Newman says that the song was inspired by his own lighthearted reflection on the Los Angeles music scene of the late 1960s.
A scheduled release of a single in September 1966 was withdrawn,[1] but the song was eventually included on their 1967 album Eric Is Here.
Also in 1970, Three Dog Night released a longer, rock 'n roll and funk-inspired version (titled "Mama Told Me (Not to Come)") on It Ain't Easy, featuring Cory Wells singing lead in an almost humorous vocal style,[4] Jimmy Greenspoon playing a Wurlitzer electronic piano, Michael Allsup playing guitar, and Donna Summer on backing vocals, though uncredited.
Cash Box suggested that this song could "do for Randy Newman what the Fifth Dimension did for Laura Nyro" since Three Dog Night is "the first to apply muscle to his material.
It has also been recorded by a diverse range of artists, including Wilson Pickett,[42] Lou Rawls,[42] The Wolfgang Press,[42] Yo La Tengo, The Slackers, and Paul Frees (as W.C. Fields) accompanied by The Animals' Lazlo Bane.
In 1971, the comic singer Patrick Topaloff released a French version named Maman, viens me chercher.
It would also later appear in Terry Gilliam's 1998 movie adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's 1972 gonzo novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Due to the song's upbeat, paranoid mood, it was used for the scene of obsessively drug-using protagonist Raoul Duke deciding to abandon his trashed and over-billed hotel room.