Sophie Tucker lung cancer and kidney failure on February 9, 1966, aged 79, in New York City. She had continued working until the months before her death, playing shows at the Latin Quarter just weeks before. She is buried in Emanuel Cemetery, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, her home state. Tucker's comic and singing styles are credited with influencing later female entertainers including Mae West, Rusty Warren, Carol Channing, Totie Fields, Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, Ethel Merman, "Mama" Cass Elliot of The Mamas & the Papas, and most notably Bette Midler, who has included "Soph" as one of her many stage characters. She also
The Mamas & the Papas critical favor. "Rolling Stone" gave it four stars when it was reissued in 2006, calling it "a genuine lost treasure". Denny Doherty said that if the Mamas & the Papas had recorded the album, it might have been their best. Phillips wrote songs for the soundtrack to "Brewster McCloud" (Robert Altman, 1970) and original music for the soundtracks to "Myra Breckinridge" (Michael Sarne, 1970) and "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (Nicolas Roeg, 1976). He also wrote the ill-fated stage musical "Man on the Moon" (1975) and songs with and for other artists, including most of the tracks on the