The Grass Roots are an American rock band that charted frequently between 1965 and 1975. The band was originally the creation of Lou Adler and songwriting duo P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri. In their career, they achieved two gold albums and two gold singles, and charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100 a total of 21 times. Among their charting singles, they achieved Top 10 three times, Top 20 six times and Top 40 14 times. They have sold over 20 million records worldwide.
Until his death in 2011, early member Rob Grill and a newer lineup of the Grass Roots continued to play many live performances each year. After his death, the group featured no original band members, with a lineup personally chosen by Grill carrying on the legacy of the group with nationwide live performances.
The founding years The name "Grass Roots" (originally spelled as one word "Grassroots") originated in mid-1965 as the name of a band project by Los Angeles songwriter and producer duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan and Barri had written several songs in an attempt by their record company, Dunhill Records (owned by Lou Adler), to cash in on the budding folk rock movement. One of these songs was "Where Were You When I Needed You", which was recorded by Sloan and Barri. Sloan provided the lead vocals and played guitar, Larry Knechtel played keyboards, Joe Osborn played the bass and Bones Howe was on drums. The song was released under "The Grass Roots" name and sent, as a demo, to several radio stations of the San Francisco Bay area.
When moderate interest in this new band arose, Sloan and Barri went to look for a group that could incorporate the Grass Roots name. They found one in The Bedouins, a San Francisco band that won a Battle of the Bands at a Teenage Fair in San Mateo, California. A new version of "Where Were You When I Needed You" with that band's lead vocalist, Willie Fulton (later, an early member of Tower of Power), was recorded.
In late 1965, the Grass Roots got their first official airplay on Southern California radio stations, such as KGB (AM) in San Diego and KHJ in Los Angeles, with a version of the Bob Dylan song "Mr. Jones (Ballad of a Thin Man)". Dylan granted Sloan permission to cover "Ballad of a Thin Man".
For some months, the group appeared as the first "real" Grass Roots. They were used by Dunhill to back up The Mamas & the Papas and Barry McGuire and became a house band at The Trip nightclub in Hollywood. The partnership with Sloan and Barri broke up when the band demanded more space for their own more blues rock-oriented material (which Dunhill was not willing to give them). Willie Fulton (lead vocals, guitar), Denny Ellis (guitar, backing vocals) and David Stensen (bass, backing vocals) went back to San Francisco, with drummer Joel Larson being the only one who remained in Los Angeles (he later returned to the group in 1972). Fulton, Ellis and Stensen continued to appear as the Grass Roots, with original Bedouins drummer Bill Shoppe, until Dunhill ordered them to cease, because the label decided to start all over again with another group, whom they would groom to be the Grass Roots. In the meantime, the second version of "Where Were You When I Needed You" peaked in the Top 40 in mid-1966, while an album of the same name sold poorly.
Still looking for a group to record their material and promote it with live dates, Sloan and Barri in 1966 offered Wisconsin-based band The Robbs (for whom they produced some early material) a chance to assume the identity of the Grass Roots, but the group declined.
Peak years
The group's third – and by far most successful – incarnation was finally found in a Los Angeles band called The 13th Floor (not to be confused with the 13th Floor Elevators). This band consisted of Creed Bratton (vocals, guitar), Rick Coonce (drums, percussion), Warren Entner (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Kenny Fukumoto (vocals, bass) and had formed only a year earlier. Entner, who had been attending film school at UCLA alongside future The Doors members Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek, was drifting through Europe in the summer of 1965 singing and playing on street corners when he met fellow American busker Creed Bratton in Israel, where an Israeli businessman expressed interest in managing and promoting them. The duo moved on individually, though, and ended up back in LA by 1966, where they formed the 13th Floor and submitted a demo tape to Dunhill Records. After Fukumoto was drafted into the army, the group went through two replacements before the label found singer Rob Grill, who had a voice that P.F. Sloan regarded as the perfect vehicle to convey his songs in a more commercially accessible manner than Sloan could with his own singing. Grill only played guitar, but had to quickly learn the rudiments of bass to fill that vacancy in the lineup. In 1967 the band was offered the choice to go with their own name or choose to adopt a name that had already been heard of nationwide.
In the beginning, they were one of many U.S. guitar pop/rock bands, but with the help of Barri and their other producers, they developed a unique sound for which they drew as heavily on British beat as on soul music, rhythm and blues, and folk rock. Many of their recordings featured a brass section, which was a novelty in those days among American rock bands, with groups like Chicago just developing.
The bulk of the band's material continued to be written by Dunhill Records staff (not only Sloan and Barri) and the LA studio musicians who were part of what became known as the Wrecking Crew played the music on most, but not all, of their hits. The Grass Roots also recorded songs written by the group's musicians, which appeared on their albums and the B-sides of many hit singles.
As the Grass Roots, they had their first top-10 hit in the summer of 1967 with "Let's Live for Today", an English-language cover version of "Piangi con me", a 1966 hit for the Anglo-Italian quartet The Rokes. "Let's Live for Today" sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. With Rob Grill as lead singer, they recorded a third version of "Where Were You When I Needed You". The band continued in a similar hit-making vein for the next five years (1967–1972).
