Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/The Lovin' Spoonful discography/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured list nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured list candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The list was promoted by Giants2008 via FACBot (talk) 00:25, 8 January 2024 (UTC).

The Lovin' Spoonful discography

 * Nominator(s):  Tkbrett  (✉) 13:40, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

I am nominating this because I believe it meets the criteria for a featured list. This page was created by not long ago, and I have completely revised it over the last three months. This list is important because there is no reliable source out there which collects the information contained here. The one Spoonful member to have written an autobiography, Steve Boone, did not include a discography or appendix in his book. Richie Unterberger, a music writer who has written extensively on the history of folk rock, wrote in a 2018 article that there is an "absence of a quality, straight Lovin' Spoonful biography". I think that this discography and the band's main article can serve as a correction.  Tkbrett  (✉) 13:40, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

Comments from MaranoFan

 * Since the band appears to have been inactive for quite some time now, shouldn't the opening sentence be in past tense: "The Lovin' Spoonful were an American folk rock band which was originally active between ..."? No other concerns and the article is very well-written. If you have some time, I would greatly appreciate your input on my own music-related FLC.--NØ 10:45, 5 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the kind comments, . I would argue that the band ceased to exist in 1968, but since 1991, there has been a touring group called the Lovin' Spoonful. They released a live album in 1999 and they are still performing. I discussed it a bit in the second note on this article.
 * The touring group is made up of the less-prominent members of the group – the drummer, the bassist and a guitarist who only played with the original '60s iteration for a year. The band's founders, John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky – the former of whom wrote almost all of the music and was the group's de facto leader – opposed the idea from the start and neither of them ever joined the touring group. Even if I disagree with it though, I think it has to be written that the band is still active. The bass player's autobiography makes it clear that the touring group is legally allowed to use the name. In his biography of the band for AllMusic, the author Richie Unterberger counts the 1999 live album as a part of their discography. The other reality is that any time I have used was to describe the Lovin' Spoonful in other articles, IP editors show up in no time to change it to is.  Tkbrett  (✉)  14:43, 5 November 2023 (UTC)
 * That makes sense to me. There are other ways a band can stay active than just releasing albums. It's an easy support on everything else. Really great work with this!--NØ 14:46, 5 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Drive-by comment re: the above (I aim to do a full review later) - it might be worth briefly mentioning the post-1991 incarnation somewhere in the lead, as currently there seems to be a contradiction between the use of the present tense in the first sentence and the statement further on that the band split up over 50 years ago..... -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 08:51, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Never mind, I now see it's covered by a footnote..... -- ChrisTheDude (talk) 14:30, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

Comments from zmbro

 * Image needs some alt text
 * Added.


 * "four compilation albums and fourteen singles in the United States" → "four compilation albums, and fourteen singles in the United States" (American comma)
 * I think it is fine either way, but I take your point that it is more of an American thing, so I threw it in there.


 * "The band oriented their focus towards the singles market;" In the beginning or in general?
 * They never really made the transition to making albums over singles, which is probably why they are more forgotten today. I added a bit more regarding this in the lead.


 * I notice the lead has no info about their album performances. Is there a reason for that? Did they not perform well enough as the singles? (looking at the table now I can see they didn't but I'm still wondering why there's no mention in the lead)
 * See above.


 * Does Sebastian selling his catalog include his Lovin' Spoonful songs or like solo stuff?
 * All of it. I clarified this.


 * Tables look good
 * [28] I know Richie Unterberger is a reliable journalist but is PleaseKillMe a reliable website?
 * I think I can make a case for its inclusion over at the band's main article per WP:EXPERTSPS, since Unterberger is the biggest RS there is for folk rock, but because the citation is redundant here I have just removed it.

That's all I got. :-) – zmbro (talk) (cont) 17:59, 5 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Other sources look good to me.
 * Thanks so much, .  Tkbrett  (✉) 15:39, 6 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Almost forgot about this. Happy to support :-) – zmbro (talk) (cont) 22:18, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Accessibility review (MOS:DTAB)

 * Tables need captions, which allow screen reader software to jump straight to named tables without having to read out all of the text before it each time. Visual captions can be added by putting + caption_text as the first line of the table code; if that caption would duplicate a nearby section header, you can make it screen-reader-only by putting + instead.
 * I think that is all of them.


 * Tables need column scopes for all column header cells, which in combination with row scopes lets screen reader software accurately determine and read out the headers for each cell of a data table. Column scopes can be added by adding !scope=col to each header cell, e.g.  becomes  . If the cell spans multiple columns with a colspan, like "Peak chart positions", then use !scope=colgroup instead. You have colscopes on most columns, but not all.
 * Done.


 * Tables need row scopes on the "primary" column for each row, which in combination with column scopes lets screen reader software accurately determine and read out the headers for each cell of a data table. You look fine here, but note that if the cell spans multiple rows with a rowspan, then use !scope=rowgroup instead of just !scope=row.
 * Done.


 * Please see MOS:DTAB for example table code if this isn't clear. I don't return to these reviews until the nomination is ready to close, so ping me if you have any questions. -- Pres N  21:18, 23 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks, I believe I got it all.  Tkbrett  (✉) 00:55, 27 November 2023 (UTC)

Comments from Ojorojo
Support This discography is well-written/organized, comprehensive, and extensively referenced with high quality sources. It easily meets the FL criteria and is another addition to Tkbrett's fine work on several Loving Spoonful GAs. —Ojorojo (talk) 17:01, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Source review

 * Reference reliability looks okay across the board. There is a small formatting issue to point out: the ISBNs have multiple different styles. The MoS seems to favor the 13-digit ones with hyphens, which are the majority here, but there are a few stragglers. If needed, I've always found this helpful for converting these numbers, and for showing where the hyphens are meant to go. Giants2008  ( Talk ) 23:41, 3 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Thanks . ISBN was 10 digits until 2007, so the standard I applied was using 10-digit ISBNs for books published from 1970–2006 and the 13-digit format for 2007–present. For consistency, I have just converted everything to the 13-digit format.  Tkbrett  (✉) 13:56, 7 January 2024 (UTC)

Image review

 * The lone photo used in the article has an appropriate free license, caption and alt text. Giants2008  ( Talk ) 22:34, 6 January 2024 (UTC)

Giants2008 ( Talk ) 23:13, 7 January 2024 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.