Elliot Cass, better known by her stage name of Mama Cass, died tragically in 1974 at the age of 32. Her skills as a folk music vocalist were (and still are) legendary. Just two years before her untimely death she appeared on Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special singing with another legend in the music industry, John Denver. Denver, of course, died an untimely death himself in 1997 when the small plane he was piloting crashed upon landing.
These two voices, long silenced, are an amazing duo that we can still enjoy thanks to their live performance together in 1972. Denver wrote the song, “Leaving on a Jet Plane” in 1966 and the song has been a folk standard ever since. In the video below Cass jokes that she wrote the song and has simply let him sing it. Cass and Denver together create beautiful harmonies, something which we don’t see as much in live performances today. But, back then the style was different and sing alongs and duets were common.
Have a look at this wonderful duet in the video below. These two talents might both be gone, but we’ll enjoy their music for generations because they’re just that good.