Creeque Alley

This is the story of how the band met and formed. Individual members had sung in other bands before and these show up in the lyrics (Mugwumps etc.). The Mamas & The Papas spent time in the Virgin Islands staying in a club on a road called Creeque Alley, providing the name of this song.

While the song is about the formation of the Mamas and the Papas, it mentions other artists who were getting their starts at the same time:

Sebastian is John Sebastian, who, with Zal Yanovsky (also mentioned in the song), formed the Lovin' Spoonful.

"McGuinn and McGuire, couldn't get no higher..." - Jim "Roger" McGuinn was the lead singer for the Byrds who were starting to take flight at the time and who had two #1 songs in 1965 - "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Turn, Turn, Turn." Barry McGuire had a #1 in 1965 with the anti-war song "Eve Of Destruction." In other words, at #1 they "Couldn't get no higher."

The line, "Zallie said 'Denny, you know there aren't many who can sing a song the way that you do,'" "Zallie" is The Lovin' Spoonful's Zal Yanovsky, and he's talking about Papa Denny Doherty, who sang the male lead on "California Dreamin'" and many of their other songs. Doherty died of kidney failure on January 19, 2007 at age 66.

The lyrics, "Greasin' on American Express cards" refers to a time when the band was in the Virgin Islands and living off their American Express cards, running up balances they couldn't (and didn't intend to) pay.