The Mamas and the Papas were an American folk rock vocal group which recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s. Their sound was based on vocal harmonies arranged by John Phillips, the songwriter, musician, and leader of the group. They released five studio albums and 17 singles over four years, six of which made the Billboard top 10.
About The Mamas and the Papas in brief
The Mamas and the Papas were an American folk rock vocal group which recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s. Their sound was based on vocal harmonies arranged by John Phillips, the songwriter, musician, and leader of the group. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 for its contributions to the music industry. They released five studio albums and 17 singles over four years, six of which made the Billboard top 10 and have sold close to 40 million records worldwide. Some of their most popular singles include \”California Dreamin’ \”, \”Monday, Monday\”, and \”Creeque Alley\”. The band reunited briefly to record the album People Like Us in 1971 but had ceased touring and performing by that time. The fifth and final album, If You Can, became the band’s only and final and only No. 1 hit in the US, reached No. 3 in the UK, and was nominated for Best Vocal Performance by a Vocal Group and Best Pop Song of the Year in 1967. The 5th Dimension covered the song on its album Up, Up and Away and became a Top 20 pop quartet, the 5 Ears and the 5 Can Ears, and became its only No 1 on the Billboard 200 and in Spain’s Los 40 Principales. The song was the first No 1 in Spain, and the first on the US Billboard Top 40 chart in the U.S. It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop performance by a Duo or Group in 1967, and won a Best Pop Vocal Song of a Year Grammy Award in 1968.
The group considered calling itself the Magic Cyrcle before switching to the Mamas & Papas. The last member to join was Cass Elliot, Doherty’s bandmate in the Mugwumps, who had to overcome John Phillips’ concern that her voice was too low for his arrangements, that her physical appearance would be an obstacle to the group’s success and that her temperament was incompatible with his. Phillips acknowledged that it was Doherty and Elliot who awakened him to the potential of contemporary pop, as epitomized by the Beatles. The quartet spent the period from early spring to midsummer 1965 in the Virgin Islands to rehearse and just put everything together, as John Phillips later recalled. They were inspired by the Hells Angels, whose female associates were called’mamas’ The band then traveled from New York to Los Angeles for an audition with Lou Adler, co-owner of Dunhill Records. The audition led to a deal in which they would record two albums a year for the next five years with a royalty of 5 percent on 90 percent of retail sales, commonly known as a ‘triple hat’ relationship. The first single from their first album, This Precious Time, was released in December 1965, although they had already released a single of their own by the time the album appeared in March 1966.
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