Sixty years after its release, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars covered the Mamas and the Papas‘ “California Dreamin’” at the 2025 Grammy Awards on Sunday night. The “Die With a Smile” duo took the Sixties anthem into 2025, making it a poignant love letter to Los Angeles in wake of …
Read More »Cass Elliot's Daughter on the Last Time She Saw Her Mom
Owen Elliot-Kugell was just seven years old when her mother, “Mama” Cass Elliot, died of a heart attack in 1974. Since then, she’s tried to untangle the myth of the hippie icon — especially the insensitive rumor that she died choking on a ham sandwich — and discover who she …
Read More »Jessica Pratt Shows Us the Shadows of California's Sixties Sunshine
To the average listener hearing Jessica Pratt for the first time, it’s possible to mistake her for an artist from a different era. Her music sounds decades old, like an obscure artist unearthed from the dusty bin of a Midwestern antique shop. But this is not the Langley Schools Music …
Read More »'American Idol' Platinum Ticket Winners Are 'California Dreamin' Ahead of 'Hollywood Week'
The grueling gauntlet that is American Idol‘s “Hollywood Week” is imminent: A strenuous, ruthless vocal boot camp that immediately follows the euphoria of getting a golden ticket and making it out of auditions. That’s what’s in store for most contestants, but not all. Three somewhat lucky — but mostly supremely …
Read More »Mama Cass' Daughter Wants to Dispel Myths About Her Mom — Including One About Her Death
Owen Elliot-Kugell remembers the last time she saw her mom. It was the summer of 1974, and the seven-year-old was on an airplane departing London. Just like that scene in Almost Famous, Elliot-Kugell said goodbye through the window. “She puts my seat belt on and kisses me and says, ‘Look …
Read More »How A TikTok Meme Is Inspiring A New Generation To Learn About Cass Elliot
What do Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, and a top-down convertible ride on a cliff in Majorca have to do with folk-rock legend Cass Elliot? The answer — like most things nowadays — involves a new meme sweeping TikTok. Taken from a scene in the 2022 film The Unbearable Weight of …
Read More »Michelle Phillips Finally Reveals the Secret History of the Mamas and the Papas
T here’s a modest home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Cheviot Hills, with a stucco roof, a jacaranda tree out front, and a 1989 Mercedes 560SL in perfect condition resting in the driveway. Beyond a front porch with wind chimes and a couch pillow that reads “This is our …
Read More »Watch Jakob Dylan and Jade Castrinos Perform 'Go Where You Wanna Go' on 'Kimmel'
Jakob Dylan and Jade Castrinos appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live to perform their collaborative cover “Go Where You Wanna Go.” The classic tune, by the Mamas and the Papas, comes off the soundtrack to upcoming Laurel Canyon music documentary Echo In the Canyon. In the performance, the track takes on …
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