Was watching this and thinking- what was their magic? They just seemed to click.
That Monterey festival must have been something else.
John and Mitchy were gettin’ kind of itchy
Just to leave the folk music behind
Too bad Michelle made a deal with the Devil. That’s the only thing I can think of that would make her get more beautiful every passing decade. 
They’re running the original recorded track over the festival footage in that track.
The Mamas and Papas were according to all accounts legendarily awful at Monterey.
Review of The Mamas and The Papas - Monterey International Pop Festival (1967)
The group did click, but like a lot of other great 60s groups - Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds - the intragroup fighting destroyed them after a small body of great work. I don’t think there exists much in the way of good live recordings of them. They existed in the studio and that’s where you need to look for their best work.
She must have- but what a powerful voice from Mama…
The magic was in their harmony and arrangements. “Monday, Monday” and “California Dreamin’” really appealed to workaday people and hippies alike. I bought their first record and was blown away by even the covers they did, like “I Call Your Name”.
Luckily I have “If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears” on iTunes.
I’m a real straight shooter, if you know what I mean.
I like this one best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7KrlDZ5Hkw
And it has the added bonus of having a then-young Denny Doherty greatly resemble my 12 y.o.'s orchestra teacher, which tickles her immensely!
Vanity Fair ran an amazing piece on Michelle Phillips about a year ago, for those of you who missed it.
They did some fine things. John was a bright guy and a talented writer and vocal arranger. Also he couldn’t control his appetite for opiates, which is rarely a good thing. I believe he got his daughter hooked, among other foul ups.
I’m looking at the track list of their “Creeque Alley” retrospective CD.
Beyond the biggest hits, I really liked the childhood fantasy Dancing Bear, the big ballad No Salt On Her Tail, the tricky lyrics/vocals of Once Was A Time, and Step Out.
It’s a group I definitely have a soft spot for.
In certain moods, I have to admit that I almost like their cover of “My Girl” more than the original. I also like that they did some Rodgers and Hart covers, even though their version of “Glad to Be Unhappy” is, IMO, terrible.
Denny & Cass had voices that were made for each other. Relationship-wise, not so much…
Love them. Always have.
I was a fan, even back in the 70s when it was uncool. John Phillips was just a tremendous songwriter. (I believe he was the first – and maybe only – songwriter to have #1 hits for two different groups*) and Can You Believe Your Eyes and Ears is an amazing album.
I saw a version of them live about ten years ago, though it was really John and Denny with two female singers doing hits.
*The Beach Boys did his “Kokomo.”
Yeah, no kidding – in the last several months I’ve put a lot of my CDs into iTunes, Mamas & The Papas included, and wow, I’ve been saying to everyone who will listen that she has the most powerful and clearest voice I’ve ever heard. She left us way too soon.
What I think is interesting is that ther appeal and popularity, in my view, rests on a very small canon. The obvious ones: Monday, Monday, California Dreamin’, Creeque Alley, Dedicated To The One I Love, and whatever your personal favourites are: perhaps Do You Wanna Dance, Go Where You Wanna Go (thats the wannas) and a few others. I think even the most ardent fans would be hard pushed to compile a full album.
This is not decry their achievements. Many other great artists’ reputations are based on a remarkably small body of work.
And the only one of them with a chance to live past 70.
When I first started using the internet to collect old favorites, one of my first was “Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Come into the Canyon)”. Always loved TM&tP…always been a sucker for good harmonies.
And after 40 years, I just recently deciphered a lyric to “I Saw Her Again”
I’m in way over my head, she thinks that I love her
Maybe cuz that’s what I said…
which made me 
*I dig the Mamas and the Papas at The Trip, Sunset Strip in L.A.
And they got a good thing going
When the words don’t get in the way
And when they`re really wailing
Michelle and Cass are sailing
Hey! They really nail me to the wall. *
– Peter, Paul & Mary