The Mamas & The Papas
Phillips longed to have success in the music industry and traveled to New York to find a record contract in the early 1960s. His first band, The Journeymen, was a folk trio, with Scott McKenzie and Dick Weissman. They were fairly successful, putting out three albums and several appearances on the 1960s TV show, Hootenanny. All three albums, as well as a compilation known as "Best of the Journeymen," were reissued on CD. He developed his craft in Greenwich Village, during the American folk music revival, and met his future The Mamas & the Papas band mates Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot there around that time. Lyrics of their song "Creeque Alley" describe this period.
While touring California with The Journeymen, he met the woman who would become his second wife, the teenage Michelle Gilliam, with whom he had an extramarital affair. Their affair forced the dissolution of his first marriage, and he married Michelle in 1962 and would stay with her until 1970. The couple had one child together, Chynna Phillips, vocalist of the 1990s' pop trio Wilson Phillips.
The Journeymen were the house band of the hungry i on Broadway in San Francisco for many years.
Phillips was the primary songwriter and musical arranger of The Mamas & the Papas. Early in the band's history, John and Michelle were responsible for writing most of the band's songs. John would often come up with a melody and some lyrics and Michelle would help him complete the lyrical portion of the song. After being signed to Dunhill, they had several Billboard Top Ten hits, including "California Dreamin'", "Monday, Monday", "I Saw Her Again", "Creeque Alley", and "12:30 (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)". John Phillips also wrote "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)", in 1967 for former The Journeyman band mate, Scott McKenzie. "San Francisco" is widely regarded as emblematic of 1960s American counterculture music. Phillips also wrote the oft-covered "Me and My Uncle", which was a favorite song cover frequently performed by The Grateful Dead.
Phillips also helped promote and played in the Monterey International Pop Music Festival held June 16 to June 18, 1967 in Monterey, California. The festival was planned in just seven weeks and was developed as a way to validate rock music as an art form in the way jazz and folk were regarded. It was the first major pop-rock music event in history.
The Phillipses became Hollywood celebrities, living in the Hollywood Hills and socializing with stars such as Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and Roman Polanski. The group broke up largely because Cass Elliot wanted to go solo and because of some personal problems among Phillips, Michelle, and Denny Doherty. Michelle had been fired briefly in 1966, for having had affairs with both Gene Clark and Doherty, and was replaced for a period of two months by Jill Gibson, their producer Lou Adler's girlfriend. Although Michelle was forgiven and asked to return to the group, the personal problems would continue until the band split in 1968. Cass Elliot went on to have a successful solo career until her death from heart failure in 1974.
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