Disco de The Mamas & the Papas: “Hits of Gold”

The unmistakeable sound of the Mamas and the Papas had a fairly short recording life - about five years. However, their legacy continues 30 years on.

This is just a magical set of their best tracks. "Dedicated To The One I Love", "Monday, Monday", "California Dreamin'" "Go Where You Wanna Go", "Trip, Stumble And Fall" - I could go on. The beauty of this foursome was that their vocals stood out - two beats in and you knew who you were listening to. Mama Cass leading on John Philips' songs; then the harmonies kick in.

Basically a folk band, who converted "Twist and Shout" from the Beatles' rock version into a wonderfully magically folk-smooch, they just never failed to stun me into wonderment.

I love them so much and miss them badly. Long may they be remembered.

Like many 60s artists it's the original compilations that are the ones to get and, re-issued several times over the decades, this remains the Mamas & Papas definitive collection. Featuring just about every track that made them something special, with the minimum of "fillers", it avoids over concentration on Mama Cass' solo output (good as it was) and zeros down on the ecstatic four part harmonies that catapulted them to international success, including difficult to find but essential tracks like "Trip, Stumble & Fall". The end result? A perfectly formed record of why, for a fleeting period, they were up there with the best.

The cd was perfect and it even had more tracks on it then I thought

Although the UK-released EMI version of this twenty-track album that I own is subtitled 'Music for Pleasure', I must confess that I approached the task of this review with less than pleasure-filled thoughts. I came away from it with the same mixed bag of sentiments.

Yet one *must* recognize the iconic status of the Mamas and the Papas in 1960s carefree culture. From 'California Dreamin' to 'Twist and Shout' and on through to the closing 'Dream a Little Dream of Me', this odd foursome were troubadors of the happy, not-so-committed-to-convention-as-our-parents-were take on livin' free before times became as dark and edgy as they eventually would.

The album cover pose states as clearly as the music how happy Mama Cass was (or tried to be) not being beautiful. 'And no one's gettin' fat except Mama Cass' spoke the same message with words.

The anthemic '(You gotta') Go Where You Wanna Go' probably states the tM&tP creed as well as any other of these songs, which - I gotta' give it to'em - remain hummable and even find themselves on my unconcious lips more often than I'm comfortable admitting as I make my most-review rounds.

If you're a tM&tP fan, you'll love this album. But you'll pay a pretty penny to get it.

If you're not already a tM&tP fan, you'll probably wonder whether people ever really listened to music like *that*.

'Fact is, they *did*. And they loved it. Even if we don't.

Icons don't have to be pretty. 'Just iconic.