The Mamas & The Papas: Denny Doherty, John Phillips, Mama Cass Elliot, Michelle Phillips.

If you want an inexpensive all-meat, no-filler Mamas And The Papas compilation with the best possible remastering, then their entry in MCA/Universal's 20TH CENTURY MASTERS series is for you. At 11 tracks, including two solo singles by Mama Cass ("Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Make Your Own Kind of Music"), there's no room for anything but the hits, and those hits have never sounded better.

"California Dreamin'," "Monday Monday, "Creeque Alley," and the glorious "Twelve-Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming to the Canyon)" sound so vibrant and live that it sometimes seems like Cass, Michelle, Denny and John are in the room with you. The Mamas And The Papas' catalogue had been so shoddily treated for so long before this remastering series was done that the quality of these versions is a revelation.