The Mamas & The Papas

On the cover of their debut album, the Mamas and the Papas are shown lounging happily in one big bathtub. Four personable hippies, they came on in 1966 like lifestyle radicals promising hedonistic freedom. Their true gift, though, was compromise: fusing folk-rock urgency with the gloss of highly commercial studio pop. If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears was a fresh wonder. By far their best record, it boasts the yearning "California Dreamin'"; the free-spirit manifesto, "Go Where You Wanna Go"; a vaudeville take on Lennon-McCartney's "I Call Your Name"; and a nice, breathy cover of Leiber-Stoller's "Spanish Harlem." John Phillips, Denny Doherty, Michelle Phillips, and especially Mama Cass were clear-voiced singers with solid folk backgrounds, but the group's strength was John's songwriting. Coupling a sure melodic sense with a flair for zeitgeist sloganeering, he made music that was hip yet unthreatening. The band's marketability was also boosted by a clearly delineated visual lineup: John the six-foot-four "genius," Doherty the winsome one, Mama Cass the earth mother, and Michelle the mistily gorgeous hippie chick.

Although the group continued in the folk-rock vein with a handful of singles, it began moving toward a more generic pop sound with the fine "Dedicated to the One I Love." By 1968, the hippie anthems verged on genial parody ("Meditation Mama," "Gemini Childe"), and "Dream a Little Dream of Me" was coy, even by pop standards.

As cultural symbols, the band members remained significant for a few years--John and Michelle organized the Monterey Pop Festival--but they seemed just as comfortable delivering tuneful, innocuous songs. Of their abundant greatest-hits packages, All the Leaves Are Brown is the strongest. (PAUL EVANS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide