The name Romeo Void might not ring a bell, but you more than likely remember the lyric “I might like you better if we slept together" from their 1981 hit “Never Say Never”.  However, there is a lot more to this band – and to “Never Say Never” for that matter – than that salacious lyric.  Lead singer Debora Iyall (Cowlitz) moved to the Bay Area in order to attend the San Francisco Art Institute.  She and two fellow students, Peter Woods and Jay Derrah formed a tongue-in-cheek 1960’s revival band called the Mummers and the Poppers (a takeoff on the name of the Mamas and the Papas). 

(August 2013)

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The Mamas and the Papas are another band featuring both men and women that had enduring popularity throughout the British Invasion years.  They were also one of the first American bands that fans began to know individually the way they knew the Beatles:  Suave bandleader John Phillips, his gorgeous wife Michelle Phillips, the muscular singer Cass Elliot (who became known almost immediately as “Mama Cass”), and Denny Doherty, the other Papa.  Mama Cass was the first prominent big woman in rock and roll.  The complicated story of their formation and the other musicians who moved in and out of their circles – which included John Sebastian and Zal Yanofsky of the Lovin’ Spoonful – is related in their song “Creeque Alley”.  Considerably more drama would follow during and after the Mamas and the Papas had their hit-making run.  In all, the band racked up nine Top 30 hits during the mid-1960’s and in many ways personified folk rock for most Americans – or at least the non-psychedelic side of that genre. 

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Wilson Phillips is one of the early second-generation rock bands and features another pair of Wilson sisters – Carnie Wilson and Wendy Wilson (daughters of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys) – plus Chynna Phillips, the daughter of John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.  She is the half-sister of actress Mackenzie Phillips, who started out in the film American Graffiti when she was just 12 years old.  Wilson Phillips had a major hit song in 1990 called “Hold On” and has released a total of six albums to date. 

(November 2013)

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Wikipedia lists an almost completely different group of artists in that article (as opposed to those listed above who were backed by Glen Campbell in particular):  “Notable artists employing the Wrecking Crew’s talents included Nancy Sinatra, Bobby Vee, the Partridge Family, the Mamas and the Papas, the Carpenters, the 5th Dimension, John Denver, the Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, the Grass Roots, and Nat King Cole.” 

(February 2015)