I
may be getting old, but I am cheered to learn that on this date in 1966 Monday,
Monday by The Mamas and the Papas hit Number 1 on the Billboard charts. It stayed there for three weeks. It was the only #1 hit for perhaps the most
inventive American vocal group of
the ’60s. The song was written by 31
year old John Phillips, the creative
force behind the group. Phillip had matured as a musician in the Greenwich Village folk scene where he performed with The Journeymen with Scott
McKenzie and Dick Weismann.
In
addition to Phillips the group included his wife former model Michelle, who often collaborated with
him on song lyrics, Canadian born Denny Doherty, and Cass
Elliot.
Besides being released as a single, the song was
included on the group’s debut album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, a pop masterpiece from beginning to
end that also contained such classics as Lennon and McCartney’s I Call
Your Name, Do You Wanna Dance,
California Dreamin’, Spanish Harlem, and The In Crowd.
In The Mama’s & The
Papa’s short, tumultuous three years together—a contractual obligation to their
record company, Dunhill, would result in the release of one final album
of original material in 1971 recorded by each singer on separate tracks and
assembled by Phillips and producer Lou Adler—they recorded three more
classic albums, The Mamas & The Papas, The Mamas and
the Papas Deliver, and The Papas and the Mamas. In the ‘70’s and ‘80’s their label
would mine old material and some live recordings for several compilation and
“Greatest Hits” albums.
The band broke up after a
long period of turmoil, including Michelle and Doherty’s affair, John’s
increasing drinking and drug use, and John’s crass insult to Cass Eliot at a London
party thrown by Mick Jagger.
Cass went on to have a
successful solo career before dying of a heart attack in 1974. John released a critically praised but
commercially unsuccessful solo album, John The Wolf King of LA. He and Michelle divorced and she became a
successful film and television actress.
Doherty struggled to establish a solo career.
In the ‘80’s Philips
formed The New Mamas & the Papas with his daughter Mackenzie
Philips, the former teen star of the TV sitcom One Day at a
Time, Elaine “Spanky” McFarland formally of Spanky and Our
Gang, and Doherty. Scott McKenzie would
later replace Doherty. The band was very
successful and toured to sold out venues doing old material as well a new
material by Phillips. But both Phillips
and his daughter continued to battle significant drug problems and Doherty
drank. McKenzie would later charge that
her father initiated a 10 year long incestuous relationship with her, a charge
other members of the family vehemently deny.
Phillips
died of heart failure after several years of ill health and a liver transplant in 2001. Doherty passed of a stomach aneurism in Canada in
2007. His last years were spent as the
producer and a performer in children’s television in his native land. Scott McKenzie died in 2012
Michelle Phillips, who
now holds the copyrights on the band’s original songs, now spends a lot
of time promoting its memory.
Me? I just can’t listen to those great songs
without a smile on my face.
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