Make Your Own Kind of Music (song)

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"Make Your Own Kind of Music"
New World Coming - Mama Cass Elliot.jpg
Single cover
Single by Mama Cass Elliot
from the album Make Your Own Kind Of Music / It's Getting Better
B-side"Lady Love"
ReleasedSeptember 1969
GenrePop
Length2:25
LabelDunhill
Songwriter(s)Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil
Producer(s)Steve Barri
Mama Cass Elliot singles chronology
"It's Getting Better"
(1969) 		"Make Your Own Kind of Music"
(1969) 		"New World Coming"
(1970)

"Make Your Own Kind of Music" is a pop song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, which became a Top 40 hit for Cass Elliot in 1969.

Cass Elliot version[]

Overview[]

"Make Your Own Kind of Music" was recorded by Cass Elliot after she had a hit in the summer of 1969 with another Mann/Weil composition: "It's Getting Better", the second single from Elliot's second solo album: Bubblegum, Lemonade &...Something for Mama. That album had been produced by Dunhill Records vice-president of a&r Steve Barri:(Steve Barri quote:)"[Since Dunhill] didn't have much success with [the debut Cass Elliot solo album Dream a Little Dream] we wanted to get her back on the [upper] charts and we tried to find some commercial songs."[1] Barri would also attribute the bubblegum music focus of his output with Elliot to a desire "to capture who she was...this real fun-loving positive...person I couldn't imagine anybody...not loving."[2] In a September 1969 Melody Maker interview a week prior to the US release of the "Make Your Own Kind of Music" single, Elliot stated: "Bubblegum music is very pleasant to listen to...but it's like they say about Chinese food: half an hour after tasting it you are hungry again", although she did concede "maybe [bubblegum] is what I am supposed to be doing [since] my voice is very light...I just can't sing heavy material".[3] Elliot would be less easygoing in her 1971 summation of her 1968–1970 tenure with Dunhill Records, saying she had been "forced to be so bubblegum that I'd stick to the floor when I walked."[4] Steve Barri, while admitting—also in 1971—"Cass was one artist I couldn't find the answer for,"[1] would maintain: "We never recorded anything that she didn't want to do."[2]

Elliot had also told Melody Maker that "It's Getting Better" was "musically...not quite what I want to be doing...It's a good recording for what it is, but you wouldn't exactly call it social commentary."[3] "Make Your Own Kind of Music", while similarly-structured to "It's Getting Better",[5] could be considered social commentary:[6] Steve Barri would rank "Make Your Own Kind of Music" in with "pop songs [that] really kind of say something".[2] Released in October 1969, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" swiftly ascended the Hot 100 in Billboard, and in November 1969 Dunhill reissued Elliot's second solo album reformatted to include "Make Your Own Kind of Music", the album's title being changed to It's Getting Better/ Make Your Own Kind of Music.[7] Steve Barri considered "Make Your Own Kind of Music" to be a guaranteed Top Ten hit: in fact the single would garner heavy radio airplay but comparatively meager sales,[1] resultantly stalling at #36 on the Hot 100 ("Make Your Own Kind of Music" would reach #6 on the airplay driven Billboard Easy Listening chart).[8]

The follow-up single to "Make Your Own Kind of Music": "New World Coming" - Elliot's third consecutive Mann/ Weil-penned single - was similarly a sugarcoated message song and would have similar soft chart impact - with a #42 Hot 100 peak - signaling Elliot's challenges in maintaining a profile as a current hitmaker, as the 1960s turned into the 1970s.[4] Dunhill Records president Jay Lasker would say of the underperformance of "New World Coming": "The message here - at least to us - is that 'the message record has had it'. [Now] Mama Cass is going to do love songs."[9] The followup single to "New World Coming": "A Song That Never Comes", would be Elliot's last single to reach the Hot 100, spending two weeks at #99 in August 1970.[10] Dunhill would release a third solo album by Elliot in October 1970: Mama's Big Ones, including seven of her eight Hot 100 singles plus some previously unreleased tracks, which was Elliot's last solo album release on Dunhill. Subsequent to the one-off collaborative Dave Mason & Cass Elliot - album on Blue Thumb, Dunhill announced in July 1970 that Elliot would reunite with her former bandmates for a final Mamas & Papas album after which she would depart Dunhill to record for RCA Victor.[11]

In an 8/14/2019 "Staff Picks" ranking of The 100 Best Songs of 1969 in Billboard, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" by Cass Elliot was ranked at #89, with the evaluation: "Though just a modest hit, Elliot's ode to striking out on your own was a crucial evolution in self-referential pop. [In 1968] her debut album [had] stiffed, and...her three-week Vegas residency [infamously] closed after a single awful performance. In this light, the sunshine pop of 'Make Your Own Kind of Music'...sparkled even more defiantly."[12]

At Elliot's 3 August 1974 funeral, the lyrics of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" were included in the eulogy delivered by the presiding rabbi.

