Colours (Donovan song)

Swedish release of "Colours" single.

Donovan followed up the success of "Catch the Wind" with "Colours", which featured a similar folk style. The single matched the success of "Catch the Wind" in the United Kingdom, reaching No. 4 on the charts.[3] In the United States, "Colours" reached No.61,[4] and marked a decline in the artist's popularity relative to "Catch the Wind". A different mix of the song (without harmonica) was released on his second album Fairytale. Billboard praised the "intriguing lyric and melody."[5] Cash Box described it as a "tender, slow-moving, rhythmic pledge of romantic devotion sold by the songster in his distinctive Bob Dylan-ish style."[6]

When Epic Records was compiling Donovan's Greatest Hits, they were either unable or unwilling to secure the rights to the original recordings of "Catch the Wind" and "Colours". Donovan re-recorded both songs in the studio with Big Jim Sullivan playing guitar, John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards and Clem Cattini on drums, produced by Mickie Most. The re-recordings were included on the greatest hits album.

• A live duet with Joan Baez from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival[2] is included on the 1995 compilation Folk Music at Newport, Part 1.
• The 2002 film The Rules of Attraction features a re-recorded version by Donovan which would after be used in various television commercials.

• Joan Baez included a solo version of "Colours" on her 1965 album Farewell, Angelina.
• In 1967, Van Dyke Parks created a (loose) instrumental adaptation of this song titled "Donovan's Colours", which was released as a single (credited to George Washington Brown) and as a track on Parks' first album Song Cycle, respectively. This version features mostly the original chord progression, albeit in completely different ragtime arrangement.
• Donovan collaborated with the Spanish group Mocedades for a cover of the song with Spanish/English lyrics included in the latter's 1986 album Colores.
• Terence Stamp covered the song in the 1967 film Poor Cow. Footage of Stamp singing the song in this film would later appear as a closing flashback in the 1999 film The Limey which also starred Stamp.
• A cover of the song, released in 1990, was the first single of British art rock duo No-Man and the first release under their current name (their first releases from 1989 had their previous moniker "No Man Is An Island").[7] The later re-release of the song had an original song, "Drink Judas", as a b-side.[8] Both songs were later included in the duo's 1992 third EP: Lovesighs – An Entertainment, with "Drink Judas" being re-recorded and "Colours" remixed.[9]
• Finbar Furey included a version of "Colours" on his 2012 album of the same name.[10]
• "Žlutá" by Zdena Lorencová was released in Czechoslovakia in 1972. This interpretation has lyrics in Czech, which are mainly about yellow (Czech: žlutá).

• Colours (Single) – Donovan Unofficial Site Archived 18 August 2010 at the Wayback Machine