The Mamas & The Papas formed in 1966. John Phillips, born in 1935, was the founder of the band. The other members were Denny Doherty, Cass Elliot and Michelle Phillips. John and Michelle were married a little before The Mamas & The Papas formed. They were in a band called New Journeymen previously together, along with Marshall Brickman. Cass and Denny were in a band called the Mugwumps previous to The Mamas & The Papas, along with Hendricks, Zal Yanovsky and John Sebastian.
The Mamas & The Papas released their debut album, "If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears", in 1966 and it was a massive success for the band. The uplifting melodies, along with an electronic folk influence really worked for them. John Phillips wrote many of the songs featuring on the album himself, including the hit, "California Dreamin'", which has turned out to be timeless, continuing to be popular with old and new fans of the band alike.
During the first year or two that the band were together, relationships between the members became strained. Although John and Michelle were married, Denny showed interest in Michelle, and Cass had also showed interest in Denny. The overlapping relationships caused a lot of stress within the band. Although the band's second, third and fourth (and last) albums were still very strong, they didn't have the same success as the debut album. The band finally ended up splitting in 1969. Their career was very short lived, but equally as brilliant.
In 1971, the record company decided that The Mamas & The Papas owed them another album and so the band was reunited and they released, "People Like Us". Cass, with her very powerful voice, launched a solo career, as did Denny and John. Cass was fairly successful as a solo artist, but Denny and John were not. Michelle concentrated on acting and raising her and John's daughter, Chynna.
Any chances of the band reuniting were lost when Cass tragically died of a heart attack in 1974, aged only 33. Denny attempted to recreate a ghost band sometime in the early 80s, with his daughter, Mackenzie and Elaine McFarlane, but they failed to perform with the same impact that The Mamas & The Papas did. Denny died very recently, on 19 January 2007 aged 66. John spent most of the 70s dealing with drug problems, and tried to reinitiate his career in 1983, but failed. He died in 2001, aged 65.
Despite the band being around for such a short period of time, their appeal has lived on. There have been numerous compilation albums of their music released, of varying quality, through the years.