John Phillips, the founder and principal songwriter of the 1960s vocal group, the Mamas and Papas, died on March 18th aged 65. He arranged their dynamic harmonies and wrote, or co-wrote, most of their best-known songs, including the hippie anthem San Francisco. In less than two years, the group had six American top-10 hits and sold millions of records worldwide, before internal frictions brought about its downfall.
The son of a marine officer, John Phillips was born in South Carolina. He studied at George Washington University, and briefly attended the US Naval Academy before migrating to New York in 1957 to join the Greenwich Village folk scene. There, he formed several groups, including the New Journeymen, whose members included guitarist and singer Denny Doherty and Michelle Gilliam, who became his second wife in 1962.
The quartet that was to become the Mamas and Papas was completed by the arrival of Cass Elliot, who had formerly sung with Doherty in the Mugwumps.
The quartet moved to Los Angeles, where they linked up with record producer Lou Adler. He later said of their audition: "They had just come down from about 80 acid trips; they were funky, dirty and grizzly, and yet they sang like angels."
Their first single was California Dreamin', released on Adler's Dunhill label in 1966. Like another of John Phillips's 1966 compositions, San Francisco (Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair), it portrayed California as a new utopia, and was the first of a series of powerful ballads. These included the playful Creeque Alley, which told the history of the group, the ecstatic love song, I Saw Her Again Last Night, and the sombre Look Through My Window.
The Mamas and Papas also recorded some deftly-chosen songs from the 1950s, notably Dedicated To The One I Love, originally by the Shirelles. John Phillips's four-part vocal arrangements were influenced by the jazz singing of Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and by such 1950s pop groups as the Four Freshmen.
However, the Phillips's marriage had been damaged by Michelle Gilliam's affair with Doherty, for whom Elliot had an unrequited passion. Gilliam was temporarily ejected from the group, and the end came when Elliott left to follow a successful solo career as Mama Cass. She died suddenly in London in 1974.
In 1970, John Phillips made his own solo album, The Wolf- king Of LA, which reflected the growing popularity in Los Angeles of the country-rock sound associated with his friend Gram Parsons.
Its lyrics mostly concerned the lifestyle of the new Los Angeles movie and music aristocracy, of which John Phillips was a leading member.
But by this time, he was in the grip of the drug addiction graphically described in his 1986 autobiography, Papa John. He had little incentive to work in the 1970s, as he was reportedly receiving $100,000 a year in composer royalties. The sum total of his musical activity in that decade was the soundtrack music for Nicolas Roeg's film, The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976), and the production of an album by his third wife, Genevieve Waite. He also recorded some solo tracks, with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards as producers, due to be issued in May under the title Pay, Pack And Follow.
The catalyst for John Phillips to return to the stage was a conviction for drug offences that forced him to undergo rehabilitation in 1981. As part of his sentence, he gave lectures on drug abuse, assisted by his daughter, McKenzie.
The following year, he was fit enough to form a new Mamas and Papas group, with Doherty, McKenzie and Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane.
Later members of the quartet included Scott McKenzie, singer of the hit version of San Francisco. Last year, he made a new album, which will be issued later this year.
John Edward Andrew Phillips: born 1935; died, March 2001