Michelle Phillips
Issue #26
The actress and member of the Mamas and the Papas believes that everybody can sing
By Charlotte Robinson
Published: December 1st, 2005 | 2:59pm
At age 61, Michelle Phillips can say she's done it all. After a brief career as a model, she rose to fame in the 1960s as a singer and songwriter in the Mamas and the Papas with then-husband John Phillips, Denny Doherty, and Cass Elliot.
Although their run was short, the group's intricate harmonies, arranged by John Phillips and produced by Lou Adler, earned them hits like "California Dreamin'" and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Since the band's split, Michelle Phillips has appeared in dozens of films and TV shows (including a long stint on Knot's Landing), raised three children, and written a best-selling autobiography. She is now working on a theatrical film about the Mamas and the Papas, who returned to the spotlight in 2005 with the release of the two-CD compilation Gold and the California Dreamin' DVD and PBS special.
Phillips' only solo album was recently reissued with a slew of extras as Victim of Romance and Rarities (available at hip-oselect.com). Ironically, Phillips never wanted to be a singer but was pushed into it by her ex-husband, of whom she says, "I think there is something true about his whole philosophy and that is that everybody can sing. It's a matter of doing it, learning how to do it."
What was it like working with John Phillips in the studio?
He was kind of a mix between Stalin and Mussolini [laughs]. No, he was fun to work with. He was a real task-master. To create the kind of stuff we were creating took an enormous amount of concentration and hard work. When we went in to do our first album, I had never recorded and everybody else had. Cass had no real experience in blending. She was always the voice that was out front in all the groups that she sang with. Denny had less of a problem with it because he could take orders better. [laughs] John and Cass always locked horns in the studio because she didn't like being told what to do all the time and he was definitely always the leader of the group. But there was a lot of love in the group. It was wonderful when we did get that harmonic sound; we always used to call it that "fifth voice" that was created when we harmonized perfectly together.
Is there one song that you remember being particularly difficult to record?
We did a horrible song called "For the Love of Ivy." John had been approached to write a song for a movie called For Love of Ivy with Sidney Poitier. It was a mess from beginning to end. It was a bad lyric, it was a rambling melody with no hook, and there was layer upon layer of vocals, and with every layer of vocals that we put on, the song became less meaningful to me. I think it's the song that I hate the most.
You had "Me and Bobby McGee" before Janis Joplin recorded it, and you presented it to John Phillips and Lou Adler as something you might sing?
I came back from Peru, where I had met Kris Kristofferson. We had done a film together and I came back and told John and Lou that I wanted to do a single. I said, "I have an A-side and a B-side," and I played them "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Help Me Make It through the Night." And there was this long pause, and they kind of looked at each other, and John looked at me and Lou said, "Mitch, don't you think it's a little country?" And I said, "I think it's a hit song." And then John said, "Mitch, I think you've lost the thread of things." [Laughs] And that was the end. I thought, "Meh." You know, I was so influenced by John and Lou that I thought, "Well, they must be right. Maybe I'm just crazy." But they certainly didn't want to go into the studio and do it. So I didn't record it.
You never wanted to be a singer and your music career was short-lived, so how does it feel to still be talking about it 40 years later?
It may have only lasted two-and-a-half or three years, but nevertheless the material still sells, there's still a huge market for it, and people love the music and want to talk about it, and that has never changed in the 40 years. It's just a part of my history, and I'm glad that it is. There are people also who just want to talk about Knot's Landing. That's another life altogether. For me, it's great fun to look back on my career, all of it: the Mamas and the Papas, the acting, the modeling, writing the book. I just keep working, which is very fortunate.
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