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Cass Elliott was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1941. At the time, her mother thought her name was Ellen Naomi Cohen. Her stage name came about, first in high school, when she began calling herself “Cass,” taking the name from actress Peggy Cass. Elliott was the name of a friend, who died young. Cass transformed herself from an awkward high school kid to a show business professional by taking this new name and going out to do the job. She dropped out oh high school and went to New York to become an actress. Elliott got a part in The Music Man on Broadway, but was beat out by barbara Streisand at her next audition for the part of miss MarmelsteinI Can Get it For You Wholesale. She returned to school in 1962 and attended American University in Washington D.C. where she began singing in a trio called The Big Three.

After The Big Three broke up she sang briefly in a group called The Mugwumps which also included Denny Doherty, who went on to form The New Journeymen with John and Michelle Phillips. In 1965 Cass was vacationing in the Virgin Islands as were Doherty, John and Michelle. During that vacation Elliott was invited to become a permanent member of the group, which renamed itself The Mamas and the Papas. Trouble also started within the group at the moment of it’s renaming. Cass was in love with Denny, who had no interest in her, however Denny and Michelle began to have an affair on the night that the new group name was chosen.

The Mamas and the Papas had a great deal of commercial success, largely because of Cass Elliott’s powerful singing voice, which tended to dominate, and her charismatic personality. In 1968 the Mamas and the Papas broke up, due to the tensions caused by Denny and Michelle’s affair. Cass went on to have a solo career, which she craved.

On July 29, 1974, according to Michelle Phillips, Cass called her excitedly from her hotel room in London, where she had just done two performances at the Palladium to standing ovations each night. Cass was elated, feeling that she had reached the pinnacle of her career. That night she died in her sleep, of a heart attack.

Here is Mama Cass singing Make Your Own Kind Of Music at the Hollywood Palce. She is introduced by that night’s host, Sammy Davis, Jr.

These two clips are of a 1963 appearance of a young, clean cut, soft spoken Frank Zppa, who somehow talked his way onto he Steve Allen show to perform a “Concerto For Two Bicycles, Electronic Sounds and Orchestra.” One of my FDP friends alerted me to these gems.

Part The First

Part The Second

In 1927, law student and part time band leader, Hoagland Howard Carmicael sat down at an old upright piano in the Book Nook in Bloomington, Indiana, across the street from the Indiana University School of Law, where he was a student, and wrote down the melody that was running through his head. Originally an up tempo dance tune, Star Dust was inspired by the improvisational work of cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. In 1929 Carmichael slowed the tune down to and lyrics were added by Mitchell Parish, still it was a pretty danceable tune when recorded by Louis Armstrong in 1931.

Jazz pianist and pop singer, Nat King Cole hosted a short lived television show on NBC, The Nat King Cole Show, from November 1956 to December of 1957. NBC carried the show at a loss because the network was unable to find commercial sponsorship for a variety entertainment program hosted by a sophisticated, urbane “negro.” In this clip from his show Cole sings his legato version of “Stardust.”