Rare Video Of The Mamas & The Papas Premieres On Ed Sullivan YouTube Channel
The performance of ‘Dedicated To The One I Love’ aired on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1967.
Rarely seen footage of the Mamas & the Papas in action on TV just graced the internet.
The psychedelic folk-pop group was one of the defining musical acts of the 1960s hippie counterculture; band member John Phillips wrote the iconic “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” and was an organizer of the landmark Monterey Pop Festival. Just as the hippie movement’s famed Summer of Love in San Francisco, the Mamas & the Papas made an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show across the country in New York—the same venue that had launched the Beatles to fame in America.
On the June 11, 1967 episode of Sullivan’s show, the Mamas & the Papas sang “Dedicated To The One I Love,” a performance that has now premiered on Sullivan’s YouTube channel 58 years later. Shortened versions of the video have been posted on the internet before, but the full three-minute footage has not been released online until now. Within the first 24 hours after the full-length clip’s debut on YouTube Monday at 8 p.m. ET, it tallied 70,000 views as fans rushed to see the performance in its uncut form.
First made famous by the Shirelles in 1959, “Dedicated To The One I Love” had its biggest success as a Mamas & the Papas single. The group’s version of the song, penned by Lowman Pauling and Ralph Bass, surpassed the Shirelles’ No. 3 chart peak to reach No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the first Mamas & the Papas single to feature Michelle Phillips on lead vocals, and that success ensured it wouldn’t be the last.
In addition to the core Mamas & the Papas members, the band’s recording of “Dedicated To The One I Love” also featured backing tracks by members of the legendary Wrecking Crew including Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Gary Coleman, Joe Osborn, and Tommy Tedesco. Decades later, Wilson Phillips, the vocal group featuring John and Michele’s daughter Chynna Phillips, included a version of “Dedicated To The One I Love” on their album Dedicated, one of many cover versions of the tune that have proliferated since the Mamas & the Papas made it their own.
