CASS ELLIOT photographed by her dear friend HENRY DILTZ, 1968.
Cass Elliot (born Ellen Naomi Cohen) would have turned 80 years old today. As a member of the Mamas and the Papas in the 1960s, Elliot achieved 6 top 10 hits in the USA, as well as 4 in the UK, and won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Group Performance in 1967 for ‘Monday, Monday’.
Sometimes referred to as the ‘voice’ of the Mamas and the Papas, Cass Elliot’s presence as a performer continues to attract people from all over the world — with her solo work accumulating over 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
A dear mother, daughter, sister, and friend, Cass has been described by Henry Diltz as “everyone’s best friend”. As one of the most enigmatic figures of the Laurel Canyon, she had a wicked sense of humour and was reportedly someone who laughed all the time, bringing a sense of warmth to everyone she met. She was a unique, irreplaceable character whose friends miss her and her boundless enthusiasm daily, summed up perfectly by her friend Erik Jacobsen, who has said — “They broke the mold when they made Cass.”
“My advice is precisely the advice my mother gave me. If you believe you have talent, the next thing you must have is determination. If you keep working, keep striving, and try always to move forward a little bit with every job you do, you'll eventually make it. And I believe that!” — Cass Elliot, taken from an interview with American Girl magazine, June 1970.
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