Mamas and Papas: Are Jill Gibson's vocals, not Michelle's on the 2nd album?

I recently read Mama Michelle say that while she was temporarily fired from the band, some of her vocals were replaced by singer Jill Gibson, who happened to be Lou Adler's then-girlfriend.

In a different interview, Jill claims she sang the "Michelle part" on all but two songs on the album.

Is this true? If it is, which two songs are they? My guess would be Dancing in the Streets and Once Was a Time I Thought, the first because Michelle was known for bringing in outside songs and the other because it sounds so tight, plus I heard an outtake on Gathering of Flowers that definitely sounds like Michelle.

I'd like to know more....

 

Someone else will have to chime in, but I think that's highly improbable. They would have had to replace several vocal parts if they wanted to replace hers, what with only four tracks and all.

GD

 

Not to mention the track bouncing.

 

My understanding is that Jill Gibson didn't replace pre-existing Michelle Phillips vocal tracks, but that she sang the original parts on some of the sessions for the Cass John Michelle Denny lp, when Michelle was in fact fired from the band. Then Michelle was brought back into the band, and did do some singing on the album, but some of Gibson's parts remained. No one seems to be able to agree on which songs Gibson sang.

 

VERY interesting topic! And I would love to know ANYTHING anyone can tell me about these sessions (or ANY M&P sessions, for that matter) and what happened to the session tapes . . . are they still around, etc.

Please . . . .

 

Thump.

 

I can't tell you more about this particular event, but I have heard the masters are not around. If I recall (dubious) Steve got some safety tapes from John Phillips for his Mamas and Papas Greatest Hits CD.

 

That's about what I know and with the same degree of certainty on good days.

I've long wondered if Lou Adler has the session tapes.

 

Here is what Wikipedia has to say:

The album the group had recorded with Gibson was then pulled by the label to accommodate Michelle's return. No copies of the album featuring Jill were ever released to the public. Only the promotional copies that were sent to national radio stations across the United States were released with Jill as a member. These promo copies are the Crashon Screamon All Fall Down cover with the white picket fence picture of the band, and are valuable collectibles today.

With Mama Michelle back in the mix, two extra tracks were cut for the second album. The LP was soon re-named simply as The Mamas & the Papas and it hit the stores in September 1966, with Michelle's image on the cover. Jill Gibson would later claim that her vocals are featured on the entire album except for two tracks that feature Michelle's voice. Nevertheless, the LP would go gold and would peak at No. 4 on the Billboard album charts without Jill receiving a gold copy herself. A second single called "Words of Love", was released from the LP, and it too hit the Billboard top five chart in late 1966 pushing the album into platinum status. However, things would still remain quite intense for the four original members until the band finally parted ways in the summer of 1968.

 

Bumpuses.

 

Isn't there an alternative album cover with Jill in the same position as Michelle in the final cover? There is a picture of it in one of their comps.

 

Yes, they screened in Jill. Then by the time the album was to be released, they screened Michelle back in, or whatever they do to restore it.

 

Yes,they did inteand to use that cover,too,but thought otherwise,since Michelle was brought back after fans expressed their distaste for Jill (Michelle didn't go on the tour that Jill went on-she got left behind,according to Michelle herself.) Michael Boyce

 

Check out the pics in this thread:


http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=134177

 

Since I posted that pic on the other thread here it is again. Like I said in before, it was from a very small pic in the CD booklet.

 

It would be nice to know if Jill Gibson did in fact sing on the 2nd lp. My undertanding has always been that she was only placed on the cover AFTER the Lp had been released, and accompanied John, Denny, and Cass on some tour dates before Michelle was let back in.
BTW, Jill also appears on the front cover of the "All The Leaves Are Brown" collection. I had the set for awhile before I caught THAT.

 

Again, I'm not sure if she really is or not, but Ms Gibson claims she rehearsed, attended sessions and sang on all but two songs on the album. She said she did not sing on Dancing in the Streets. If I were to guess, I'd guess it might be pretty difficult to remove her vocals, especially if she were on an earlier layer.

I think the artist Peter Whorf said she screened her in and then out for the final album release.

Supposedly, the Jill-only (minus two tracks) Crashon Screamon All Fall Down album was released as promos. I bet those are rare. More important, they would provide strong evidence of the sameness or difference between their versions and the finals.

 

I never caught that either. I'll have to look at my copy when I get home.

The question then becomes----why would they use THAT photo for the cover?

ps--looking at the picture in post #16, I'm still not convinced that isn't Michelle. It really doesn't look like the Jill Gibson on the (pulled) 2nd album cover.

Anybody know if Jill Gibson is still alive today or what she ended up doing with her life?

 

Still alive, and more concerned with art than music these days, according to this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill_Gibson


The article also has a link to her website, but I couldn't get it to open.

 

I've never heard of this promo lp. If what you say is correct, it might prove that Gibson did indeed sing on one version of the album, anyway. I still find it hard to believe that they would re-record vocals, whether with Jill or Michelle, or that Jill or Michelle's vocal parts would have been recorded isolated instead of in harmony with the group. I'm very intrigued.

Look at the nose and the eyes and tell me that's Michelle. I've lusted after Michelle long enough to know the difference.

 

Crashon Screamon All Fall Down

Here is a cover from http://home.comcast.net/~dunhill1966/mamas.htm - a Mamas and Papas fan site.

 

Well I won't argue with a smitten man then......

It's probably an oversight that a pic with Mama Jill was used on what was billed to be the "definitive" collection of Mamas & Papas. I wonder if anyone in the group even saw that pic before it was used.

 

Er, that's Michelle.

 

Back in early 1968 I visited The House Of Oldies in The Village for the first time. It was a VERY memorable visit, for I saw there, for the first time: the Butcher Cover; UK Beatle LPs (with track listings that I had no idea existed); the UK Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits; and the promo LP of Crashing, Screaming, All Fall Down. It was NOT the current cover, with Jill instead of Michelle, but a totally different cover, with a full-color cover picture of the group all laughing & rolling around in the grass. I forget what was on the back, but it was also completely different from the later release. I have NEVER seen this cover reproduced ANYWHERE, but I held it in my hands & it DID exist. I also have a B&W ad for ABC-Dunhill from 1968, where they show the cover of their forthcoming 4th LP: "Springboard"-a photo of the 4 of them standing in a row. This LP was released as The Papas And The Mamas.

 

UNTIL NOW! Thanks!