{"id":2446909,"date":"2019-07-29T10:20:40","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T16:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=863198"},"modified":"2019-07-29T10:20:40","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T16:20:40","slug":"flashback-cass-elliot-performs-a-shimmery-dream-a-little-dream-of-me-in-1970","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/flashback-cass-elliot-performs-a-shimmery-dream-a-little-dream-of-me-in-1970\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: Cass Elliot Performs a Shimmery \u2018Dream a Little Dream of Me\u2019 in 1970"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/cass-elliot.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Forty-five years ago today, the world lost \u201cMama\u201d Cass Elliot, member of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/the-mamas-and-the-papas\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-mamas-and-the-papas\" data-tag=\"the-mamas-and-the-papas\">the Mamas and the Papas<\/a> and a pivotal figure in the 1960s California rock scene. She was found dead at the infamous 1 Curzon Place, a London apartment that Harry Nilsson had rented out to the star. (Four years later, Keith Moon would die in the same apartment, also at 32 years old.)<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to a nasty urban legend, Elliot did not die from choking on a ham sandwich, which London celebrity doctor Anthony Greenburgh originally told the <em>Daily Express<\/em>. \u201cShe appeared to have been eating a ham sandwich and drinking Coca Cola while laying down,\u201d he reported. \u201cA very dangerous thing to do.\u201d Later, Coroner Gavin Thurston would reveal that the sandwich was not the cause \u2014 as it had been untouched \u2014 and Elliot had actually died of a heart attack. However, nearly half a century later, the myth persists.<\/p>\n<p>Elliot had been in London performing a two week-stint at the London Palladium, with sets that included \u201cDream a Little Dream of Me,\u201d a 1931 standard that she originally recorded with the Mamas and the Papas in 1968. Though there are more than 60 versions of the song, including one by Ella Fitzgerald, it quickly became Elliot\u2019s signature tune. \u201cI tried to sing it like it was 1943,\u201d she told <em>Melody Maker<\/em>. \u201cI tried to sing it as if it were the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The single came out in June 1968, credited to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/mama-cass\/\" id=\"auto-tag_mama-cass\" data-tag=\"mama-cass\">Mama Cass<\/a> with the Mamas and the Papas,\u201d angering the band, who had already been dealing with inner turmoil for some time. In addition, the single featured a controversial poster of Elliot lying nude covered in daisies. \u201cAt that point nothing really surprised you about Cass,\u201d bandmate Michelle Phillips recalled to Eddi Fiegel in her Elliot biography <em>Dream a Little Dream of Me.<\/em> \u201cShe also had a butterfly tattooed on her ass and I\u2019d never heard of a woman getting a tattoo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Mamas and the Papas disbanded shortly afterwards, leading Elliot to finally embark on a solo career. She re-recorded \u201cDream a Little Dream of Me\u201d for her debut solo album <em>Dream a Little Dream<\/em>, released just four months later, in October \u201968. You can watch a performance of the classic in the video above, when Elliot appeared on the short-lived <em>Ray Stevens Show<\/em> in June 1970. Elliot strolls across the in a silk nightgown, eventually sitting in front of a lonely candle-lit dinner while singing. \u201cSweet dreams till sunbeams find you\/Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you.\u201d The song lingers on.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/cass-elliot-dream-a-little-dream-1970-live-863198\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forty-five years ago today, the world lost \u201cMama\u201d Cass Elliot, member of the Mamas and the Papas and a pivotal figure in the 1960s California rock scene. She was found dead at the infamous 1 Curzon Place, a London apartment that Harry Nilsson had rented out to the star. (Four years later, Keith Moon would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 09:54:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}