The Grass Roots played at the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Sunday, June 11, 1967, in the Summer of Love as "Let's Live for Today" was at number 15 and climbing.
In late 1967, the band recorded the album Feelings, which featured much heavier input in the songwriting and playing by the group members themselves, but its failure to sell prompted Barri to take full hold of the reins again, as he moved the band in a more R&B, horn-punctuated direction. By this time, Sloan had phased out of his involvement with the band and relocated to New York City to pursue a solo career.
On Sunday October 27, 1968, the Grass Roots played at the San Francisco Pop Festival as their hit "Midnight Confessions" (their first record to feature horns, and with Carol Kaye playing the opening bassline) was peaking at number five. They then played at the Los Angeles Pop Festival and Miami Pop Festival in December 1968.
Creed Bratton became frustrated by Dunhill's refusal to allow the band to write its own songs and play the instruments on its records (although the members did play alone at concerts). After a disastrous appearance at the Fillmore West in April 1969, a "slightly inebriated" Bratton was asked to leave the band. He was replaced by Dennis Provisor on keyboards and vocals, and lead guitarist Terry Furlong (1969–1971) was also brought in to form a quintet. This was the first of many line-up changes for this version of the band.
According to Rob Grill, the band turned down "Don't Pull Your Love" and "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)," reportedly because Grass Roots frontman Rob Grill balked at singing a love song that might be thought to refer to co-member Warren Entner's wife Rosemarie Frankland. Both songs became regulars they performed live and later included on their 2000 live album The Grass Roots – Live At Last.
The Grass Roots, with their new members, played at Newport Pop Festival 1969 at Devonshire Downs, which was a racetrack at the time but now is part of the North Campus for California State University, Northridge. The group played on Sunday June 22, 1969, a week before their hit "I'd Wait A Million Years" reached the Hot 100. In Canada they played at the Vancouver Pop Festival at the Paradise Valley Resort in British Columbia in August 1969.
By 1971, Furlong had stopped touring with the group to pursue a solo career, but continued to contribute on records during the rest of the band's time on Dunhill. His touring replacement was Brian Naughton, who left in 1972. Drummer Rick Coonce was gone as well, by the beginning of 1972, and new members Joe Pollard (drums, percussion) and another guitarist named Terry (last name unknown) joined up. Terry was soon replaced by Reed Kailing (vocals, guitars). Drummer Pollard and keyboardist Dennis Provisor left soon after to go out as a duo (although Provisor was featured on the band's 1972 Move Along album) and were replaced by a returning Rick Coonce and keyboard man Virgil Weber (ex-Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds and Climax). But Coonce was back for only a short period before he was gone again, turning the drum slot over to original member Joel Larson. Singers Rob Grill and Warren Entner remained the point of focus during these years.
The group's songs during 1967–1972 include: "Let's Live for Today", a cover of an Italian hit by The Rokes, "Piangi con me" (U.S. number eight) and "Things I Should Have Said" (U.S. number 23) (1967); "Midnight Confessions" (U.S. number five, their biggest hit) (1968); "Bella Linda" (a cover of an Italian hit by Lucio Battisti, "Balla Linda") (U.S. number 28), "Lovin' Things" (a cover of a UK hit by Marmalade the previous year) (U.S. number 49), "The River Is Wide" (U.S. number 31), "I'd Wait a Million Years" (U.S. number 15) and "Heaven Knows" (U.S. number 24) (1969); "Walking Through the Country" (U.S. number 44) and "Baby Hold On" (U.S. number 35) (1970); "Temptation Eyes" (number 15), "Sooner or Later" (U.S. number 9) and "Two Divided by Love" (U.S. number 16) (1971); "Glory Bound" (U.S. number 34) and "The Runway" (U.S. number 39) (1972).
By early 1974, the Grass Roots had left Dunhill (now ABC Records), and Kailing, Weber and longtime member Entner (later a successful manager with groups such as Rage Against the Machine and Quiet Riot) moved on, while former members Terry Furlong and Dennis Provisor returned. But Furlong left permanently by mid-1974 to be succeeded by Gene Barkin, then by Reggie Knighton. The resulting group was Grill, Larson, Provisor, and Knighton. Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter, who had penned the group's 1971 hit "Two Divided by Love" and many others, invited the band to join their Haven label, where they released an eponymous album in 1975, The Grass Roots, containing the single "Mamacita", which charted at number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100. Follow-up singles failed to chart.
Later years 1976 to 1981 Their 1976 single "Out In The Open" proved to be their swan song on Haven. Knighton left in 1976 and Alan Deane took over, followed by guitarist Glen Shulfer in 1977. ABC Records issued a final greatest-hits package of the group titled ABC Collection in 1976, but in late 1977, Grill decided to take a break from performing and later recorded the 14 Greats album on Gusto Records featuring Provisor and himself. This album consisted of 1978 rerecordings of their hits.