"Mama" Cass Elliot~ "It's Getting Better" (1969)

Uploaded on Aug 27, 2009
 

Cass Elliot at her very best (she never liked the name 'Mama Cass'). Recorded in 1969.

The video includes images of Michelle Phillips because to exclude her would be just crazy.

For all desert rats with a little savvy.

Cass Elliot (September 19, 1941 – July 29, 1974), born Ellen Naomi Cohen and 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.^[1]

Cass Elliot
Elliot with Johnny Cash, 1969.
Background information
Birth name	Ellen Naomi Cohen
Also known as	Mama Cass
Born	September 19, 1941 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died	July 29, 1974 (aged 32) London, England, UK
Genres	Pop, folk rock
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocals
Years active	1959–1974
Labels	FM, Dunhill, RCA
Associated acts	The Mamas & the Papas The Big 3 The Mugwumps

Early life and career

Ellen Cohen was born to Philip and Bess Cohen in Baltimore, Maryland, where she grew up.

The family then moved to Alexandria, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, D.C.). She adopted the name "Cass" in high school—possibly, as Denny Doherty tells it, borrowing it from the actress Peggy Cass—but in any case, it was "Cass", not "Cassandra." She assumed the surname Elliot sometime later, in memory of a friend who had died.

While still attending George Washington High School, she became interested in acting and was cast in a school production of the play The Boy Friend.

She left high school shortly before graduation and relocated to New York City to further her acting career, and 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.

Cass Elliot with Tim Rose and James Hendricks as part of the Big 3

While working as a cloakroom attendant at The Showplace in Greenwich Village, Elliot would sometimes sing, but it wasn't until she returned to the Washington area, to attend American University, that she began to pursue a singing career.

As America's folk music scene was on the rise, Elliot met banjoist and singer Tim Rose and singer John Brown, and the three began performing as The Triumvirate. In 1963, James Hendricks replaced Brown and the trio was renamed The Big 3.

Elliot's first recording with The Big 3 was Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod, was released by FM Records in 1963.

In 1964 the group appeared on an "open mike" night at The Bitter End Cafe in Greenwich Village, billed as "Cass Elliot and the Big 3", followed onstage by bluegrass banjoist Eric Weissberg ("Dueling Banjos" soundtrack in "Deliverance") and folksinger Jim Fosso.

When Tim Rose left The Big 3 in 1964, Elliot and Hendricks teamed with Canadians Zal Yanovsky and Denny Doherty to form The Mugwumps.

This group lasted eight months, after which Cass performed as a solo act for a while. Yanovsky and John Sebastian co-founded The Lovin' Spoonful, while Doherty joined The New Journeymen, a group that also included John Phillips and his wife, Michelle.

 In 1965, Doherty convinced Phillips that Cass should join the group which she did while she and the group members were vacationing in the Virgin Islands.

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 shortly before joining The New Journeymen in the Virgin Islands.

Elliot herself confirmed the story in a 1968 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, saying,

“

It’s true, I did get hit on the head by a pipe that fell down and my range was increased by three notes. They were tearing this club apart in the islands, revamping it, putting in a dance floor. Workmen dropped a thin metal plumbing pipe and it hit me on the head and knocked me to the ground. I had a concussion and went to the hospital. I had a bad headache for about two weeks and all of a sudden I was singing higher. It’s true. Honest to God.[2]

”

However, friends later said that the pipe story was a less embarrassing explanation for why John Phillips had kept her out of the group for so long, the real reason being that he considered her too fat.^[3]

The Mamas & the Papas

With two female members, The New Journeymen needed a new name. According to Doherty, Elliot had the inspiration for the band's new name; as written on his website:

“

We're all just lying around vegging out watching TV and discussing names for the group. The New Journeymen was not a handle that was going to hang on this outfit. John was pushing for The Magic Cyrcle. Eech, but none of us could come up with anything better, then we switch the channel and, hey, it's the Hells Angels on this talk show... And the first thing we hear is: "Now hold on there, Hoss. Some people call our women cheap, but we just call them our Mamas." Cass jumped up: "Yeah! I want to be a Mama." And Michelle is going: "We're the Mamas! We're the Mamas!" OK. I look at John. He's looking at me going: "The Papas?" Problem solved. A toast! To The Mamas and the Papas. Well, after many, many toasts, Cass and John are passed out."[4]

”

Doherty also said that the occasion marked the beginning of his affair with Michelle Phillips. Elliot, who was in love with Doherty, was displeased when he told her of the affair. Doherty has said that Cass once proposed to him, but that he was so stoned at the time, he could not even respond.

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 large 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) had been up-tempo versions—the song having actually been written in 1931 as a dance tune for the nightclubs of the day.

The Mamas & the Papas continued to record to meet the terms of their record contract. Their final album was released in 1971.

^{Source: Wikipedia.org}

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