Go Where You Wanna Go

This upbeat song was written by John Phillips and issued as the first single for his group The Mamas & the Papas, appearing on their 1965 debut album If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears. Their version went nowhere, but the group's next single, "California Dreamin'" was a huge hit. "Go Where You Wanna Go" found new life when it was recorded by another group with both male and female vocalists, The 5th Dimension. The group was signed to Johnny Rivers' Soul City Records, where they released an earlier single called "I'll Be Loving You Forever" as the Versatiles. Rivers suggested the group cover the song, which was a good call: The song rose up the Hot 100 to #16 and set the stage for their breakthrough in 1967. After the single proved a success, the group put a whole album together which included another traveling tune: "Up-Up and Away," which was written by a young songwriter named Jimmy Webb. The group ended up recording several Webb compositions, as his career took off along with the group's.

John Phillips wrote this song about Michelle Phillips' affair with Russ Titelman, a songwriter and record producer who did production work for Randy Newman, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, and Chaka Khan. John and Michelle got married in 1962, but the following year their marriage was on the rocks. Michelle took up with Titelman and moved with him from Los Angeles to New York. This prompted John to write the song, with the very specific lines: Three thousand miles, that's how far you'll go And you said to me "Please don't follow" Michelle and Russ split up not long after, but it was clear that Michelle viewed their marriage as more flexible than John did.

P.F. Sloan, who was most famous for writing the song "Eve Of Destruction," played guitar on the Mamas & the Papas original version. Sloan was friends with John Phillips, who played on P.F.'s solo track "City Women." In our interview with Sloan, he described "Go Where You Wanna Go" as "An absolutely stupendous record," adding, "It's magical. I thought it had everything. And it was a complete stiff. It just goes to show you that everything is timing. You'd think that if the song is great and the vocals are great and the band is great, you've got a hit, but God shows us that timing is everything." Sloan also played on "California Dreamin'" and wrote what would be the second single for The 5th Dimension: "Another Day, Another Heartache," which made #45 in the US.