Elliot's recording of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" would be featured prominently in the television show Lost, first appearing in the episode "Man of Science, Man of Faith", and rated as one of Spin magazine's "Best Musical Moments From TV's Latest Golden Age".[13] It was also used as the theme for Swedish documentary show I en annan del av Köping.[14]

The track was also used to great effect in the episode of the television show The Middle entitled The Graduate, used as a score to a flashback montage of Sue during her high school graduation ceremony. Additionally, the song was also used multiple times in the TV show, Dexter, including an episode under the same title as the song. The song appears in the seventh episode of the second season of Sex Education (TV series).[15]The song also appears on the soundtrack to the film Beautiful Thing[16] and Free Guy.[17]

The Cass Elliot track is in the key of E major.

Chart performance (Cass Elliot version)[]

Chart (1969) Peak
position
Canada RPM Top Singles[18] 20
Canada RPM Adult Contemporary[19] 7
US Billboard Hot 100[20] 36
US Billboard Adult Contemporary 6
US Cash Box Top 100[21] 25

Remixes[]

A remixed version of the Cass Elliot track was featured in the 1997 Dance compilation Dance Across The Universe (Part 1), which was released by Universal Records,[22] along with a separate club-only promo which featured four different mixes (one of them dubbed "The Mama Cass Mix").[23] This version would reach #11 on the Dance Club Songs chart in Billboard.[24]

Paloma Faith version[]

"Make Your Own Kind of Music"
Single by Paloma Faith
from the album The Architect
Released19 March 2018
Length2:43
LabelSony
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Paloma Faith singles chronology
"Lullaby"
(2018) 		"Make Your Own Kind of Music"
(2018) 		"Warrior"
(2018)
Music video
"Make Your Own Kind Of Music" on YouTube

Overview[]

"Make Your Own Kind of Music" became a Top 30 hit in the United Kingdom in 2018 via a remake by Paloma Faith.

It was announced 1 February 2018 that Škoda Auto had commissioned Paloma Faith to record a version of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" to serve as jingle for an ad campaign to launch the Karoq, Škoda's new compact crossover SUV,[25] Faith being quoted as saying: "The reality of Škoda is it was the car people took the piss out of you for having...That's how they enticed me in really, it was like that thing or person who people tease for being who they are but is now celebrated for being who they are."[26] Faith has since introduced "Make Your Own Kind of Music" in concert with the statement that "she doesn't usually approve of celebrity endorsements for products, but felt that Škoda was a brand worth celebrating due to how it's gradually become more respected over the years."[27]

The track was made available for streaming as of 2 March 2018 with a promotional video made available 20 March 2018, with a year-long television ad campaign featuring a 60 second edit of the video inaugurated on 24 March 2018: "the [video] follows Paloma through a series of flashbacks as she fights to make it in the music industry. It depicts her struggling to fit in as a young child to performing to empty pubs, to an iconic moment early in her career where she rebukes a music executive for not listening to her sing. The flashbacks are juxtaposed with images of her now as she enjoys chart-topping success and a new period in her life as a mother."[28] (Faith had given birth to her first child in December 2016.)[29]

"Make Your Own Kind of Music" debuted on the UK chart dated 19 April 2018 at #59 to enter the Top 40 at #28 on the chart dated 10 May 2018. The track spent only that one week in the Top 40, its typical chart ranking during its ten week chart tenure being between #43 and #49; however, the track was certified silver for sales of 200,000 units.[30] Included in the tracklist of Faith's fourth studio album; The Architect, on sites such as Spotify and Apple Music as of 20 April 2018,[31] "Make Your Own Kind of Music" was officially added to the album's tracklist on its 16 November 2018 re-release: labeled The Zeitgist Edition, this re-release also added "Lullaby" to the tracks on the original album.[32]

Charts[]

Chart (2018) Peak
position
Scotland (OCC)[33] 8
UK Singles (OCC)[34] 28
UK Download (OCC)[35] 4

Certifications[]

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[36] Silver 200,000double-dagger

double-dagger Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Other versions[]

The first recording of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" was a 1968 single release by the New York City-based trio the Will-O-Bees (Janet Blossom, Steven Porter, and Robert Merchanthouse), who regularly performed Mann/Weil compositions.

