The Papas & the Mamas


The Papas & the Mamas is the fourth studio album by the American folk rock vocal group the Mamas and the Papas, released in 1968.

Recording

The album was recorded at the home of John and Michelle Phillips, although with the same production team as on previous albums. Their original studio, Western Recorders, switched to solid state technology, and Phillips and Adler purchased the tube-based board they had done their previous recordings with, and installed it in their new studio. In retrospect, Adler has said that the recording space was not well made, and the sound quality was not well-suited for a vocal group.
With the exception of the very successful cover version of "Dream a Little Dream of Me", the album's subject matter is often downbeat and world-weary, most notably in the lyrical content of "Safe in My Garden", "Mansions", "Too Late" and "Rooms".
All the material was new upon release with the exception of "Twelve Thirty", which had been released as a single in August 1967 as "Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)".
The song "Meditation Mama" featured the first lead vocal ever on a Mamas and the Papas track by John Phillips. All four members of the band contribute lead as well as backing vocals on this album.
The song Midnight Voyage which closes the album has the distinction of being one of a very few Mamas and Papas tracks to be released with false starts and studio chatter, giving the listener a brief snippet of how a song comes together.
Although it was the first album from the group not to peak in the top ten, it was a commercial success upon its release, becoming the band's fourth and last top 20 album in America and producing two hit singles.
This album is included in its entirety on All the Leaves Are Brown, a retrospective compilation of the band's first four albums and various singles.
"Twelve Thirty " is heard during a pivotal scene in Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood.
The song "The Right Somebody to Love", with the lead vocal by Michelle Phillips, opened both sides of the album. A later reissue on CDs omitted the version from the second side and included only the first part of the song.

Album artwork

Author of the original gatefold cover art package was Gary Burden. There are two photos of members' faces with different expressions. The front cover contained two flaps which, when folded, created interchangeable funny faces mixed from the heads of girls and boys. John Lennon later used a similar idea for his cover art of the LP Walls And Bridges.

Track listing

Side one
  1. "The Right Somebody to Love – part 1" – 0:43
  2. "Safe in My Garden" – 3:15
  3. "Meditation Mama " – 4:25
  4. "For the Love of Ivy" – 3:45
  5. "Dream A Little Dream Of Me" – 3:17
  6. "Mansions" – 3:47
Side two
  1. "The Right Somebody to Love – part 2" – 0:20
  2. "Gemini Childe" – 4:07
  3. "Nothing's Too Good for My Little Girl" – 3:09
  4. "Too Late" – 4:10
  5. "Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)" – 3:26
  6. "Rooms" – 2:52
  7. "Midnight Voyage" – 3:13

Personnel

Technical