Editing The Mamas & the Papas (section)

=== 1967–1968: ''The Mamas & the Papas Deliver'' and ''The Papas & the Mamas'' ===
[[File:Mamas and Papas 1967.JPG|thumb|180px|right|The Mamas & the Papas on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC's]] ''The Song Makers'', 1967]]
After completing their East Coast tour, the group started work immediately on its third album, ''[[The Mamas & The Papas Deliver]]''. The first single from the album, "[[Look Through My Window]]", was released in September 1966 before the last single from the previous album. It reached No. 24 in the US. The second single, "[[Dedicated to the One I Love]]", released in February 1967, did better, peaking at No. 2 in both the US and the UK. The success of "Dedicated to the One I Love" helped the album, which was also released in February 1967, reach No. 2. The third single, "[[Creeque Alley]]", released April 1967, chronicled the band's early history and reached No. 5 in the US.

By June 1967, the strain on the group was apparent when it performed indifferently at the [[Monterey Pop Festival|Monterey International Pop Festival]]. The band was under-rehearsed, partly because John and Michelle Phillips and Lou Adler were preoccupied with organizing the festival, partly because Doherty arrived at the last minute from another sojourn in the Virgin Islands,<ref>[http://www.dennydoherty.com/dream/dream15.html "Dream a Little Dream"], Denny Doherty Website. Retrieved May 6, 2013.</ref>{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|p=229}}{{sfn|J. Phillips|1986|p=182}} and partly because he was drinking heavily in the aftermath of his affair with Michelle Phillips.<ref>''Rock Family Trees'', Season Two, Episode One: {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20130616034752/http://blog.familyofrock.com/index.php/the-series ''California Dreaming'&nbsp;'']}}, first broadcast on BBC 2, September–October 1998. Retrieved May 1, 2013.</ref> The Mamas & the Papas rallied for its performance before 18,000 people at the [[Hollywood Bowl]] in August with [[Jimi Hendrix]] as the opener, which John and Michelle Phillips remembered as the apex of the band's career, saying, "There would never be anything quite like it again".{{sfn|M. Phillips|1986|pages=145–146}}{{sfn|J. Phillips|1986|p=186}}

''The Mamas & the Papas Deliver'' was followed in October 1967 by the non-album single "[[Glad to Be Unhappy]]", which reached No. 26 in the US. "Dancing Bear" from the group's second album was released as a single in November, peaking at No. 51 in the US. Neither "Glad to Be Unhappy" nor "Dancing Bear" charted in the UK.

The Mamas & the Papas cut their first three albums at [[United Western Recorders]] in Hollywood,{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|pages=172, 192, 215}} while the group's subsequent releases were recorded at the eight-track studio that John and Michelle Phillips had built at their home in Bel Air, at a time when four-track recording was still the norm.{{sfn|Greenwald|2002|pages=217-220}}{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|pages=237-238; 327-328}} John Phillips said, "I got the idea to transform the attic into my own recording studio, so I could stay high all the time and never have to worry about studio time. I began assembling the state-of-the-art equipment and ran the cost up to about a hundred grand".{{sfn|J. Phillips|1986|pages=164; 189}}

While having his own studio gave John Phillips the autonomy he craved, it also removed the external discipline that may have been beneficial to a man who described himself as an "obsessive perfectionist".{{sfn|J. Phillips|1986|p=141}} Doherty, Elliot and Adler found the arrangement uncongenial. Elliot complained to ''Rolling Stone'' on October 26, 1968, "We spent one whole month on one song; just the vocals for 'The Love of Ivy' took one whole month. I did my [debut solo] album in three weeks, a total of ten days in the studio. Live with the band, not prerecorded tracks sitting there with earphones."<ref>Quoted in [http://thirdestatesundayreview.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/legacy-of-mamas-and-papas.html "The Legacy of the Mamas and the Papas"], Third Estate. Retrieved May 14, 2013.</ref> The recording sessions for the fourth album stalled, and in September 1967 John Phillips called a press conference to announce that the Mamas & the Papas were taking a break, which the band confirmed on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'' that aired on September 24.{{sfn|J. Phillips|1986|pages=191–192}}{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|p=238}}<ref>[http://www.tv.com/shows/the-ed-sullivan-show/september-24-1967-the-mamas-and-the-papas-florence-henderson-john-byner-108931/, "The Ed Sullivan Show, September 24, 1967"], TV.com.</ref>

The Mamas & the Papas planned to give concerts at the [[Royal Albert Hall]] in London and the [[Olympia (Paris)|Olympia]] in Paris before taking time out on [[Majorca]] to "get the muse going again".{{sfn|Hall|2000|p=128}}{{sfn|M. Phillips|1986|p=156}} When the group docked at Southampton on October 5, Elliot was arrested for stealing two blankets and a hotel key worth 10 guineas ($28) when in England the previous February. Elliot was transferred to London, where she spent a night in custody after being strip-searched, before the case was dismissed in the West London Magistrates' Court the next day.<ref>"Pop Singer Cleared of Theft", ''The Times'',  October 7, 1967.</ref> The hotel was less interested in the blankets than in an unpaid bill. Elliot had entrusted the money to her companion, Harris Pickens "Pic" Dawson III,<ref>Harris Pickens Dawson III, b. January 4, 1943, d. August 16, 1986, in Long Beach, Brunswick County, North Carolina; see North Carolina, Deaths, 1931–1994, at [https://familysearch.org/ Family Search.] Retrieved May 6, 2013. Dawson is routinely described by contemporaries as a drug dealer; he was also briefly (and wrongly) suspected of involvement in the [[Charles Manson|Manson murders]]. Fiegel says he was born in 1942 and that his middle name was Pickins, both of which details appear to be incorrect.</ref>{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|p=143}} who neglected to settle the account.{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|pages=241–243}} The police were less interested in the blankets or the bill than in Dawson, who was suspected of international drug trafficking and was the sole subject of their questioning.{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|pages=244–245}}

Later, at a party hosted by the band to celebrate Elliot's acquittal, John Phillips interrupted Elliot as she was telling [[the Rolling Stones]]' [[Mick Jagger]] about her arrest and trial and said, "Mick, she's got it all wrong, that's not how it was at all." Elliot screamed at Phillips and stormed out of the room.{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|p=246}}{{sfn|J. Phillips|1986|p=196}} Elliot was ready to quit, the Royal Albert Hall and Olympia dates were canceled, and the four went their separate ways. John and Michelle Phillips went to Morocco, Doherty returned to the United States, and Elliot went either to the United States (according to John Phillips) or to a rendezvous in Paris with Pic Dawson (according to Michelle Phillips).{{sfn|J. Phillips|1986|p=196}}{{sfn|M. Phillips|1986|p=157}} In an interview with ''[[Melody Maker]]'', Elliot unilaterally announced that the Mamas & the Papas had disbanded, saying "We thought this trip would give the group some stimulation, but this has not been so."{{sfn|Fiegel|2005|p=247}}