“Make Your Own Kind of Music” by Mama Cass [1969]

In 1968 Mama Cass Elliot left The Mamas and the Papas for a solo career on the back of her solo showcase “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” In an effort to take her career to the next level, Cass tried out for a few premier musicals. She came close to landing a lead role at least once, with only Barbra Streisand’s availability preventing it. For her next effort, Mama Cass dropped “Elliot” from her stage name and agreed to a three-week headline show at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas for $40,000 a week. Her career appeared ready for a glittery lift-off.

And then: 

“Cass has tonsillitis. For a week now, the Hollywood trade papers have been following the progress of her illness with enthusiasm. Daily Medical bulletins have appeared in all the gossip columns. Some say mononucleosis. Some say hepatitis. Some say hemorrhaging. Some do not.”

Fighting tonsillitis, Cass made the unfortunate decision to go ahead with the show:

“As the orchestra was playing her overture, Cass mistook the music for a cue and started singing California Earthquake over a backstage microphone. The mike was quickly shut off, and the overture continued.”

She had yet to even sing a song:

“By the time Cass got to California Earthquake, a broken line of patrons could be noticed moving up the center aisle toward the door. Mama Cass wasn’t a hippie; she wasn’t sexy; and, having nearly killed herself losing one hundred pounds for her solo debut, she wasn’t even very fat. At least fat would have been something, so what was there to see? Cass had never become a legend with this crowd. They weren’t prepared to sympathize with her raspy, tortured delivery because they carried no memories of her earnest mezzo - soprano tones the way they sounded when she didn’t have tonsillitis.” (“Sink Along with Mama Cass,” Esquire Magazine, June 1969)

Her Las Vegas adventure ended horribly and the bad press hurt sales of Dream a Little Dream of Me. Less than a year after leaving The Mamas and the Papas, Mama Cass was looking for a comeback. Consecutive singles written by Brill Building duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil in the summer of 1969 were supposed to provide that spark. The second of those was “Make Your Own Kind of Music.” They barely reached the Top 40. 

Who knows what might have happened had Mama Cass Elliot not been stricken with tonsillitis. She could have been so much more than an unfortunate (and mistaken) punchline to bad ham sandwich jokes.