In 1972 Barbra Streisand concert album [[Live Concert At The Forum featured the medley "Sing"/ "Make Your Own Kind Of Music": released as a single, the track reached #94 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #28 on the magazine's Easy Listening chart.[37] On her 1973 album Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments Streisand sings the medley "Make Your Own Kind of Music"/ "The World is a Concerto".[38]

"Make Your Own Kind of Music" has also been recorded by Roslyn Kind (album This is Roslyn Kind/ 1969), Bobby Sherman (album Here Comes Bobby/ 1970), Marilyn Maye (album Girl Singer/ 1970), Telly Leung (album Songs for You/ 2015), and Cock Robin (album Chinese Driver/ 2016).[39]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Record World vol 26 #1267 (2 October 1971) "Dialogue - the Viewpoint of the Industry: Steve Barri on producing singles" by Tony Lawrence pp.6, 26
  2. ^ a b c Fiegel, Eddi (2005). Dream a Little Dream of Me: the life of 'Mama' Cass Elliot. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 0-283-07331-4.
  3. ^ a b Melody Maker 27 September 1969 "Mama Cass Elliott [sic] Makes It On Her Own" by Bob Dawbarn p.7
  4. ^ a b Los Angeles Times 5 December 1971 "Mamas & Papas: four rugged individuals getting back together" by Nat Freedland p.705
  5. ^ New Music Express 15 November 1969 "Mama Cass Jogs Along" by Derek Johnson p.8
  6. ^ Davis, Sheila (1985). The Craft of Lyric Writing. NYC: F=W Media. p. 100. ISBN 978-0898791495.
  7. ^ Billboard vol 81 #46 (15 November 1969) Album Reviews p.53/ Billboard Hot 100 p.96
  8. ^ "Mama Cass Songs ••• Top Songs / Chart Singles Discography ••• Music VF, US & UK hits charts".
  9. ^ Los Angeles Times 22 March 1970 "The Dunhill David vs Grammy Goliaths" by Wayne Warga p.438
  10. ^ "The Hot 100 Chart".
  11. ^ Cash Box Vol 33 #3 (10 July 1971) "Mama Cass Signs With RCA Records" p.9
  12. ^ "The 100 Best Songs of 1969: Staff Picks".
  13. ^ "SPIN's 30 Best Musical Moments From TV's Latest Golden Age: Mama Cass Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" on Lost". Spin. 2014-04-07. Retrieved 2019-02-05.
  14. ^ Stefan Lindqvist (11 February 2008). "En feelgoodserie som värmer alla hjärtan" (in Swedish). Helsingborgs dagblad. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  15. ^ "Sex Education (2019) - IMDb". IMDb.
  16. ^ "Beautiful Thing (1996) - IMDb". IMDb.
  17. ^ "Free Guy (2021) - IMDb". IMDb.
  18. ^ "Image : RPM Weekly". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  19. ^ "Item". Bac-lac.gc.ca. 17 July 2013. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  20. ^ Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2002
  21. ^ "Cash Box Top 100 11/29/69". Tropicalglen.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  22. ^ "Various - Dance Across The Universe Volume 1 (CD)". Discogs.com. 1997-10-21. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
  23. ^ "Mama Cass - Make Your Own Kind Of Music (Vinyl)". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2016-10-02.
  24. ^ "Make Your Own Kind of Music (Song by Mama Cass) ••• Music VF, US & UK hits charts".
  25. ^ "Paloma Faith features in Škoda TV commercial". Sounds-familiar.info. 26 March 2018.
  26. ^ "Paloma Faith enjoying being treated like 'one of the mums'". February 2018.
  27. ^ "Girl next door' Paloma Faith wows Newmarket". 25 June 2018.
  28. ^ "Paloma Faith stars in advert for ŠKODA Driven by Something Different".
  29. ^ "Paloma Faith finally reveals gender of her three-year-old child". July 2020.
  30. ^ https://www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/make%20your%20own%20kind%20of%20music/
  31. ^ "The Architect by Paloma Faith on iTunes". iTunes. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  32. ^ "Paloma Faith to release the Zeitgeist Edition of her Number 1 album the Architect".
  33. ^ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  34. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 5 June 2017.
  35. ^ "Official Singles Downloads Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  36. ^ "British single certifications – Paloma Faith – Make Your Own Kind Of Music". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 3 May 2019.Select singles in the Format field. Select Silver in the Certification field. Type Make Your Own Kind Of Music in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  37. ^ "Barbra Streisand Songs ••• Top Songs / Chart Singles Discography ••• Music VF, US & UK hits charts".
  38. ^ "Barbra Streisand – Barbra Streisand and Other Musical Instruments (1973, Gatefold, Vinyl)".
  39. ^ "Cover versions of Make Your Own Kind of Music by Roslyn Kind | SecondHandSongs".

External links[]

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