Denny Doherty born 29 November 1940

Denny Doherty (November 29, 1940 – January 19, 2007) was a Canadian singer. He was a founding member of the 1960s musical group the Mamas and the Papas for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. 

Dennis Gerrard Stephen Doherty was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of an ironworker and a "housewife and mystic" as he once described his mother. He made his first public appearance at the age of 15 singing the Pat Boone hit Love Letters in the Sand at amateur night at the local skating rink. By the late 1950s he had shifted allegiance to the burgeoning folk song movement and had gained a recording contract with the New York company Columbia, with his group the Halifax Three. 

The group emigrated to New York, the centre of the folk revival in the early 1960s. In Greenwich Village, he met Cass Elliott with whom he formed a short-lived group, the Mugwumps, which also featured future Lovin' Spoonful members John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky. 

Next, Doherty joined forces with husband and wife John and Michelle Phillips, as the New Journeymen. Michelle recalled that "it was so incredible to sing with somebody who had such a beautiful voice because John and I were just little croakers". Early in 1965, Cass Elliott brought her equally vital vocal talent to the group and the Mamas and the Papas were formed. As John Phillips wrote in the song Creeque Alley, his New York musician friends such as Roger McGuinn (of the Byrds) and Barry McGuire (singer of the hit Eve of Destruction) had already headed west ("McGuinn and McGuire just a-gettin' higher in LA"); the Mamas and the Papas decided to follow suit. 

In Los Angeles, the Mamas and the Papas linked up with the producer Lou Adler. Under his guidance, the Mamas and the Papas had six Top 20 hits in America in two years, beginning with California Dreamin' on which Doherty's pure tenor and jazz flautist Bud Shank perfectly conveyed John Phillips's paean to the west coast. This was followed by Monday, Monday, I Saw Her Again, the vaudeville-styled Words of Love, the lush 1950s ballad Dedicated to the One I Love, and Creeque Alley. Monday, Monday, perhaps the finest moment of Doherty's recording career, won a Grammy award as Best Contemporary Group Performance of 1966. The group enjoyed similar success in Britain where California Dreamin' became a hit all over again after it was used in a commercial in 1997. Although John Phillips was the group's principal songwriter, Doherty co-wrote I Saw Her Again and Got a Feeling. 

                    

In the summer of 1968, however, the group collapsed as a result of the prodigious drug intake and the complicated inter-personal relationships of its members. As music historian Barney Hoskyns put it: "An affair began between Michelle and Denny for whom Cass lusted." Mama Cass launched herself on a solo career, while Michelle Phillips moved into acting and John and Denny each recorded solo albums. Denny's Waiting For a Song was the last album Cass sang on before her death in London in 1974. In 1975 Doherty made his acting debut in Man on the Moon, a Broadway show created by Phillips and Andy Warhol. 

Despite the dissolution of the group, there remained a public demand for the Mamas and the Papas. There was a brief reunion to record an album in 1971, but the Mamas and Papas did not appear again on stage until 1982 when Doherty and John Phillips toured with two new members, Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (from the 1960s group Spanky and Our Gang) and the Phillips's daughter, McKenzie. In later line-ups of the group Doherty was replaced by Scott McKenzie, whose John Phillips-composed San Francisco (Wear Some Flowers in Your Hair) had been a hippie anthem. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. 

Doherty had returned to Canada in 1978 and played a variety of roles in TV dramas and films including Elvis Presley's father in Elvis Meets Nixon. From 1993 to 2001, he played the part of the Harbour Master, as well as the voice-overs of the characters, in Theodore Tugboat, a CBC Television children's show chronicling the "lives" of vessels in a busy harbour loosely based upon Halifax Harbour. He also memorialised the Mamas and the Papas in an autobiographical stage show, Dream a Little Dream, co-written with Paul Ledoux. 

Doherty died on January 19, 2007, at his home in Mississauga, Ontario. The cause was not immediately known, but he had suffered from kidney failure following surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm. His funeral service was held at St Stephen's Roman Catholic Church in Halifax. He was interred at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Lower Sackville, Nova Scotia.

