John Phillips (musician)

John Edmund Andrew Phillips (August 30, 1935 – March 18, 2001) was an American folk rock musician.

He was the leader of the vocal group the Mamas & the Papas and remains frequently referred to as Papa John Phillips.

Phillips was born August 30, 1935, in Parris Island, South Carolina.

His father, Claude Andrew Phillips, was a retired United States Marine Corps officer.

On his way home from France following World War I, Claude Phillips managed to win a tavern located in Oklahoma from another Marine during a poker game.

His mother, Edna Gertrude (née Gaines), who had English ancestry, met his father in Oklahoma.

According to Phillips's autobiography, Papa John, his father was a heavy drinker who suffered from poor health.

Phillips grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, where he was inspired by Marlon Brando to be "street tough."

From 1942 to 1946, he attended Linton Hall Military School in Bristow, Virginia.

According to his autobiography, he "hated the place," citing "inspections," and "beatings," and recalls that "nuns used to watch us take showers."

He formed a musical group of teenage boys, who sang doo-wop songs.

He played basketball at George Washington High School, now George Washington Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia, where he graduated in 1953, and gained an appointment to the United States Naval Academy.

However, he resigned during his first (plebe) year.

Phillips then attended Hampden–Sydney College, a liberal arts college for men in Hampden Sydney, Virginia, dropping out in 1959.

Phillips longed to have success in the music industry and traveled to New York to gain 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 had several appearances on the 1960s TV show Hootenanny.

All three albums, as well as a compilation titled Best of the Journeymen, have since been reissued on CD.

He developed his craft in Greenwich Village, during the American folk music revival, and met future Mamas & the Papas members Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot there around that time.

Lyrics of the group's song "Creeque Alley" describe this period.

Phillips was the primary songwriter and musical arranger of the Mamas and the Papas.

As Michelle Phillips later recounted, "Cass confronted me and said 'I don't get it. You could have any man you want. Why would you take mine (Doherty)?'" Michelle was fired briefly in 1966 for having affairs with Gene Clark and Doherty.

She was replaced for two months by Jill Gibson, their producer Lou Adler's girlfriend.

Although Michelle Phillips was forgiven and asked to return to the group, the personal problems continued until the group split.

In addition to writing the majority of the group's compositions, he also wrote "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" in 1967 for former Journeymen bandmate Scott McKenzie, as well as the oft-covered "Me and My Uncle", which was a favorite in the repertoire of the Grateful Dead.

Phillips was one of the chief organizers of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival.

Phillips helped promote the Monterey International Pop Music Festival held June 16 to 18, 1967, in Monterey, California; he performed with the Mamas and the Papas as part of the event as well.

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.

In a 1968 interview, Phillips described some of his arrangements as "well-arranged two-part harmony moving in opposite directions".

After being signed to Dunhill, they had several Billboard Top Ten hits, including "California Dreamin'", "Monday, Monday", "I Saw Her Again", "Creeque Alley", and "Dedicated to the One I Love".

He also co-produced the film Monterey Pop (1968) with the group's producer Lou Adler.

John and Michelle Phillips became Hollywood celebrities, living in the Hollywood Hills and socializing with stars such as Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and Roman Polanski.

The Mamas and the Papas broke up in 1968 largely because Cass Elliot wanted to go solo and because of personal problems between Phillips, his wife Michelle, and Denny Doherty, including Michelle's affair with Doherty.

Between 1969 and 1974, Phillips and Waïte worked on a script and composed over 30 songs for a space-themed musical called Man on the Moon, which was eventually produced by Andy Warhol but played for just two days in New York after receiving disastrous opening night reviews.

Phillips released his first solo album John, the Wolf King of L.A. in 1970.

The album was not commercially successful, although it did include the minor hit "Mississippi", and Phillips began to withdraw from the limelight as his use of narcotics increased.

He teamed up with Adler again to produce Robert Altman's 1970 film Brewster McCloud and also wrote the songs for the film.

Phillips produced his third wife Geneviève Waïte's album Romance Is on the Rise, and wrote music for films.

Cass Elliot went on to have a successful solo career until her death in 1974.