"Make Your Own Kind of Music" is a pop song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil first recorded in 1968 by New York City-based trio the Will-O-Bees (Janet Blossom, Steven Porter, and Robert Merchanthouse) who regularly performed Mann/Weil compositions. After Cass Elliot had a hit in the summer of 1969 with Mann/Weil's "It's Getting Better" she recorded "Make Your Own Kind of Music" as the followup single and her album Bubblegum, Lemonade, and... Something for Mama was re-released as Make Your Own Kind of Music, the title cut having been added to the original track listing. However Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of Music" single only just reached the Top 40 at #36: the similar chart impact of the followup single: another Mann/Weil composition entitled "New World Coming" which reached #42, signaled Elliot's inability to maintain a profile as a current hitmaker as the 1960s turned into the 1970s. The Cass Elliot track is in the key of E major.
[edit] Chart performance
- The Cash Box Top 100 Singles peak for "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and "New World Coming" was respectively #25 and #30.
- Billboard's Easy Listening chart peak for "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and "New World Coming" was respectively #6 and #4.
[edit] 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,[1] along with a separate club-only promo which featured four different mixes (one of them dubbed "The Mama Cass Mix").[2]
[edit] Other versions
In 1972 Barbra Streisand had a single release of "Make Your Own Kind of Music" in a medley with "Sing" which became an Easy Listening hit (#28) but only reached #94 on the Billboard Hot 100. Streisand also recorded parts of the song as a medley with "The World is a Concerto" for "Barbra Streisand...And Other Musical Instruments".
Others who have performed the song include Bobby Sherman, Paul Westerberg, and Ste McCabe. Mary Roos recorded a German language version entitled "Sing nochmal dieses lied" in 1970.
[edit] Popular culture
- Elliot's version of the song is prominently featured in four episodes of the television series Lost, often associated with the character Desmond Hume: "Man of Science, Man of Faith", "Adrift", "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and "A Tale of Two Cities". A faint sitar version can also be heard at the end of "Live Together, Die Alone".
- The song appeared in the Swedish documentary I en annan del av Köping during 2007.
- In February 2006, a Snickers commercial aired in the United States featured Sherman's version.
- Elliot's version also appears in the play and film Beautiful Thing, alongside many more of her recordings.
- It is used on one of Hallmark's musical greeting cards.
- It was featured on a flash animation on Newgrounds.com called "We Are NativeAmericanCats", but it was pulled because of a lawsuit involving the record company.
- In August, 2009, it was used in commercials for home products retailer IKEA in Ireland, which opened its first store in that country that year.
- In November 2010, it was used in advertisements for the French mobile phone company Bouygues Telecom.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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- "Dream a Little Dream of Me"
- "California Earthquake"
- "Move in a Little Closer, Baby"
- "It's Getting Better"
- "Make Your Own Kind of Music"
- "New World Coming"
- "A Song That Never Comes"
- "The Good Times Are Coming"
- "Don't Let the Good Life Pass You By"
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