Album: If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966)

License This Song 

Songfacts®:

• "I Call Your Name" was mostly written by John Lennon, although it was credited to the team of Lennon/McCartney. According to journalist David Sheff from his interview with Lennon, Lennon wrote this song before the formation of the Beatles.
  
  Lennon originally turned the song over to The Dakotas, another Liverpool act, at the time when George Martin was also working with them. Lennon wasn't happy with The Dakotas arrangement of the song and its poor B-side performance, so he had The Beatles re-do it, releasing it for the first time in the US on The Beatles' Second Album in 1964.
  
  This cover by The Mamas & The Papas seems as if they were trying to compensate Lennon for his disappointment with The Dakotas version. That sunny honky-tonk piano with their trademark full-rounded vocals and the well-realized instrumental bridge certainly grabs your attention.
• This wasn't the only song on their first album not written by the original group; If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears also included a cover of soul-singer Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance?" and a Jerry Leiber/Phil Spector collaboration "Spanish Harlem."
• Collectors take note: If you can find the original album with the cover showing the toilet in the bathroom photo, it's worth big bucks. The initial cover was pulled because showing a picture of a toilet was considered indecent in 1966. Later shots showed the group piled in the same bathtub, but with a scroll to the side pasted over the toilet and listing hit singles from the album. Still later covers have the bathroom cropped out completely. We can't understand what all the fuss is about - the toilet looks perfectly clean. In any case, R&B singer Millie Jackson (the queen of tasteless album cover art) posed actually sitting on a toilet in 1989 (guess which album?), so apparently it's OK now.

Comments: 8

• 50 Baby from ColoradoThe secret to many successful groups like the M & Ps back then was their deep apprenticeship in the decade of the folk wave, and their rich well of old melodies, tight harmonies, and basic quality acoustic picking that gave them so much to build on. Phillips may have been a jerk, but he was a skilled producer who knew how to frame Mama Cass's brilliant voice with their distinctive sound. Creeque Alley is both a great song, but living scrollsheet of careers intersecting theirs. Sadly, young listeners mostly miss this sort of historical appreciation, apart from the few who dive into search engines; at least YouTube has preserved a lot of material only the dusty basements of record stores held prior to the 90s.
• Roger from SocalI've been a huge Beatles fan since the very beginning, but this is one time I think a cover blows away the original version. John Philips' arrangement, and the vocal performances are just sublime - that ending still give me goosebumps 55 years later!
• Anton from UsaRingo and his band did a better version than the Beatles. They raced through this recording and did not give their best effort. And John didn't care because it was an old song he didn't think much of. But very poignant lyrics about the loss of his mom and dad, neither of whom raised him.
• Elmer H from Westville, OkI have always loved this version of the Lennon composition. The production is simply fantastic. I was in college when the "If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears" album climbed the charts & The Mamas and Papas were "kicking up dust" in the music industry. So many things were happening in the U.S. music scene in 1966. I still love this group's music after all these decades. They had quite a history with the personality clashes, the creative burn-outs, the bursts of genius in the studios, and their significance on the concert trail (i.e., Monterey Pop Festival & others). And this song brings back the memories!
• Esskayess from Dallas, TxWell, that's what I read in the liner notes of the collection I heard it on. Sadly, the parties in question are no longer here.
• Jack from Mesa, Azthanks esskay, I came here wondering about that.... are you sure she didn't mean John Phillips?
• Esskayess from Dallas, TxYou twice hear Cass whispering "John" during the instrumental bridge, both in tribute to the song's writer and the fact that she had a crush on him.
• Zabadak from London, EnglandI actually prefer The Dakotas' version of this to The Beatles'...

More Songfacts:

The UnforgivenMetallica

On Metallica's "The Unforgiven," James Hetfield modeled his vocals on Chris Isaak

I'll WaitVan Halen

Michael McDonald co-wrote the Van Halen song "I'll Wait."

Under The BridgeRed Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers' biggest hit is "Under The Bridge," a ballad not typical of their sound. Frontman Anthony Kiedis wrote the lyric after an acute bout of loneliness.

Total Eclipse Of The HeartBonnie Tyler

"Total Eclipse Of The Heart" by Bonnie Tyler is a tribute to the vampire movie Nosferatu, depicting an immortal "love in the dark."

Hey MamaDavid Guetta

The bedrock of David Guetta's Nicki Minaj-featuring single "Hey Mama" is a sample of "Rosie," a 1940s prison recording from folk archivist Alan Lomax that songwriter Esther Dean first showed the French DJ on YouTube.

Rum and Coca-ColaThe Andrews Sisters

The '40s hit "Rum and Coca-Cola" is really about American soldiers soliciting prostitutes in Trinidad.

Editor's Picks

Susanna Hoffs - "Eternal Flame"They're Playing My Song

The Prince-penned "Manic Monday" was the first song The Bangles heard coming from a car radio, but "Eternal Flame" is closest to Susanna's heart, perhaps because she sang it in "various states of undress."

Christopher CrossSongwriter Interviews

The man who created Yacht Rock with "Sailing" wrote one of his biggest hits while on acid.

Tom Bailey of Thompson TwinsSongwriter Interviews

Tom stopped performing Thompson Twins songs in 1987, in part because of their personal nature: "Hold Me Now" came after an argument with his bandmate/girlfriend Alannah Currie.

Wolfgang Van HalenSongwriter Interviews

Wolfgang Van Halen breaks down the songs on his debut album, Mammoth WVH, and names the definitive Van Halen songs from the Sammy and Dave eras.

Emilio Castillo from Tower of PowerSongwriter Interviews

Emilio talks about what it's like to write and perform with the Tower of Power horns, and why every struggling band should have a friend like Huey Lewis.

Amy Lee of EvanescenceSongwriter Interviews

The Evanescence frontwoman on the songs that have shifted meaning and her foray into kids' music.