 (Edited mainly from article by Dave Laing @ The Guardian & Wikipedia)

John Phillips born 30 August 1935

 John Edmund Andrew Phillips (August 30, 1935 – March 18, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was the leader of the vocal group the Mamas & the Papas and remains frequently referred to as Papa John Phillips. 

L-R clockwise top Mike Boran, John Phillips,
Scott Mackenzie, Bill Cleary 

The son of a marine officer, Phillips was born in South Carolina. He studied at George Washington University, and briefly attended the US Naval Academy before migrating to New York in 1957 to join the Greenwich Village folk scene. There, he formed several groups, including the Abstracts, the Smoothies and the New Journeymen, whose members included guitarist and singer Denny Doherty and Michelle Gilliam, who became his second wife in 1962. The quartet that was to become the Mamas and Papas was completed by the arrival of Cass Elliot, who had formerly sung with Doherty in the Mugwumps. 

The New Journeymen

The quartet moved to Los Angeles, where they linked up with record producer Lou Adler. He later said of their audition: "They had just come down from about 80 acid trips; they were funky, dirty and grizzly, and yet they sang like angels." Elliot found them a name after hearing a Hell's Angel say, "We call our women mamas," on a television show. 

Their first single was California Dreamin', released on Adler's Dunhill label in 1966. Doherty was the lead singer, Glen Campbell played guitar, and the flute solo was by jazz musician Bud Shank. Like another of John Phillips's 1966 compositions, San Francisco (Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair), it portrayed California as a new utopia, and was the first of a series of his powerful ballads. These included the playful Creeque Alley, which told the history of the group, the ecstatic love song, I Saw Her Again Last Night, and the sombre Look Through My Window. 

                             

The Mamas and Papas also recorded some deftly-chosen songs from the 50s, notably Dedicated To The One I Love, originally by the Shirelles. Phillips's four-part vocal arrangements were influenced by the jazz singing of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and by such 1950s pop groups as the Four Freshmen. With Lou Adler, Phillips organised the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which introduced Jimi Hendrix and The Who to American audiences. 

But the Phillips' marriage had been damaged by Michelle's affair with Doherty, for whom Elliot had an unrequited passion. Michelle was temporarily ejected from the group, and the end came when Elliott left to follow a successful solo career as Mama Cass. She died suddenly in 1974. 

In 1970, Phillips made his own solo album, The Wolf-king Of LA, which reflected the growing popularity in Los Angeles of the country-rock sound associated with his friend Gram Parsons. Its lyrics mostly concerned the lifestyle of the new Los Angeles movie and music aristocracy, of which Phillips was a leading member. 

Phillips with Brian Jones

By this time, however, he was in the grip of the drug addiction graphically described in his 1986 autobiography, Papa John. He had little incentive to work in the 1970s, as he was reportedly receiving $100,000 a year in composer royalties. The sum total of his musical activity in that decade was the soundtrack music for Nicolas Roeg's film The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), and the production of an album by his third wife, Genevieve Waite. He also recorded some solo tracks, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as producers, under the title Pay, Pack And Follow. 

The catalyst for Phillips to return to the stage was a conviction for drug offences that forced him to undergo rehabilitation in 1981. As part of his sentence, he gave lectures on drug abuse, assisted by his daughter, McKenzie. The following year, he was fit enough to form a new Mamas and Papas group, with Doherty, McKenzie and Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane (formerly of the Los Angeles group Sparky and Our Gang). 

Later members of the re-formed quartet included Scott McKenzie, an ex-Journeyman and the singer of the hit version of San Francisco. In 1996, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to Phillips. In 1998, Phillips was reunited with Doherty and Michelle when the Mamas and Papas were inducted into the rock 'n' roll hall of fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2000. 

Phillips died on March 18, 2001, in a Los Angeles hospital of heart failure, following several years of failing health after a liver transplant and two hip replacements. Prior to entering the hospital, he had completed work on a solo album tentatively titled "Slow Starter." He was married four times and had five children and two stepchildren. They include McKenzie, a singer and television actress, Chynna, a member of the Wilson Phillips vocal group, and Bijou, a singer and model. 

