Monday 12th March

That was a song by the Mama’s and the Papas, just one of the many great bands to emerge from California in the mid sixties.  Whether it was inspired by the Beatles success both here and in America, or whether it was happening anyway, it is a lovely co-incidence, that just as things started to go off the boil a bit here in England, these American bands just kept coming; The Nashville Teens, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and of course The Mamas and the Papas.  There were two men and two women John and Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot, the famous Mama Cass.  John and Michelle were married and were always doey-eyed at each other, but the real star of the band was Mama Cass, and it is her I remember mostly because , so unusually for then, and even more so for now, she was a large woman, but sexy with it too.  And why not indeed.  My favourite song of theirs was ‘California Dreamin’ but ‘Monday Monday’ was pretty good too.   The only other song I really remember of theirs was ‘This is dedicated to the one I love’ which got to number one.  I think they went a bit too commercial after this and never really capitalized on their unique sound, and split up around 1968 or 69.   The song Monday Monday – so good to me, was the sort of thing you found yourself singing on the way to school, even though Monday was the end of the weekend and the beginning of another awful week of school.  At that time there was just so much great music happening that we thought it would never stop.  I don’t think that a band like the Mamas and the Papas would even get a look-in today, the whole business is too controlled, but at that fortunate time there was a collision of an awful lot of talented youngsters, and a very open-minded record business that was willing to take a chance on all sorts of music, often the stranger and less like anything else the better.  And even now, sometimes I still get up on a Monday and it is that song in my head, rather than the possibly much more appropriate ‘I don’t like Mondays.’