A Freezing New York Night Gave The Mamas & The Papas the Song That Defined California
Before “California Dreamin’” became one of the most recognizable songs of the 1960s, it began with something much less glamorous:
John and Michelle Phillips were cold.
The couple were living in New York, far from the California sunshine Michelle knew so well.
One winter night, John woke Michelle and began working through the beginnings of a new song.
The idea was simple.
Imagine being surrounded by gray skies, brown leaves and freezing streets while wishing you were somewhere warmer.
Somewhere like California.
That feeling became “California Dreamin’.”
At the time, The Mamas & The Papas had not yet become the famous group people remember today.
John and Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot were still trying to find the sound that would separate them from dozens of other folk-influenced vocal groups.
Then producer Lou Adler brought them into the orbit of singer Barry McGuire.
McGuire recorded an early version of “California Dreamin’,” with the future Mamas & The Papas singing behind him.
But the song was too good to remain in the background.
The group recorded their own version, using much of the same musical foundation while replacing McGuire’s lead with Denny Doherty’s voice.
That decision changed everything.
Doherty’s restrained vocal gave the song a feeling of longing rather than simple sunshine.
The harmonies made it unmistakably The Mamas & The Papas.
And then came one of its most memorable sounds.
Jazz musician Bud Shank played the alto-flute solo in the middle of the recording, giving the track an unexpected color that helped make it instantly recognizable. Guitarist P.F. Sloan also contributed the distinctive guitar figure heard in the arrangement.
Released in late 1965, “California Dreamin’” became the group’s breakthrough.
It climbed into the Top 5 in the United States and helped establish the vocal blend of John, Michelle, Denny and Cass as one of the defining sounds of the era.
The irony is that the song many people now associate with warm beaches and California freedom is not really a sunny song.
It is a song about wanting to be somewhere else.
About looking out at a cold, gray world and imagining a place that feels warmer, safer and more alive.
That is why the song still works decades later.
You do not have to miss California to understand it.
Almost everyone knows what it feels like to stand in one place while wishing, for just a moment, that they were somewhere else.
The Mamas & The Papas turned that feeling into a record.
And one cold New York winter ended up helping define the sound of California.
Barbara Mandrell Retired From Music at 18 — One Night at the Grand Ole Opry Changed Her Mind
Long before Barbara Mandrell became one of the biggest stars in country music, she had already decided her music career was over.
She was only 18.
That decision sounds almost impossible in hindsight.
Because Barbara Mandrell had been preparing for the stage practically since childhood.
Born in Houston on Christmas Day in 1948, she learned accordion and how to read music before entering first grade. After her family moved to California, she began studying steel guitar at about ten years old while also learning saxophone at school.
Then someone important noticed her.
Country guitarist Joe Maphis saw the young Mandrell performing at a music trade convention in 1960.
He was impressed enough to bring her into his Las Vegas act.
Barbara was still a child, yet she was already sharing a musical world populated by professional country performers.
Before long, she appeared on the Los Angeles television program Town Hall Party and joined a national package tour headlined by Johnny Cash.
By 14, she was performing with her family band at military bases in the United States and Asia. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
It looked as though music had already chosen her.
Then Barbara walked away.
She had fallen in love with Ken Dudney, the drummer in the Mandrell family band.
Dudney eventually joined the Navy and trained as a pilot.
The couple married in 1967.
Barbara decided that was enough.
At 18, she retired from music.
For someone who had spent much of her childhood performing, it was an extraordinary choice.
But the retirement did not last.
When Dudney was away with the Navy, Barbara visited her family in Tennessee.
One evening, she attended a taping of The Porter Wagoner Show before the Grand Ole Opry.
As Barbara watched the performers, something came back.
She leaned toward her father, Irby Mandrell.
She told him she could do what she was watching onstage.
More importantly, she wanted to do it again.
She asked whether he would manage her.
Her father believed in her.
The decision made that night changed everything. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Barbara soon signed with Columbia Records.
In 1969, she entered the Billboard country chart with her version of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.”
More hits followed.
By 1972, she had joined the Grand Ole Opry — the same institution connected to the night that helped convince her to return.
Then the career accelerated.
“Sleeping Single in a Double Bed” reached No. 1.
Her version of “If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don’t Want to Be Right)” also topped the country chart.
But Mandrell was becoming more than a recording artist.
She could sing.
She could dance.
She could play multiple instruments.
And onstage, she could move between traditional country, pop, soul, gospel, and show-business spectacle without losing her identity.
By the beginning of the 1980s, Barbara Mandrell was everywhere.
From 1980 to 1982, she starred with her sisters Louise and Irlene on NBC’s Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, bringing country music into millions of American homes every week.
And the industry recognized what was happening.
The Country Music Association named Mandrell Entertainer of the Year in 1980.
Then she won again in 1981.
She became the first artist in CMA history to win the award in consecutive years. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
That same period produced the song that would become inseparable from her name.
“I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool.”
The song looked back at a time when openly loving country music was not always fashionable.
Then country culture exploded into the American mainstream.
George Jones appeared on the recording, and the song became another No. 1 country hit for Mandrell
The title almost seemed to describe Barbara herself.
She had been playing steel guitar as a child long before television superstardom.
She had toured before she was old enough to drive.
She had quit.
She had started again.
And she had reached the top.
Her life would still bring serious challenges.
In 1984, a devastating automobile accident left Mandrell with multiple injuries and required a long recovery.
Yet she returned again, continuing to record, tour, and act before eventually retiring from performing in 1997. Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
In 2009, Barbara Mandrell was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
It was a remarkable ending to a story that could easily have stopped decades earlier.
At 18, Barbara Mandrell thought she was finished with music.
Then she sat in an audience in Nashville and watched other performers doing what she had once done.
Something inside her changed.
She told her father she wanted another chance.
He believed her.
And the young woman who had retired before her career truly began eventually became one of country music’s defining entertainers.
