "Fairy Tale", in October 1966, along with his next single, "Turquoise". Both were less successful than his previous releases, with the album only reaching #20 and the single peaking at #30. Donovan made a second US tour in November, and hickory released the American version of Fairy Tale later that month, but as in the UK it did charted much lower than the first LP, only reaching #85.

In late 1966 Donovan split with his original managers and signed with Ashley Kozak, who was working at Brian Epstein's NEMS Enterprises. Kozak then introduced Donovan to American impresario Allen Klein (who was about to take over management of The Rolling Stones) and Klein in turn introduced Donovan to producer Mickie Most.

Much of Donovan's music in the late Sixties was produced by Most and these tracks feature the cream of the London session scene, including future Led Zeppelin members John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page. Although it has been claimed that Donovan introduced them and essentially created the band, Jones and Page had in fact already known each other for several years -- they were among the top freelance musicians in London at that time, and worked on literally hundreds of well-known British recordings of the period.

By 1966 Donovan had abandonded the overt Dylan/Guthrie influences and taken on a 'hippie' image, but more importantly, his music was developing and changing rapidly as he immersed himself in jazz and blues and formed a highly creative working trio with Most and arranger/musician and jazz fanatic John Cameron.

The first fruit of their collaboration was the groundbreaking single "Sunshine Superman", which was followed by "Mellow Yellow", a song believed by many to be about the supposed practice of smoking banana peels, which became his signature tune. (Paul McCartney is said to be heard whispering on it).

Other hits included the smouldering "Season Of The Witch" (recorded in a single take in a Los Angeles studio, with a pick-up band he had met in a local club), the psychedelic nugget "Hurdy Gurdy Man", and his snarling freakbeat classic "Barabajagal" (backed by the Jeff Back Group) is perhaps the hardest rocking mystical evocation of Christianity ever recorded, while the anthemic "Atlantis" is as pagan and hippy-dippy as they come.

Donovan was a personal friend of and sometime collaborator with The Beatles, supplying lyrics for Yellow Submarine and appearing in the film-clip for "All You Need Is Love". He penned "Jennifer Juniper" in honor of Jenny Boyd, sister of George Harrison's wife Pattie Boyd and accompanied te Beatles when they travelled to Rishikesh in India to study meditation with the Maharishi. In 1969 he married Linda Lawrence, the widow of former Rolling Stones member Brian Jones.

In the late 1960s, seeing many of his friends and many in his audience succumb to hard drug use, Donovan went on record opposing the use of drugs. His rejection of drugs was perhaps also motivated in by the fact that in early 1967 he had become the first ivictim in a series of high-profile drug busts that year, which culminated in the famous arrest and trial of Mick Jagger and Keith Richard.

Donovan had been targeted by the Murdoch-owned 'News Of The World', which in late January 1967 began a three-part expose beginning "Drugs & Pop Stars - Facts That Will Shock You", which alleged that many leading pop stars including Donovan and The Rolling Stones were regularly smoking marijuana and using the hallucinogen LSD at celebrity parties. It emerged later that Murdoch's journalists were covertly passing information about this recreational drug use to the Drug Squad.

He became a student of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, embracing vegetarianism and Hindu and Buddhist philosophies.

He provided the songs for Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973), Franco Zeffirelli's film about St Francis of Assisi.

Donovan has two children who have become actors, his namesake son, Donovan Leitch, Jr., and his daughter, Ione Skye.

• British musicians
• Folk singers
• Pop singers