Cass Elliot was born 73 years ago today. Born Ellen Naomi Cohen and also known as Mama Cass, Elliot was a singer and member of The Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, she released five solo albums. 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 working as a cloakroom attendant at The Showplace in Greenwich Village, Elliot would sometimes sing, but it wasnt until she moved to the Washington area, to attend American University, that she began to pursue a singing career. As Americas 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. 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 (deuling 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. Elliot’s 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. With two female members, The New Journeymen needed a new name. According to Doherty, Elliot had the inspiration for the bands new name; as written on his website: “Were 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, its 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: Were the Mamas! Were the Mamas! OK. I look at John. Hes looking at me going: The Papas? Problem solved. A toast! To The Mamas and the Papas. Well, after many, many toasts, Cass and John passed out. 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 groups 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. The Mamas & the Papas continued to record to meet the terms of their record contract. Their final album was released in 1971. After the breakup of The Mamas & the Papas, Elliot embarked on a solo singing career. At the height of her solo work 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. Here, Elliot performs “Dream a Little Dream of Me.”
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 04:04:03 +0000
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