Ranked 127/500 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Upon its release in 1966, the Mamas and the Papas debut LP If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears introduced a fresh new sound that would permanently alter the face of contemporary popular music. Leader John Phillips visionary producing, arranging and songwriting abilities combined with the quartets breathtaking harmonies to make music that was both effortlessly accessible and creatively adventurous. The album quickly topped the Billboard album chart, bringing folk-rock into the pop mainstream and making Phillips, his then-wife Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot into instant multimedia celebrities. In the years since its release, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears has come to be regarded as one of the finest pop albums of the 60s and one of the best debut releases ever.
If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears was the product of Lou Adlers visionary production, Phillips savvy studio mastery and the foursomes extended period of musical woodshedding in the Virgin Islands. The months of meticulous rehearsals paid off in the groups ability to emerge as a fully-formed musical unit right out of the box, delivering such instant classics as California Dreamin, Monday, Monday and Go Where You Wanna Go to the willing ears of record buyers and radio listeners.
At the time of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears initial release, the presence of a toilet in the periphery of the albums cover photo caused faint-hearted moral guardians to pressure the groups record company to excise the offending fixture from subsequent pressings of the album. Sundazeds new vinyl edition of If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears restores the rare, long-missing toilet cover, and features the albums superior original mono mix. Its also mastered from the original analog tapes, and pressed on high-definition vinylthe better to maintain the same joyous sense of discovery that listeners felt when first hearing this timeless gem in 1966.
1. Monday, Monday
2. Straight Shooter
3. Got a Feelin'
4. I Call Your Name
5. Do You Wanna Dance?
6. Go Where You Wanna Go
7. California Dreamin'
8. Spanish Harlem
9. Somebody Groovy
10. Hey Girl
11. You Baby
12. The "In" Crowd