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.