The Mamas And The Papas Hated Their Biggest Hit For This Reason

One of the Mamas and Papas’ hit songs was the only No. 1 Billboard pop charting single of their career. However, all of them except John Phillips hated it. John wrote the song in 1965 while they recorded their debut album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, with producer Lou Adler at Western Studios in Hollywood.

John admitted he had no idea what the song “Monday Monday” meant but did it anyway, and bandmate Denny Doherty deemed it a “dumb song about a day of the week.” John’s ex-wife and former group member Michelle Phillip also mentioned in California Dreamin’: The True Story of the Mamas and the Papas that he wrote  “Monday Monday” for “international appeal.”

Why did the Mamas and the Papas hate “Monday Monday”?

Michelle explained in her autobiography that she and Cass Elliot considered “Monday Monday” to be “so pretentious” and aired their disapproval first. “It’s just about the worst song we’ve ever heard,” they admitted to John then. Lou found a middle ground, asking them to proceed with it, and although Denny agreed with Michelle and Cass, she did not say much.

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Years later, Doherty shared her unchanged thoughts about the song with Matthew Greenwald, the author of Go Where You Wanna Go: The Oral History of The Mamas & The Papas. She said nothing about it stood out to her, and she recalled feeling relieved after rehearsals were over as well.

After the band broke up in 1968, Cass made a U-turn, claiming “Monday Monday” as her favorite track from their collections while promoting her first solo album, Dream A Little Dream Of Me. The group briefly reunited in 1971 to fulfill contract obligations and finally separated again.

The final years of the group were marked by the drama of a romantic and sexual nature, especially between Michelle and John, who allegedly had an incestuous relationship with his daughter, Mackenzie. Michelle also cheated on him with Doherty, which made John furious. With the deaths of her former music partners, Michelle remains the only surviving member and will be turning 80 next month.