(Edited from a Dave Laing article @The Guardian & Wikipedia)

Cass Elliot born 19 September 1941

 

Cass Elliot (born  September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974), also known as Mama Cass, was an American singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. In 1998, Elliot, John Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Michelle Phillips were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for their work as The Mamas & the Papas. 

 

Best-known as one of the singers of the renowned '60s psychedelic pop outfit the Mamas & the Papas, Cass Elliot (or Mama Cass), was born Ellen Naomi Cohen on September 19, 1941, in Baltimore, MD.  Her family moved to Alexandria, VA when she was a child and she became interested in acting while in high school.  She left before graduating to move to NYC to try her hand as a full-time actress.  She adopted the name “Cass” (but not short for Cassandra) and the name Eliot for a HS friend who had died. 

 

She toured in the musical The Music Man, but lost the part of Miss Marmelstein in I Can Get It for You Wholesale to Barbra Streisand in 1962. 

 

With the folk music movement sweeping the nation around this time, Elliot formed the Big Three with other members Tim Rose and James Hendricks, issuing a few underappreciated albums (Live at the Recording Studio, The Big 3). The group eventually metamorphosized into the Mugwumps after Rose was replaced by a few other members, including Denny Doherty, but with only an obscure single to show for their hard work, the Mugwumps were kaput by 1964.  

 

To make a long story short, Elliot and Doherty eventually teamed up with the husband/wife team of John and Michelle Phillips, forming the Mamas & the Papas by the mid-'60s. Although the group would only remain together for a few short years, their impact on the rock music world was great. Elliot, known for her sense of humor and optimism, was considered by some to be the most charismatic member of the group. Her powerful, distinctive voice was a major factor in their success. 

 

 She is best remembered for her vocals on the group's hits "California Dreamin'," "Monday Monday," and "Words of Love," and particularly for the solo "Dream a Little Dream of Me," which the group recorded in 1968 after learning about the death of Fabian Andre, one of the men who co-wrote it, whom Michelle Phillips had met years earlier. Elliot's version is noteworthy for its contemplative pace, whereas almost all earlier recordings of "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (including one by Nat King Cole and another by Ozzie Nelson) had been up-tempo versions—the song having been written in 1931 as a dance tune.

 

 

 

 

 

A popular legend about Elliot is that her vocal range was improved by three notes after she was hit on the head by some copper tubing while walking through a construction site behind the bar where The New Journeymen were playing in the Virgin Islands. Elliot herself confirmed the story in a 1968 interview with Rolling Stone magazine. 

 

Upon the group's breakup in 1968, Elliot launched a solo career, issuing such albums as 1968's Dream a Little Dream of Me, 1969's Bubble Gum, Lemonade, & Something for Mama and Make Your Own Kind of Music, 1970's Mama's Big Ones, 1971's Dave Mason & Cass Elliot, 1972's The Road Is No Place for a Lady, and finally, 1973's Don't Call Me Mama Anymore. In addition, Elliot hosted two prime time TV specials of her own in 1969 and 1973, and appeared on numerous TV shows in the early '70s (including co-hosting The Tonight Show, as well as programs by Mike Douglas, Johnny Cash, Ed Sullivan, Carol Burnett, Tom Jones, and Red Skelton).

 

At the height of her solo career in 1974, Elliot performed two weeks of sold-out concerts at the London Palladium. She telephoned Michelle Phillips after the final concert on July 28, elated that she had received standing ovations each night. She then retired for the evening, and died in her sleep at age 32. Sources state her death was due to a heart attack. Elliot died in a London flat, No. 12 at 9 Curzon Place, Shepherd Market, Mayfair, which was on loan from singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson. Four years later, The Who's drummer Keith Moon died in the same flat at the same age. Elliot was buried in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

 

 

 

Cass Elliot's contributions to rock music didn't go unnoticed as the Mamas & the Papas were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 (with Elliot's only child, Owen, accepting the award at the ceremony for her late mother). (Info edited from All Music & Wikipedia)