Monday, July 21, 2025
Monday, Monday
There it is-- the ultimate song about Mondays. The Mamas and the Papas were a pretty fascinating group. They were only together from 1965 to 1968, and had a kind of folk/beat style-- and even though they had a brief time together, they ended up in the rock and roll hall of fame. They earned it, too-- their harmonies were memorable.
John and Michelle Phillips were a married couple, and a pretty interesting one-- their daughter Chyna Phillips was in the group Wilson Phillips. Michelle Phillips was a rare "pure soprano" in rock music, but started out as a model. After the group broke up and she divorced John Phillips, she worked as an actress for decades.
Cass Elliot was the other woman in the group (she was sometimes known as "Mama Cass"). In the early 60's she was a broadway performer, and also working at the coat check in a Greenwich Village club. She said that she got hit in the head walking through a construction zone, and it improved her vocal range by three notes.
Mama Cass died at age 32-- apparently of a heart attack-- in Harry Nilsson's apartment in London. Keith Moon, the drummer for The Who, later died at age 32 in the same bedroom.
