| Don't Call Me Mama Anymore | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Live album by | ||||
| Released | September 1973 [1] | |||
| Recorded | July 20 and 22, 1973 | |||
| Venue | Mister Kelly's, Chicago [2] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Cass Elliot chronology | ||||
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Don't Call Me Mama Anymore is a live album recorded by Cass Elliot. It was the third album she released by RCA Records and the last album released before her death.
After the disappointment with her first two albums for RCA, Elliot felt that it was time for her to make some changes with her musical career. She hired Allan Carr as her manager who at the time managed the careers of Tony Curtis, Ann-Margret and Peter Sellers. Carr felt that Elliot needed to leave pop and rock music altogether and head into the cabaret circuit. So a show was put together that consisted of old standards along with a few new songs written for her by friends. The act included Elliot along with two male singers who served as backing singers and sidekicks during the musical numbers.
The title of the show, Don't Call Me Mama Anymore, was named after one of the songs written by Elliot's friend, Walter Earl Brown. The song was born out of Elliot's frustration with being identified as "Mama Cass".
After the show debuted on February 9, 1973 in Pittsburgh, Elliot felt she was ready to take the show to Las Vegas and premiered at The Flamingo. Elliot received rave reviews and took the place by storm. The Las Vegas Sun wrote, "Cass Elliot, making a strong point that she is no longer Mama Cass, has a good act serving notice that she is here to stay. The audience was with her all the way... no empty seats anywhere." She then followed up her act in casinos and tony nightclubs in cities throughout the country.
With the success of the show, Carr suggested that Elliot record a live album of the show. The idea of recording a live album was not something she was particularly keen on doing having told Chet Dowling, the show's scriptwriter, "I think there's nothing more boring than a live album."
The idea was also hatched to release the album simultaneously with her television special that September.
The album was recorded live over a series of nights at the famed Mister Kelly's in Chicago. [2] The album included "Extraordinary" from the Broadway play Pippin , "My Love" written by Paul McCartney and Elliot's rendition of the classic "I'll Be Seeing You".
Among the other songs introduced by the album was the title song written by her friend Walter Earl Brown along with "I'm Coming to the Best Part of My Life" written by friends Roger Nichols and John Bettis. The song captured Elliot's newfound confidence and was performed for Johnny Carson when she sang it on The Tonight Show on September 27, 1973. Another popular number at the shows was "The Night Before" which for composer Al Kasha was the reason he wrote "The Morning After", his Academy Award winning theme for The Poseidon Adventure .
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [3] |
| Creem | D [4] |
It turned out to be the last new album Elliot released during her lifetime. Despite the success of the shows, the album, as with Elliot's two previous albums, was not a hit. No singles were released, although a studio version of "I Think A Lot About You" had been released as a single earlier in the year, backed with "Listen To the World".
The album was re-released by BMG in November 2000 with three bonus tracks: "Theme From L'Amour", "I Think A Lot About You (Studio Version)" and "Listen To The World".
Several songs from the album appeared on the 1997 compilation CD Dream a Little Dream: The Cass Elliot Collection and "I'm Coming to the Best Part of My Life" was included on the 2005 compilation CD Dream a Little Dream of Me: The Music of 'Mama' Cass Elliot.
In a review for Creem, Robert Christgau rated the album a D, commenting "How about Fatso?" [5]
The Mamas & the Papas was a folk-rock vocal-group which recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s. Formed in New York City, the group consisted of Americans John Phillips, Cass Elliot, and Michelle Phillips, and Canadian Denny Doherty. Their sound was based on vocal harmonies arranged by John Phillips, the songwriter, musician, and leader of the group, who adapted folk to the new beat style of the early 1960s.
Ellen Naomi Cohen, known professionally as Cass Elliot, was an American singer and voice actress. She was also known as "Mama Cass", but she reportedly hated the name. She was a member of the singing group the Mamas & the Papas. After the group broke up, Elliot released five solo albums. She received the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary (R&R) Performance for "Monday, Monday" (1967). In 1998, she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for her work with the Mamas & the Papas.
