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 Mamas & the Papas and Papas' story in the memoir "Papa John" (1986), and in the PBS television documentary, "Straight Shooter: The True Story of John Phillips and the Mamas and the Papas" (1988). John Phillips died of heart failure in Los Angeles on March 18, 2001. Two albums were released immediately after his death: "Pay Pack and Follow" (April 2001), which included material recorded in London and New York with members of the Rolling Stones in 1976 and 1977; and "Phillips 66" (August 2001), an album of new material and reworkings that "takes its title from the age Phillips would have been when