b. Chicago, Illinois, USA. Jacobsen attracted attention as a banjo player in the bluegrass trio, the Plum Creek Boys, who were later renamed the Knob Lick Upper 10, 000. This unlikely-named group recorded two albums, but broke up when lead singer Dwain Story embarked on a solo career. The third member, Pete Childs, became a session guitarist and dobro player. The Beatles inspired Jacobsen’s switch to popular music and he scoured several Greenwich Village haunts for sympathetic musicians. John Sebastian, at that point a fixture on the folk scene, brought him an original composition, ‘Rooty Toot’, and together they began forming a group. Having completed several demos with bass player Felix Pappalardi, Sebastian was joined by Joe Butler, Steve Boone and Zalman Yanovsky to form Lovin’ Spoonful. Jacobsen produced all of this excellent group’s US Top 10 material, including ‘Do You Believe In Magic?’, ‘Daydream’ and ‘Summer In The City’. This success paved the way for work with Tim Hardin and the Sopwith Camel. Jacobsen was also responsible for guiding Norman Greenbaum’s solo career, which was launched, spectacularly, with a million-selling single, ‘Spirit In The Sky’. Despite this impressive roster, Jacobsen withdrew from active involvement in music for much of the 70s, although his publishing company, Faithful Virtue Music, through which all his artists’ major compositions were assigned, would continue to reward him financially. He returned to studio work when he produced Chris Isaak’s 1985 debut Silvertone.