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"Dream a Little Dream of Me" is a 1931 song with music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt and lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was first recorded in February 1931 by Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, soon followed by Wayne King and His Orchestra with vocals by Ernie Birchill. A popular standard, it has seen well over 400 recorded versions.
"Make Your Own Kind of Music" is a song by American singer Mama Cass Elliot from her second studio album Make Your Own Kind of Music/It’s Getting Better (1969). It was released as the third and final single from the album in September 1969, by Dunhill Records. The song was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, while production was helmed by Steve Barri. In the United States, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" was a Top 40 hit, in which it peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Randy Newman Live is a live album by American singer Randy Newman. It is one of only two official live recordings he has released The album was recorded over three evenings between September 17 and 19, 1970 at the Bitter End, New York.
"My Love" is a song by the British–American band Paul McCartney and Wings that was first released as the lead single from their 1973 album Red Rose Speedway. It was written by Paul McCartney as a love song to his wife and Wings bandmate Linda. The single marked the first time that McCartney's name appeared in the artist credit for a Wings record, after their previous releases had been credited to Wings alone. Released on 23 March 1973, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the US for four weeks and peaked at number 9 on the UK Singles Chart. The single was viewed as Wings' first significant success in the US and helped Red Rose Speedway achieve commercial success.
"Baby I'm Yours" is a song written by Van McCoy which was a hit in 1965 for Barbara Lewis, the original recording artist. The song was featured in the 1995 film The Bridges of Madison County and was included on the soundtrack album. It was also featured in the TV movies The Midnight Hour (1985) and An American Crime (2007), as well as being briefly featured in Baby Driver.
"Words of Love" is a song by the Mamas & the Papas from their second studio album of the same name. The song was written by John Phillips, and featured Cass Elliot as the primary vocalist. It was released as a single in November 1966.
Bubblegum, Lemonade &... Something for Mama is the second solo album released by Cass Elliot under the billing "Mama Cass". It was recorded in 1969 and arranged and produced by Steve Barri. The album was originally released in June 1969, with only 11 tracks. It was released again in November 1969, under a new title and with a different album cover as Make Your Own Kind of Music/It’s Getting Better. "Make Your Own Kind of Music" had just become a hit and was added to the album.
Dream a Little Dream is the debut solo album by American singer Cass Elliot immediately following the breakup of The Mamas & the Papas, though she was still billed as "Mama Cass" for this release. Capitalizing on the success of her first solo song as the album's title, it was released in October 1968 by Dunhill Records. The album was re-released by MCA Japan in 2001.
The Road Is No Place for a Lady is the fifth and final studio album released by Cass Elliot. It was the second album she recorded after signing with RCA Records. The album was recorded over a period of two months during the summer of 1972 at London's Trident Studios, produced by Lewis Merenstein and arranged and conducted by Larry Fallon and Del Newman.
Mama's Big Ones is a compilation album of previously released material as noted below, by Cass Elliot.
"It's Getting Better" is a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil that was a sunshine pop hit single in 1969 for Mama Cass.
"Beware My Love" is a rock song credited to Paul and Linda McCartney that was first released on the Wings 1976 album Wings at the Speed of Sound. It was also used as the B-side of the single that included "Let 'Em In". A live version recorded on June 7, 1976, in Denver, Colorado, was included on the Wings' album Wings Over America and another live version from three days later in Seattle, Washington, was shown in the concert film Rockshow. An excerpt from the Rockshow performance was also included in the documentary Wings Over the World.
"New World Coming" is a pop song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil which became a hit for Cass Elliot in early 1970.
"Move in a Little Closer, Baby" is a pop song, first recorded by Harmony Grass as "Move in a Little Closer." The song became an international hit for Cass Elliot in the spring of 1969.
California Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before The Mamas & the Papas is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Pénélope Bagieu which highlights the early years of late singer Cass Elliot. It was initially published in French during 2015 by Gallimard. The American edition was translated by Nanette McGuinness and published two years later by First Second Books. The subtitle was added to the American 2017 version. In 2018 it won the Harvey Award of Best European Book.