Canadian singer Denny Doherty from sixties folk-pop group The Mamas & The Papas has died aged 66 after a short illness.
Doherty co-founded The Mamas & The Papas with the group's chief songwriter John Phillips, Phillips' wife Michelle and Cass Elliot, all of whom, Doherty included, had performed in other folk groups previously. Despite only being together for three years between 1965 and 1968 (and for brief reunion in 1970), and despite many intra-band tensions, caused partly by an affair between Denny and Michelle, the band left quite a legacy and a catalogue of music that remains popular today - most prominently, of course, 'California Dreamin'.
As before the band, Doherty had other music projects after The Mama & The Papas, and was known in his home country as the provider of the voices on kids show Theodore Tugboat.
According to a statement issued to the Canadian Press news agency he had been suffering from a number of medical complaints of late, including an abdominal aneurysm, though the exact cause of his death is unknown.