TORONTO (CP) - Halifax-born Denny Doherty was remembered Friday as the "angelic voice" that carried the '60s folk-pop group the Mamas and the Papas through such memorable hits as "California Dreamin' &quo t; and "Monday, Monday."

Doherty died early Friday at his home in suburban Mississauga after suffering an aneurysm in his abdomen, said his sister Frances Arnold. He was 66.

"Everybody used to think that John Phillips, who wrote the songs, was also the main voice of the group, but it wasn't - it was the angelic voice of Denny Doherty," said Larry Leblanc, Canadian editor of Billboard Magazine.

"He was often overlooked but it was really his voice that carried the group; also Cass (Elliot) was a formidable singer."

The group's hits also included "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and "Dedicated to the One I Love." Doherty co-wrote the songs "I Saw Her Again Last Night" and "Got a Feelin'. "

Despite being together for just three tumultuous years marked by drug use and destructive love triangles, the Mamas and the Papas had 10 hit singles over five albums. The band broke up in 1968 amid internal squabbling.

Doherty, along with Elliot and John and Michelle Phillips, sold an estimated 20 million records.

In 1974, the 30-year-old Elliot suffered a fatal heart attack. John Phillips, the group's chief songwriter, died in 2001 at age 65.

Michelle Phillips said she last spoke with Doherty on Thursday and believed he was on the way to recovery from recent surgery.

"He was extremely funny and jovial as always and he was just my same old Denny," Phillips said, adding they spoke by phone several times a week.

"I'm still in shock that he didn't survive this."

Kim Cooke of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences compared Doherty to other top performers of the time.

"He was one of a group of Canadians of that era that would have included Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and others who were heading to the U.S. to make music and in some cases, fame and fortune," Cooke said.

"He's an artist that, in terms of career accomplishments, perhaps didn't rank with some of those artists but still had a fine career and really was a key component in some absolutely vital and compelling music."

The Telegraph-Journal