The Mamas and the Papas

The band in 1967

The Mamas and the Papas
General information
Genre (s)	Pop , folk rock
founding	1965, 1971
resolution	1968, 1972
Founding members
Band leader , songwriter	John Phillips †
singing	Cass Elliot †
singing	Michelle Phillips
singing	Denny Doherty †
former members
Vocals (only briefly as a substitute)	Jill Gibson

The Mamas and the Papas was an American music group from the 1960s, best known for their titles California Dreamin ' , Monday, Monday and Dream a Little Dream of Me , among others .

story

John Phillips began his musical career with Scott McKenzie in a group called The Smoothies before they formed The Journeymen together. Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot were previously with the Mugwumps . John and his wife Michelle met Doherty and Elliot in Los Angeles in 1964 . The four first went to the Caribbean on the American Virgin Islands to get to know each other better. On her return in 1965, Barry McGuire introduced her to his producer Lou Adler , with whom she signed her first recording deal . The group was now called The Mamas & The Papas, based on the rockers of the Hells Angels , whose female members were called Mamas.

The first song California Dreamin ' , released in November 1965, was a huge success and was the prelude to a number of hits including Monday, Monday , Go Where You Wanna Go and Dedicated to the One I Love . John and Michelle Phillips had written the piece back in 1963 while living in New York, inspired by Michelle Phillips' homesickness that moved them to California. The group broke new ground by combining female and male voices for the first time. With their floating sound, which combined pop and folk, and the lyrical lyrics, they expressed the lifestyle of the flower power movement like no other band .

When John Phillips found out about the affair between his wife Michelle and Gene Clark of the Byrds , he kicked them out of the band on June 28, 1966, and Jill Gibson was hired as a replacement. Just two months later, Phillips rejoined his wife in late August, and Gibson received severance pay.

The group performed in 1967 at the Monterey Pop Festival , which John Phillips had organized and which was filmed as "Monterey Pop".

In late 1968, John and Michelle Phillips divorced when The Mamas and the Papas already went their separate ways musically. In the summer of 1971, the four musicians, who had been working on their solo careers in the meantime, got together again for an album, People Like Us , because they were contractually obliged to do so. It was unsuccessful and remained the last of the group. In late July 1974, Cass Elliot died of a heart attack.

In 1982, John Phillips and Denny Doherty formed a new group called The Mamas and the Papas , which in addition to these two original members also included Phillips' daughter Mackenzie Phillips and Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (formerly Spanky and Our Gang ). Due to unsuccessfulness, the band did not stay together in their initial line-up for long.

In 1998 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame .

In March 2001, John Phillips died of heart failure. In January 2007, Denny Doherty succumbed to an artery dilation . This makes Michelle Phillips the only founding member still alive.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1966	If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears	-	-	US1 platinum (105 weeks)US	127th place in the Rolling Stone 500
	The Mamas & the Papas	DE14 (16 weeks) DE	UK3 (18 weeks) UK	US4th gold (76 weeks)US
1967	Cass, John, Michelle, Denny	-	UK24 (6 weeks) UK	-
	The Mamas & the Papas Deliver	DE30 (4 weeks) DE	UK4 (22 weeks) UK	US2 gold (55 weeks)US
	Farewell to the First Golden Era	-	-	US5 gold (65 weeks)US	Best of album
1968	The Papas & the Mamas	-	-	US15 (34 weeks) US
	Golden Era, Vol. 2	-	-	US53 (13 weeks) US	Best of album
1969	Hits of gold	-	UK9 silver (2 weeks)UK	-	Best of album
	16 of Their Greatest Hits	-	-	US61 (26 weeks) US	Best of album
1971	People Like Us	-	-	US84 (8 weeks) US
1973	20 golden hits	-	UK- platinum UK	US186 (4 weeks) US	Best of album
1977	The Best of the Mamas and Papas	-	UK6th × 2 Double platinum (13 weeks)UK	-	Best of album
1992	Daydream - The Famous Hits of the Mamas & the Papas	DE7 (20 weeks) DE	-	-	Best of album
1995	California Dreamin '- The Very Best Of	-	UK14th silver (8 weeks)UK	-	Best of album
1997	California Dreamin '- Greatest Hits Of	-	UK30th silver (5 weeks)UK	-	Best of album
2006	California Dreamin '- The Best Of	-	UK21 gold (4 weeks)UK	-	Best of album

More compilations

• 1988: Very Best of Mamas and Papas (UK:silver)
• 1998: Greatest Hits (423rd place in the Rolling Stone 500 )
• 2004: 20th Century Masters - The Best of the Mamas & the Papas (US:gold)
• 2016: Ultimate Anthology

