专辑简介

by William Ruhlmann

This discount-priced British compilation does a good job of assembling the highlights of Mama Cass Elliot's catalog on the Dunhill Records label, 1968-70, which was her most commercially successful material. (She also charted in 1971 with the duo album Dave Mason & Cass Elliot on Blue Thumb Records and recorded three albums for RCA Victor Records, 1971-73, none of which made the charts.) Almost all of her chart singles as a solo artist are included, which is to say, the Top 20 hit revival "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (recorded while she was still a member of the Mamas & the Papas); the Top 40 hits "It's Getting Better" (Top Ten in the U.K.) and "Make Your Own Kind of Music" (both written by the Brill Building team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil); the chart entries "New World Coming" (also written by Mann/Weil), "Move in a Little Closer, Baby," and "California Earthquake" (written by John Hartford); and the movie theme "The Good Times Are Coming" (from the Lee Marvin film Monte Walsh), which reached the Top 20 on the easy listening chart. (Two other singles with minor chart success are missing: "A Song That Never Comes," which grazed the Hot 100, and "Don't Let the Good Life Pass You By," which made the easy listening chart.) The album is filled out with interesting LP cuts, such as Delaney Bramlett's "Lady Love," Laura Nyro's "He's a Runner," and a revival of "I Can Dream, Can't I?" done in an arrangement similar to the one for "Dream a Little Dream of Me" that was actually issued as a B-side single and probably should have been the A-side. Elliot's strong, well-rounded voice is surrounded by lush pop orchestrations on most of these tracks, which sometimes lean a little toward Dixieland jazz, ragtime, or country, but always have a light, happy tone, even when the lyrics are not entirely sunny.