919 The Mamas and The Papas “Monday, Monday” 1966

Lou Adler, record producer: “Denny [Doherty] could have been a big band singer in the ‘40s. he had that sort of wide-open, Western broadness to his voice. A very romantic singer. His intonation was just great. He’d get it every single time. Cass [Elliot] is also a throwback to the ‘20s and ‘30s; a very dramatic singer. She’d get a lot of drama out of a vocal. Michelle [Phillips], she’s a rock and roll baby. Her twists and turns some off of street corner type singing. Certainly not the strongest singer in the group, but definitely the heart and soul of rock and roll. John [Phillips] was more embarrassed of his lead singing; he didn’t ever really want to sing a lead. He was a perfect quartet singer and vocal arranger—one of the best vocal arrangers, ever” (Matthew Greenwald, Go Where You Wanna Go: The Oral History of The Mamas & The Papas, 2002). 

Doherty prompted John Phillips to write the song, but no one in the group like “Monday, Monday” when they first heard it. But Lou Adler believed “Monday, Monday” would be a hit “and insisted it be the follow-up single to California Dreamin’”(Doug Hall, The Mamas & The Papas: California Dreamin’, 2000).  

The Mamas and The Papas “Monday, Monday”