The Mamas & the Papas from 1964 to 1965. The last member to join was Cass Elliot, Doherty's bandmate in the Mugwumps, who had to overcome John Phillips' concern that her voice was too low for his arrangements, that her physical appearance would be an obstacle to the band's success, and that her temperament was incompatible with his. The group considered calling itself the Magic Cyrcle before switching to the Mamas & the Papas, inspired by the Hells Angels, whose female associates were called "mamas". The quartet spent the period from early spring to midsummer 1965 in the Virgin Islands "to rehearse and just put
The Papas & The Mamas 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 like The Mamas & The Papas. With the exception of the very successful cover version of "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (which is not representative of the rest of the album), 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". There are few love songs and it is also more experimental - the Hendrix-like guitar textures of "Gemini Childe"