System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Cass Elliot, Singer
September 19, 1941 - July 29, 1974
Born Ellen Naomi Cohen, on September 19, 1941 in Baltimore, Maryland. Her family moved around a lot between the Metropolitan areas of Maryland, and she called both Alexandria, VA and Baltimore, MD, home. She changed her last name to Elliot in 1961 when she was trying her hand at Broadway. Elliot burst onto the early '60s Greenwich Village folk scene headlining in moderately popular groups such as The Big Three with Tim Rose and James Hendricks (whom she was married to briefly enabling him to avoid being drafted to service in Vietnam), and the Mugwumps with Zal Yanovsky, James Hendricks and Denny Doherty.
In 1963 Cass' friend Denny joined a group called the New Journeymen, also consisting of John and Michelle Phillips. It was Denny who would eventually introduce Cass to John and Michelle Phillips. The four would go on to form the very successful singing group The Mamas & The Papas. After recording four gold albums (the group recorded a commercially unsuccessful fifth album, People Like Us in 1971), seven top-ten singles and a 1966 Grammy Award for best single (Monday, Monday), the group parted ways leaving each one to pursue solo careers.
Cass took the break-up in stride, as she had always wanted to venture out on her own and become a star independently of her Mamas & Papas fame. She recorded six solo albums (3 for the Dunhill label and 3 for the RCA label) and had numerous charting singles. She headlined in Las Vegas, starred in several television specials and even guest hosted the Tonight Show no less than a dozen times. She had a starring role in the feature film version of H.R. Puff 'n Stuff and guest starred on the Scooby Doo Cartoon Hour as the inheritor of a haunted candy factory. A brief musical pairing with Dave Mason produced one album that met with little commercial, but some critical, success.
It was while on a tour in the UK, after having played two sold-out shows at the London Palladium, that Cass Elliot died of a massive heart attack in a London flat owned by Harry Nilsson. She was just 32 years old. She left behind a daughter, Owen Vanessa, who was born in 1967. Elliot was married twice; to Jim Hendricks (1963-68) and to Donald von Wiedenman (1971).
