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Make Your Own Kind of Music
"Make Your Own Kind of Music" is a song by American singer Cass Elliot released in September 1969 by Dunhill Records. It was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, with production by Steve Barri. In the United States, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" was a Top 40 hit, peaking at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. Largely viewed as a commercial disappointment despite strong airplay on U.S. Top 40 radio stations in November 1969, the song found new life in the 2000s due to its use in TV shows such as Lost and the feature film Free Guy.
Elliot recorded "Make Your Own Kind of Music" after she had a hit in the summer of 1969 with "It's Getting Better", another Mann/Weil song and the second single from her second solo album, Bubblegum, Lemonade, and... Something for Mama. That album had been produced by Dunhill Records vice president of A&R Steve Barri, who said: "[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." Barri also attributed 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."
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". 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." Barri, while admitting—also in 1971—that "Cass was one artist I couldn't find the answer for," would maintain: "We never recorded anything that she didn't want to do."
Elliot 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." "Make Your Own Kind of Music", while similar in structure to "It's Getting Better", could be considered social commentary: Steve Barri would rank "Make Your Own Kind of Music" in with "pop songs [that] really kind of say something". 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 Make Your Own Kind of Music/It's Getting Better. Steve Barri considered "Make Your Own Kind of Music" to be a guaranteed Top Ten hit; the single would garner heavy radio airplay but comparatively meager sales, stalling at #36 on the Hot 100 ("Make Your Own Kind of Music" would reach #6 on the airplay driven Billboard Easy Listening chart).
The follow-up single to "Make Your Own Kind of Music": "New World Coming"—another Mann/ Weil song—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. 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." The follow-up to "New World Coming", "A Song That Never Comes", would be Elliot's final single to reach the Hot 100, spending two weeks at #99 in August 1970. Dunhill released Elliott's third solo album in October 1970, Mama's Big Ones, compiling seven of her eight Hot 100 singles plus some previously unreleased tracks, as her final solo album on the label. Subsequent to the one-off collaborative album Dave Mason & Cass Elliot 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.
In an August 14 2019 "Staff Picks" ranking of the 100 Best Songs of 1969 in Billboard, Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" 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 closed after a single awful performance. In this light, the sunshine pop of "Make Your Own Kind of Music"... sparkled even more defiantly."
Elliot's recording of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" was featured prominently in the television show Lost, first appearing in the episode "Man of Science, Man of Faith", and was rated as one of Spin magazine's "Best Musical Moments From TV's Latest Golden Age".
Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" also has a prominent role in the 8th season of the American television show drama Dexter, being attributed to 'The Brain Surgeon' in an episode sharing the same name as the song, "Make Your Own Kind of Music".
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Make Your Own Kind of Music
"Make Your Own Kind of Music" is a song by American singer Cass Elliot released in September 1969 by Dunhill Records. It was written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, with production by Steve Barri. In the United States, "Make Your Own Kind of Music" was a Top 40 hit, peaking at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100. Largely viewed as a commercial disappointment despite strong airplay on U.S. Top 40 radio stations in November 1969, the song found new life in the 2000s due to its use in TV shows such as Lost and the feature film Free Guy.
Elliot recorded "Make Your Own Kind of Music" after she had a hit in the summer of 1969 with "It's Getting Better", another Mann/Weil song and the second single from her second solo album, Bubblegum, Lemonade, and... Something for Mama. That album had been produced by Dunhill Records vice president of A&R Steve Barri, who said: "[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." Barri also attributed 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."
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". 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." Barri, while admitting—also in 1971—that "Cass was one artist I couldn't find the answer for," would maintain: "We never recorded anything that she didn't want to do."
Elliot 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." "Make Your Own Kind of Music", while similar in structure to "It's Getting Better", could be considered social commentary: Steve Barri would rank "Make Your Own Kind of Music" in with "pop songs [that] really kind of say something". 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 Make Your Own Kind of Music/It's Getting Better. Steve Barri considered "Make Your Own Kind of Music" to be a guaranteed Top Ten hit; the single would garner heavy radio airplay but comparatively meager sales, stalling at #36 on the Hot 100 ("Make Your Own Kind of Music" would reach #6 on the airplay driven Billboard Easy Listening chart).
The follow-up single to "Make Your Own Kind of Music": "New World Coming"—another Mann/ Weil song—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. 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." The follow-up to "New World Coming", "A Song That Never Comes", would be Elliot's final single to reach the Hot 100, spending two weeks at #99 in August 1970. Dunhill released Elliott's third solo album in October 1970, Mama's Big Ones, compiling seven of her eight Hot 100 singles plus some previously unreleased tracks, as her final solo album on the label. Subsequent to the one-off collaborative album Dave Mason & Cass Elliot 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.
In an August 14 2019 "Staff Picks" ranking of the 100 Best Songs of 1969 in Billboard, Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" 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 closed after a single awful performance. In this light, the sunshine pop of "Make Your Own Kind of Music"... sparkled even more defiantly."
Elliot's recording of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" was featured prominently in the television show Lost, first appearing in the episode "Man of Science, Man of Faith", and was rated as one of Spin magazine's "Best Musical Moments From TV's Latest Golden Age".
Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" also has a prominent role in the 8th season of the American television show drama Dexter, being attributed to 'The Brain Surgeon' in an episode sharing the same name as the song, "Make Your Own Kind of Music".