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1966	California Dreamin ' If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears	DE31 (9 weeks) DE	-	-	UK9 platinum (19 weeks)UK	US4th gold (17 weeks)US	Authors: John Phillips , Michelle Gilliam 89th place in the Rolling Stone 500 , Grammy Hall of Fame , Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 1997 with a new edition, top position 9 weeks and 2013 1 week (80th place) in the UK charts
	Monday, Monday If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears	DE2 gold (20 weeks)DE	AT2 (12 weeks) AT	-	UK3 (13 weeks) UK	US1 gold (12 weeks)US	Author: John Phillips Grammy (R&R Performance Group)
	I Saw Her Again The Mamas & the Papas	DE21 (6 weeks) DE	-	-	UK11 (11 weeks) UK	US5 (9 weeks) US	Authors: John Phillips, Denny Doherty
	Look Through My Window The Mamas & the Papas Deliver	-	-	-	-	US24 (7 weeks) US	Author: John Phillips
	Words of Love The Mamas & the Papas	-	-	-	UK47 (3 weeks) UK	US5 (12 weeks) US	Author: John Phillips
	Dancing in the Street The Mamas & the Papas	-	-	-	-	US73 (6 weeks) US	in USA B-side of Words of Love Original: Martha & the Vandellas (1964)
1967	Dedicated to the One I Love The Mamas & the Papas Deliver	DE26 (10 weeks) DE	-	-	UK2 (17 weeks) UK	US2 (10 weeks) US	Original: The "5" Royales (1957)
	Creeque Alley The Mamas & the Papas Deliver	-	-	-	UK9 (11 weeks) UK	US5 (9 weeks) US	biographical song: the title is the address of her temporary residence in the Virgin Islands Author: John Phillips, Michelle Gilliam
	Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon) Farewell to the First Golden Era	-	-	-	-	US20 (6 weeks) US	Author: John Phillips
	Glad to Be Unhappy Golden Era, Vol. 2	-	-	-	-	US26 (7 weeks) US	Originally comes from the musical On Your Toes (1936) Authors: Richard Rodgers , Lorenz Hart
	Dancing Bear The Mamas & the Papas	-	-	-	-	US51 (7 weeks) US	Author: John Phillips
1968	Safe in My Garden The Papas and the Mamas	-	-	-	-	US53 (6 weeks) US	Author: John Phillips
	For the Love of Ivy The Papas and the Mamas	-	-	-	-	US81 (5 weeks) US	Authors: John Phillips, Denny Doherty the title is based on the film For Love of Ivy by Sidney Poitier from the same year
	Do You Wanna Dance If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears	-	-	-	-	US76 (5 weeks) US	Original / Author: Bobby Freeman (1958)
1972	Step Out People Like Us	-	-	-	-	US81 (3 weeks) US	Author: John Phillips
Mama Cass with The Mamas and the Papas
1968	Dream a Little Dream of Me The Papas and the Mamas	DE5 (25 weeks) DE	-	CH22 (5 weeks) CH	UK11 (12 weeks) UK	US12 (11 weeks) US	1931 a hit for Wayne King Authors: Gus Kahn , Wilbur Schwandt , Fabian André

hatched gray : no chart data available for this year

Awards for music sales

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / RegionAwards for Mu-sik-ver-käu-fe (country / region, awards, sales, sources)	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	sources
Germany (BVMI)	-	gold1	-	500,000	See individual evidence
United States (RIAA)	-	6 × gold6th	platinum1	5,000,000	riaa.com
United Kingdom (BPI)	4 × silver4th	gold1	4 × platinum4th	1,840,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	4 × silver4th	8 × gold8th	5 × platinum5

Further awards

RSH gold

• 1993: in the category "Commercial Song of the Year" (Dream a Little Dream of Me)

literature

• Matthias Blazek: The Mamas and The Papas - flower power icons, psychedelics and sexual revolution . Ibidem-Verlag, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-8382-0577-9 .
• Irwin Stambler: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul . 3rd Revised Edition, New York City, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989, pp. 429-431, ISBN 0-312-02573-4 .
• Jay Warner: The Billboard Book Of American Singing Groups. A History 1940–1990 . New York City / New York: Billboard Books, 1992, pp. 415f.
• The Mamas and the Papas: History and 16 of their greatest hits . Songbook, HAL LEONARD PUB CO, 1991, ISBN 978-0-7935-0836-5 (English).

sources

1. ↑ [1] (English)
2. ^ Phillips, Michelle (1986): California Dreamin ': The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas. New York, NY: Warner Books. ISBN 0-44634-430-3 . 1986, pp. 72, 73 in the American edition
3. ↑ The Mamas and the Papas in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (English)
4. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
5. ^ ^{A b} US singles: Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Billboard Books, New York 2007, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 . / US albums: The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7 .
6. ^ Günter Ehnert: Hit Bilanz - German Chart Singles 1956-1980 . 1st edition. Verlag popular music-literature, Norderstedt 2000, ISBN 3-922542-24-7 , p. 445 .
7. ↑ Mama Cass in the British charts
8. ↑ RSH Gold Award 1993 (English)

Web links

Commons : The Mamas & the Papas  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Vocal Group Hall of Fame - article about The Mamas & the Papas (English)
• David Redd's fan page