January 16, 2023

Lou Adler is a well-respected record and film producer. His involvement in everything from Carole King's Tapestry to Cheech & Chong's Up In Smoke to The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a pretty impressive resume in itself. In the 1960s, when he started Dunhill Records and signed Johnny Rivers and The Mamas & The Papas, he was already showing a keen eye for talent.  However, and the rest of this blog is pure speculation, he must have been floored when John Phillips brought him the recording for "Monday Monday."

I picture it as such:

Monday, December 20, 1965, approximately 8:02 am. John Phillips is pounding on Lou Adler's Mahogany front door.

John: Lou, Lou, open up. Open up!

Lou (still in bed): What the hell?  (Yelling) Phillips is that you?

John: Yes, open up, damn it. We recorded our next big hit last week.

Lou (stumbling to front door): Can't it wait, John, I was sleeping.

John (forcing himself through doorway): No, it can't, Lou.  This is even better than "California Dreamin."

Lou: It better be, because you just stopped me from some of that.

John: C'mon. Let's go down to the music room.

Lou: John, slow down. It was a pretty heavy weekend of partying. I had these two guys down from Canada, Tommy and Chico or something like that. I am not sure what they brought. I am hardly clear-headed.

John (racing to put his recording on): This will clear your head, guaranteed, Lou, baby

Lou: Ugh! You are not going to be stopped, are you? How does Michelle keep up with you?

John: No time for that. Listen to this.

Lou: What's it called, John?

John: "Monday Monday."

Lou: "Monday Monday"?  People don't like Mondays, John.  And yet you woke me up to share a song where you sing it twice?

John: It's more complicated than that. Please, just shut up and listen.

Lou: Ba ba da, ba ba da.  Lovely, but you had to wake me up for this?

John: Hold on. It gets better.

"Monday, Monday, so good to me/Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be."

Lou: What?  You do realize there isn't a soul on the planet who is happy to see Monday morning come?  Well, maybe nobody but a priest.

John: Tell me why I can't like Mondays, Lou.

Lou: That is a potential hook.

John: You're not listening to the song, John. We're actually singing about what you are talking about.

Lou: About wanting to slide your head back under the pillow so that you don't have to go to some shitty 8-5 job and put up with a jerk of a boss?

John: No, it's about faithless love, about the love that seems real on Monday morning but is already gone by Monday night.

Lou: Already gone? That could be another great hook, John. Why don't you go back home and work on some other songs while I go back to sleep.

John: Please, you're not listening.

Lou (after a pause): O.k. I am starting to see it. "Every other day of the week is fine, but whenever Monday comes, you can find me crying."  But that's not how you started the song, John. Remember, "Monday morning. So good to me." You can't have it both ways, John. Is Monday making you feel good or making you feel sad? Unless you are trying to say there are two Mondays, kind of like how Lennon & McCartney could believe there were eight days a week.  Boy, talk about a nonsense lyric and no one blinked. Maybe you can pull this off, John.

John: Of course I can. How can you doubt me?

Lou: Oh good, it's over. That came in at a crisp 2:30, so that should help.

John: Not yet, Lou.

Lou: What the hell?  You started it all up again.

John: It's called a pregnant pause, Lou.

Lou (distracted): Who's pregnant, John? Oh God, that could ruin the tour.

John: No one's pregnant, you idiot.

Lou: Phew.

John: So how quickly can you get this out? You can trust me, Lou, even if you can't trust that day.

Lou: Ah, I saw what you did there. What's the rest of the group think of it?

John: Well, Denny ain't too keen on it, but he's Monday evening anyway.

Lou: What? Is there something you're not telling me, John?

John: Don't look your gift horses in the mouth, Lou. Get this out in the next couple of weeks and I guarantee we'll be looking at another number one hit.

Lou: Just let me go back to sleep. I'll see what we can do this afternoon.

John: You do that, Lou. I promise you we are all going to get fat from this, well except Mama Cass. Hmm, that gives me an idea. I'll ring you up tomorrow morning.

Lou (groaning): Oh god, I've got to switch careers.

The Mamas & The Papas. "Monday Monday." If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears. Dunhill, 1966. Link here.

Day 217: Bruce Springsteen "Downbound Train"

Day 219: Paramore "Tell Me How"

Unfinished list here.