As a music major, I'd love to find out what M&P's related sheet music has been printed from the 60's till now.
I have 4 books myself, 2 from the 60's and 2 more modern books-
"The Mama's and the Papa's Souvenir Song Album" (Touch of Today No. 22 from Keys Pops Publications) - This is a book of songs from their first album, with four additional songs added in, presumably from circa Feb 1967, as on the cover it says "Featuring their latest recording - Dedicated to the One I Love". The other three non-first album songs included are the singles up until that point, "I Saw Her Again" "Words of Love" and "Look Through My Window". Absent are two songs from the first album, "I Call Your Name" and "Spanish Harlem", most likely due to publishing rights issues. It's a PVG book, definitely not intended for serious study. Most of the songs are keyed down for ease of singing, "Do You Wanna Dance", "You Baby" and "The In Crowd" are not transcribed from the M&P's versions, and the whole layout of the book is very haphazard. As a bonus though, there are several great full page pictures, most of which I've not seen anywhere else.
"The Mamas and the Papas Deliver" (Giant Music Mates No. 38, also from Keys Pops) - Basically, Keys Pops took the "Eyes and Ears" book described above, and then slapped on a new cover and added some new pictures and songs from the Deliver album. It has all the songs and pictures from the previous book along with the new material. The entire Deliver album is represented with the exceptions of "My Girl" and "Sing for Your Supper". Many songs are again in the wrong key, but are fairly accurate once transposed to the proper key. Actually a great book for what it is, as it contains transcriptions for songs that you're not likely to find anywhere else, such as "Did You Ever Want to Cry", "Free Advice", "Boys and Girls Together", "String Man", "Frustration" and even "John's Music Box"!
"The Mamas and the Papas" P/V/G (Universal Music Publishing Group, 1990) - The most common M&P's music book, and decent for a PVG book. The songs included are the same 16 that were selected for the first ever Mamas and the Papas cd issue that was mastered by Steve Hoffman in 1986 (unfortunately, the only truly excellent sounding M&P's CD issue). A few of the cover songs are still transcribed from versions not by the M&P's ("My Girl" and "I Call Your Name") and several songs are still written in the wrong key, but there are some great songs represented that you might have a hard time finding sheet music for elsewhere, including "Midnight Voyage" and "Glad to Be Unhappy".
"The Mamas and the Papas Guitar Songbook" (Universal Music Publishing [Warner Bros] 2000) - By far the best of the four books that I own, this is the only one that does the songs themselves any justice. Fairly accurate transcriptions in the correct keys all from the Mamas and Papas versions of the songs. This is the only book I've seen to include some of the background harmony vocals transcribed, and an attempt is made to accurately transcribe the actual guitar parts played in the songs with standard notation, guitar tablature and chord diagrams, unlike the PVG books which just have a decent usable arrangement of the songs for piano with inaccurate guitar voicing charts, not transcriptions of the actual piano or guitar parts played on the record. The only downside is the small number of songs included, but even this is almost made up for with the inclusion of "Dancing Bear" and "Safe In My Garden"!
There are some other books and sheets that I know to exist but do not own-
Full books-
"The Papas and the Mamas" - Another book from back in the 60's, presumably similar to the 60's album books described above. I remember back in the days of the Creeque Alley Yahoo Group, someone posted the lyrics to Meditation Mama that were printed in this book.
It's also probable that a book of this sort was published for the 2nd record, which for me would be amazing, as it's my favorite album of all time!
Possibly other greatest hit collection type books?
Single sheets-
There are numerous sheets for all of the hits, as well as some for lesser charting singles ("Safe In My Garden", etc...)
John Phillips - Revolution On Vacation - A picture of this is shown in the Anthology box booklet
Michelle Phillips - No Love Today - I believe I've seen a picture of this as well
Not sure about this, but it seems like there may have been a sheet for the Smoothies "Ride, Ride, Ride" based on this listing from the US Copyright office: "Ride, ride, ride. w & m Johnny Phillips, new piano arr. by Northern Music Corporation. Registration Number / Date: RE0000413158 / 1988-12-23 Renewal registration for: EP0000148450 / 1960-11-28" If this isn't for sheet music, then I have no idea what it is.
Same thing goes for "Softly": "Softly. w & m Johnny Phillips, new piano arr. Champion Music Corporation. Registration Number / Date: RE0000413054 / 1988-12-23 Renewal registration for: EP0000143693 / 1960-08-10"
Does anybody have these?
Does anybody have or know of any others?
At some point in my life, I do plan to transcribe complete scores for most M&P's related material, if only even for personal use. The scope of this undertaking, however, is immense and it will take many, many years. I have started work on one score, for the Smoothies "Lonely Boy and Pretty Girl", but due to the nature of the mixes and arrangements and the quality of the recordings, separating each instrument and voice can be difficult, if not impossible in some cases. I've worked out the chords to several others, and even that alone can be quite difficult in the case of songs such as "Trip, Stumble and Fall" and "Once Was a Time I Thought", but certainly not impossible.
-Chris
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