AccuRadio Song Of The Day-The Grass Roots

Artist:The Grass Roots

Song:Midnight Confessions

Album:Playlist: The Very Best of the Grass Roots

The 1968 top five hit Midnight Confessions was the biggest hit for the band The Grass Roots. They had a pretty good run from 1967-72. The most interesting thing about The Grass Roots was they weren't a band at first. They were created in 1965 by Dunhill Records owner Lou Adler and the songwriting and producing team of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Adler wanted to cash in on the folk rock movement. The 1965 top thirty hit Where Were You When I Needed You  was recorded by studio musicians. Sloan sang lead and played guitar. The other musicians were Larry Knechtel on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass and Bones Howe on drums. None of those guys including Sloan wanted to tour. So Sloan and Barri found a group called The Bedouins in San Francisco and they became The Grass Roots. The problem was they wanted to record their own music. So Dunhill started over. When The Bedouins tried to continue as The Grass Roots, Dunhill threatened legal action. So Sloan and Barri went searching for a new band. A band called The 13th Floor had sent a demo to Dunhill. This band was led by guitarist Creed Bratton and keyboardist Warren Entner. The only problem was the lead singer had been drafted into the army. He was replaced by Rob Grill. The music continued to be written and produced by Sloan and Barri and performed by studio musicians. But at least they now had a touring band. Their first top ten hit was the 1967 single Let's Live for Today which was based on an Italian song. And that was the beginning of five years of success. Some of the band still wanted to write their own songs. But the success tempered that. The 1968 single Midnight Confessions  reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was written by Lou T. Josie of the band Ever-Green Blues. They had sent a demo to Dunhill and Barri thought it would be perfect for The Grass Roots. The demo had horns so Barri got Jimmie Haskell to write the arrangement. Grill and Entner shared lead vocals. Members of The Wrecking Crew played on the record including Mike Deasy on guitar, Carol Kaye on bass, Don Randi on piano, Larry Knechtel on organ, Hal Blaine on drums and Emil Richards on percussion. Saxophonist Plas Johnson led the horn section. Midnight Confessions was only released as a single. When it became a hit, Dunhill put it on a hastily assembled LP called Golden Grass. That is out of print but you can get all The Grass Roots hits on this budget comp. The Grass Roots' final top ten hit was Sooner or Later in 1971. By that time, there had been several personnel changes and they left Dunhill in 1974. I thought they did well for an ad hoc band. A version of The Grass Roots still plays oldies cruises. But none are original members. Here's The Grass Roots performing Midnight Confessions. This looks like the original band lineup.