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| Music Forum Index » Folk Music Forum » Denny Doherty, Canadian member of the Mamas and Papas folk group, dies at 66 |
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| Grover C. McCoury III |
 Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:27 pm |
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by Cassandra Szklarski
Canadian Press
January 19, 2007
TORONTO (CP) - Denny Doherty, the Canadian member of the popular '60s folk
group Mamas and the Papas known for their iconic hits such as "California
Dreamin"' and "Monday, Monday," has died.
He was 66. His older sister Frances Arnold said the singer-songwriter died
at his home in suburban Mississauga on Friday after suffering an aneurysm in
his abdomen.
The Halifax-born Doherty was the lead male singer in the group whose other
hits included "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Dedicated to the One I
Love."
"Everybody used to think that John Phillips, who wrote the songs, was also
the main voice of the group, but it wasn't - it was the angelic voice of
Denny Doherty," said Larry Leblanc, Canadian editor of Billboard Magazine.
"He was often overlooked but it was really his voice that carried the
group."
"He was a raconteur, a storyteller and he would tell these great, great,
great stories of some of the great moments with the Mamas and the Papas and
some of the bad moments 'cause they lived some of the great and bad
moments," said Leblanc.
Doherty co-wrote the songs "I Saw Her Again Last Night" and "Got a Feelin.'
"
Despite being only together for three years, from 1965 to '68, the Mamas and
the Papas had 10 hit singles over five albums.
Doherty, along with (Mama) Cass Elliott and John and Michelle Phillips, sold
an estimated 20 million records. But internal squabbling, heavy drug use and
a web of love triangles ultimately led to their breakup.
In 1974 the 30-year-old Elliot choked and suffered a fatal heart attack
while eating a sandwich in London. John Phillips, the group's chief
songwriter, died in 2001 at age 65.
"What made the group special was their haunting and sumptuous harmony
singing," according to "The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock &
Roll."
Doherty started his music career in Montreal in 1960 as the co-founder of
the Colonials, which later became the Halifax Three.
He launched an acting career in the '70s and appeared on Broadway in the
1974 play "Man on the Moon." Later in Halifax, he joined John Neville at the
Neptune Theatre where he was in "The Taming of the Shrew," "Much Ado About
Nothing" and "Cabaret."
The Mama and Papas had a short-lived comeback in 1982, adding two new faces
to the classic group. John's daughter MacKenzie Phillips and Elaine (Spanky)
McFarlane.
Doherty was involved in a number of musical projects, including an
autobiographical musical, "Dream a Little Dream," which premiered in Toronto
in 2001.
He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1996.
Doherty also dabbled in television, playing the role of the affable
harbourmaster in the children's TV series "Theodore Tugboat."
The show, originally produced in Halifax by CBC, featured a cast of small,
radio-controlled tugboats. Doherty provided the narration and the voices for
all the characters.
Though the backdrop for the show was known as the Big Harbour, the model
set - complete with a huge water tank - was actually a fairly accurate
rendering of Halifax harbour.
The show attracted a huge following among its young fans in the mid-1990s
when it appeared on CBC and later on PBS, the non-profit public broadcaster
in the United States.
Every show featured Doherty's musical, mellifluous voice telling the stories
of Theodore the tugboat and his friends, many of whom were named after
places in Atlantic Canada.
Doherty suffered kidney problems following surgery Dec. 14 and was put on
dialysis, Arnold said. He was released from hospital last week, and Arnold
said he sounded tired when she spoke with him just days ago.
"It's got an unreal quality to it, I just can't get it through my head,"
Arnold, 78, said by phone from Halifax. "We weren't expecting it."
She said Doherty was depressed about his decline in health, and had been
making plans for an adventurous boat trip across the Atlantic.
"He was a very energetic, busy active person and it was hard for him to make
that adjustment, I think," she said.
Arnold says the first time her mother heard Doherty on the radio it was him
singing "California Dreamin'."
"My mother stood in the kitchen and cried," she says.
Doherty, who was married twice, is survived by his siblings Frances, Joe,
Denise and Joan and children John, Emberly and Jessica. Both of his wives
predeceased him.
Funeral arrangements have yet to be made, Arnold said. |
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