Mamas & Papas – I Saw Her Again – 1966 [HQ REMIX REMASTER]

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“I Saw Her Again” is my most favorite Mamas and Papas song of their brief 3-year career. It was recorded in April 1966 and released in June 1966 as a 7” 45 RPM single on Dunhill Records in the US and RCA Victor Records in the UK. It reached #5 on the US Billboard Top 100, #11 on the UK Singles Chart and #1 on the Canadian Singles Chart.

"I Saw Her Again" was inspired by Danny’s brief affair with Michelle Phillips, then married to John Phillips, which, combined with an affair between Michelle and Gene Clark of The Byrds, resulted in her brief expulsion from the group. This song was also John’s way of punishing Dennis to make him feel guilty every time he sang it.

During production mixing, engineer Bones Howe punched in the coda vocals too early, inadvertently including Denny's false start on the third chorus ("I saw her..."). Bones tried to correct the error, but the miscued vocal could still be heard on playback. Producer Lou Adler liked the effect and told Bones to leave it in the final mix.

The mono 45 version omits the orchestral break and chorus that follows to reduce the running time for the single release. Most 45's of that era were similarly edited/shortened for AM Radio play. [The single version is 2:50 - The LP version with orchestral break is 3:10].

Each Mamas and Papas album was uniquely mixed from the other. Much to my dismay, everything in this album/track was panned mono except for the vocals, which were the only things panned stereo. It drove me nuts every time I played the stereo album version, so desperately wanting to hear the orchestra and drums in stereo for the past 54 years.

For this mix, I kept the vocals panned stereo [and cleaned them up quite a bit with a 30% boost], put a stereo effect on the orchestra, panned the drums on the right and kept the bass front and centered.

Co-written by John Phillips and Denny Doherty,

Personnel on the recording:
Denny Doherty - vocals
Cass Elliot - vocals
John Phillips - vocals, guitar
Michelle Phillips - vocals
Hal Blaine - drums
Larry Knechtel - organ, piano
Joe Osborn - bass guitar
"Doctor" Eric Hord - guitar
Tommy Tedesco - guitar
P. F. Sloan - guitar
Lou Adler - producer
Dayton "Bones" Howe - engineer
Henry Lewy - engineer
Bowen David - assistant engineer
Jimmie Haskell - string arrangement

I must say, it was thrilling to hear the isolated tracks of Hal Blaine's drumming and Joe Osborn's superb bass playing while I was EQing them. There's nothing like that classic sound of "The Wrecking Crew" at their best!

While I was working on the isolated vocal tracks, I was so incredibly amazed by the intricate inner-voicing of the harmonies, hearing them raw for the 1st time in 54 years. John was certainly an underrated musical genius!

Technical Information:
I used SPLEETER v2.4 to separate the components [Vocals, Drums, Bass & Orchestra] into 4 separate tracks. Adobe Audition was used for Dynamic Range recovery, EQ and final mixdown. NERO 2019 Platinum used to generate the final video.

Enjoy my private remix/remastering of this classic Sunshine-Pop hit
by The Mamas and Papas: “I Saw Her Again”.

This video is strictly for entertainment purposes only. No copyright infringement is intended.