.

500 Greatest Albums

127

If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears - The Mamas and the Papas


If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears - The Mamas and the Papas
127/500

"California Dreamin'," this album's first hit and a warm breeze of melody that was the road song for hippie migrants to the West Coast in the late 1960s, was started by Papa John Phillips on a dreary New York day in 1963 — at the height of the Greenwich Village folk revival. Eyes and Ears is more of the sweet same: sunshine pop with a rustic heart, the Beach Boys for folkies. Breathtaking harmonies and Phillips' studio wizardry transformed the group's covers of "Spanish Harlem" and the Beatles' "I Call Your Name." Another reason to feast your ears: the luscious sadness of "Monday, Monday."


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