Go Where You Wanna Go

"Go Where You Wanna Go" is a 1965 song written by John Phillips. It was originally recorded by the Mamas & the Papas on their LP If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears and given limited release as a single. However, the record was withdrawn, and its A-side was reassigned to "California Dreamin'". "Go Where You Wanna Go" later became a hit for the 5th Dimension.

Background
P.F. Sloan played guitar on the song. John Phillips said that he wrote it about Michelle Phillips's affair with Russ Titelman, a songwriter and record producer.

The Fifth Dimension version
The 5th Dimension recorded "Go Where You Wanna Go" for their debut studio album in 1967, Up, Up and Away. The song was the group's first single to chart (after their first Soul City release, "Train Keep On Movin'", was unsuccessful), reaching number 16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. It also did well in Canada. It is among the group's 10 biggest hits.

Producer Johnny Rivers suggested the group record the song. According to Marilyn McCoo, "the record company wasn't going to release it as a single, but we put our whole thing into it, released it and it was a hit."

Popular culture

 * The original version found new life some 50 years after it was released in a 2011 USA TV commercial about Medicare supplemental insurance.
 * In his memoir, Hitch-22, the journalist and writer Christopher Hitchens describes the importance of the song in motivating him to move to the United States from Britain.