2015 Inductee: Denny Doherty

When John and Michelle Phillips decided they wanted to start a band in the early 60s, they thought first of a guy – or rather the voice of a guy – that they’d heard sing while they were on a Hootenanny tour in the southern U.S.

They’d heard that his group, the Halifax 3, had just broken up. The Phillips’ put out the word that they wanted to get in touch.

Not long after, Denny Doherty showed up on their doorstep. They sang together that day and by the end of it, the Phillips’ knew they had the foundation of their new group. “Denny’s voice really was what started to create a sound we loved,” Michelle said in a documentary made for PBS to celebrate the beautifully layered harmonies of the Mamas and the Papas 40 years later.

It was Doherty who lobbied John to have his friend Cass Elliot join the group to create what he called “Harvey — the 5th voice that was created when the four of us sang together.”

Coupled with John’s imaginative songs, they created the blend of nuanced harmonies and stunning vocal arrangements that earned the Mamas and Papas a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. The group only lasted two-and-a-half years, but nothing evokes the 60s era of love and peace and San Francisco quite as quickly as their California sound.

Doherty was a coastal guy, all right, an East coast guy originally from the Maritimes. When musical work dried up in Halifax in the mid-80s and a bunch of his peers moved to the GTA, he moved his family to Mississauga because he’d heard it was a great place to raise kids. He lived here until his sudden – and far too early death – in 2007 at age 66.

He wrote much of Dream a Little Dream, the Nearly True Story of the Mamas and Papas, in Mississauga. It is still running in periodic stage productions in Canada and the U.S. Doherty also became a star to a new generation of kids. When he went to Clarkson Village for ice cream at his favourite Baskins and Robbins, he’d often be recognized by the toddlers first – as the Harbour Master from the Theodore Tugboat CBC-TV series.

Then their mothers would recognize him as an old rock ‘n roller. He would be heartened to know that his two grandchildren still enjoy watching Theodore Tugboat, or “the grandpa show” as it’s known in their household.

The Doherty homes in Park Royal and, later in Lorne Park, were filled with friends, music, laughter and story-telling, especially by the patriarch of the house who was a master of the art.

Although most people would associate his voice with the opening strains of Monday, Monday or the line “All the leaves are gone” from California Dreamin’, Doherty’s favourite Mamas and Papas’ song was a ballad called Dancing Bear which shows off his legendary voice in its purest form.

John Phillips had long recognized the magic of the Doherty sound. He not only wrote great songs for it but he acknowledged it when he penned a short musical selfie of the group called Creeque Alley.

It provides a fitting epitaph for that special timbre: “Denny, you know there aren’t many – Who can sing a song the way that you do.” There certainly were not.

It’s a pleasure to add Denny Doherty’s name today to the Mississauga Music Walk of Fame.