In 1966 The Lovin' Spoonful was taking off, with their album Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful -- which included their only number one hit, Summer in the City1 -- giving them a flurry of songs hitting the top 10. All of their songs are folksy, upbeat, and have strong blues roots, but the ninth track on that album, Nashville Cats, pushes the envelope for folksy fun.
It is a bit bluegrassy, a little country, and an excellent example of what a steel guitar2 can do when it's having fun. It has a good boom-chicka-boom beat, as popularized by The Tennessee Three in the 50s. It is also not at all a typical rock and roll song; it has no mention of romance, cars, or angst. Instead, it's just a fun song on how good Nashville musicians are. Insofar as it has appeal to wider audiences, it wins it through catchy music well arranged. It "only" reached number eight on the US charts, on January 27, 1967.
While Nashville Cats is good jug band fun of the type rarely found in popular music, it is worth noting that it wasn't a one-off. The Lovin' Spoonful also released Jug Band Music (1966, Daydreams), and the fun carnival like Bes' Friends also appears in the Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful album; fun music was a large part of their brand.3
The term Nashville Cats has since been retroactively used as a collective label for the session musicians who backed singers like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan in the recording studios around Nashville. These musicians are generally not very well known, but had a significant impact on the modern country and rock sounds.
1. Summer in the City hit #1 on the Hot 100 in the US on August 1966, and stayed there for three consecutive weeks; however, Daydream hit #1 in Canada and New Zealand, so technically, they had two number one hits.
2. There is a surprising amount of debate as to which band member was playing what instrument at which time. It seems likely that this piece originally used a electric guitar used to mimic a steel guitar, with a pedal steel guitar assisting.
3. Full disclosure: rock and roll music used to be weirder. Nashville Cats was on the charts the same year as Napoleon XIV's They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!, The Beatles' Yellow Submarine, The Royal Guardsmen's Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron, and The New Vaudeville Band's Winchester Cathedral. Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron is actually one of the songs that stopped Nashville Cats from peaking higher than #8.