April 20, 1998

 

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME

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This song, with lyrics by Gus Kahn and music by Wilbur Schwandt and Fabian Andre, was first recorded in 1931 by the Wayne King Orchestra (vocals by Ernie Burchill). In 1950, there were concurrent covers of the song by Jack Owens and Frankie Laine. Recently, it has been used as a theme in California Lottery and Breathe Right nasal strip commercials.

But the most successful version, and certainly the one most memorable these days, is the one by Mama Cass Elliot, of the Mamas and The Papas, released in 1968.

Cass Elliot was born Naomi Ellen Cohen on September 19, 1941 in Baltimore, Maryland. In her senior year of high school, she performed in a summer stock production of "The Boyfriend" at the Owings Mills Playhouse, where she played the French nurse who sings "It's Nicer, Much Nicer in Nice." After this experience, even though her family expected her to go to college, Cass instead chose the performing arts.

In 1963, Cass, Tim Rose, and James Hendricks formed a folk trio called The Big Three. In 1964 the group disbanded, and it re-appeared as "Cass Elliot and The Big Three" which included Canadians Denny Doherty and Zal Yanovsky. This group morphed into The Mugwumps, which recorded nine songs and stayed together until 1965.

At this point, Denny Doherty had joined John and Michelle Phillips and the three were performing as The New Journeymen. Soon they left for the Virgin Islands, where they were subsequently joined by Cass, and the four began to sing together in mid-1965. Thus, The Mamas and The Papas was born. This history is tunefully related in their "Creeque Alley."

From 1965-1968, The Mamas and Papas recorded a series of top ten hits including Monday, Monday," "California Dreamin'," "I Saw Her Again," and "Dedicated to the One I Love."

The group's last hit was the launching number for Mama Cass. (She grew to dislike the "Mama.") Michelle Phillips was family friends with writer Fabian Andre, and persuaded Cass to record "Dream A Little Dream Of Me." This became Cass' theme song. In 1969, she scored big with "It's Getting Better" and 1970 yielded the hits "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and "New World Coming." In 1970, Elliot also appeared in the film version of "Pufnstuf" and recorded an album with rock star Dave Mason.

Elliot had two prime time television specials of her own in 1969 and 1973, as well as TV appearances throughout the early 1970's with Mike Douglas, Julie Andrews, Andy Williams, Johnny Cash, Red Skelton, Ed Sullivan, Tom Jones, Carol Burnett and others. She guest hosted The Tonight Show, had a successful stint in Las Vegas, and continued to record.

In 1974, Cass traveled to London where she had a two week engagement at the Palladium. After performing to sellout audiences and basking in repeated ovations, she succumbed to a heart attack on July 29, 1974 in London, following this successful concert tour.

The choking on a sandwich story is merely an urban myth, which refuses to die. Sad to say, Cass was a prime candidate for a heart attack, being quite overweight, and weakening her heart with dozens of crash diets.

If great songs can be identified with a performer, Cass would have wanted us, maybe once or twice, to think of her in that way: To dream a LITTLE dream of her.



 

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