Artist · chart history · #728 in indie & aaa artist polls
The Mamas and the Papas
Band New York United States Active 1965–1972 American folk rock vocal group
The Mamas and the Papas formed in 1965 in New York, United States and was active until 1972. The Mamas and the Papas has 18 chart appearances on 17 radio countdowns from 8 stations on RockLists, spanning 1991–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “California Dreamin'”, which appears on 16 lists with a best position of #70. The station that charted The Mamas and the Papas most often is WXPN (Philadelphia, PA), with 6 appearances.
The Mamas & the Papas were John Phillips, Michelle Phillips, Cass Elliot and the Canadian Denny Doherty, and what they did with four voices was something close to sorcery. Phillips was the leader, the songwriter and the man who arranged those harmonies, taking the folk music he knew and bending it to the new beat sound, and the result was sunshine pop with shadows at the edges: sweet, swooping and just a little bit sad.
"California Dreamin'" is the one that says it all, sung like a daydream you can't quite shake. They were part of the soundtrack of the counterculture, cut five studio albums and 17 singles, and six of those singles went into the Billboard top 10 on the way to nearly 40 million records sold. Jill Gibson was briefly a member in 1966.
They broke up in 1968, came back for one album, People Like Us, in 1971, and split again soon after. Elliot died in 1974. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 1998, the survivors sang together one last time, with Elliot's daughter Owen standing in for her mother.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Mamas and the Papas on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California Dreamin' | 16 | #70 | – | – | |
| 2 | Monday, Monday | 1 | #861 | – | – |
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