/ Stars that died in 2023: Rob Grill, American singer and songwriter (The Grass Roots) died he was , 67.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Rob Grill, American singer and songwriter (The Grass Roots) died he was , 67.

 Robert Frank "Rob" Grill was an American lead singer, songwriter and bass guitarist of the rock and roll band, The Grass Roots died he was , 67.

(November 30, 1943 – July 11, 2011)

Career

Rob was a native of Hollywood, California where he attended Hollywood High School. Soon after graduation, Rob began working at American Recording Studios with musician friends Cory Wells and John Kay (who later formed Three Dog Night and Steppenwolf, respectively). Inspired to become a member of a successful band, Grill eventually was asked to join The Grass Roots.
The Grass Roots grew out of a project originating from Dunhill Records. Writer/producers P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri (The Mamas & the Papas, Tommy Roe, Four Tops and Dusty Springfield) were asked by Dunhill to write songs that would capitalize on the growing interest in the folk-rock movement.
When their song “Where Were You When I Needed You”, recorded as a demo with P.F. Sloan as lead singer and released under the name “The Grass Roots” started to get airplay in San Francisco Bay area, they searched for an existing band to become The Grass Roots. They enlisted a San Francisco group, "The Bedouins", who recorded the first Grass Roots album, titled “Where Were You When I Needed You” with Willie Fulton singing lead on a re-recorded version of the title song. After several months, the Bedouins’ partnership with Sloan and Barri broke up as the band was more interested in performing their own more blues rock-oriented material (which Sloan and Barri were not willing to allow them to do).
Subsequently, a Los Angeles band, The 13th Floor (not to be confused with the 13th Floor Elevators), composed of Creed Bratton, Rick Coonce, Warren Entner, and Kenny Fukomoto, was recruited to become the new Grass Roots. When Kenny Fukumoto was drafted into the army, Rob Grill was brought in as his replacement. With Grill as lead singer, they recorded a third version of "Where Were You When I Needed You." Grill became the band’s longest serving member, appearing with them for more than four decades. The Grass Roots went on to chart twenty nine singles, thirteen of which went gold followed by two gold albums and two platinum albums.[2]

The Grass Roots played at the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Sunday June 11, 1967 in the "summer of love" as their top ten hit "Let's Live For Today" was hitting the airwaves. This music festival is important because it occurred before the Monterey Pop Festival but did not have a movie to document it for the ages (see List of electronic music festivals). On Sunday October 27, 1968 they played at the San Francisco Pop Festival and then played at the Los Angeles Pop Festival and Miami Pop Festival in December of that year as their top ten hit "Midnight Confessions" was hitting the airwaves.
The Grass Roots 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 at Northridge. They played on Sunday June 22 which was the final day of the festival as their top twenty hit "Wait A Million Years" was hitting the airwaves. In Canada, they played at the Vancouver Pop Festival at the Paradise Valley Resort in British Columbia in August 1969 (see List of electronic music festivals).
Grill launched a solo career in 1979, assisted on his solo album by several members of Fleetwood Mac. Responding to 60s nostalgia, Grill then reformed The Grass Roots (billed "The Grass Roots Starring Rob Grill") and had toured the United States with the reunited outfit since the 1980s.
In 2006, former manager Marty Angelo published a book entitled, Once Life Matters: A New Beginning which has numerous stories about his life on the road with Rob Grill and the Grass Roots back in the early 1970s.
In 2008, The Grass Roots Starring Rob Grill released a live album chronicling their 14 top forty Billboard hits titled Live Gold.

Compositions and musical release performance

Grill composed sixteen songs for The Grass Roots and his solo album. One of these appeared as a single "A" side. It is "Come On And Say It". His other fifteen compositions appeared on single "B" sides and albums. He wrote frequently with Warren Entner and they were considered a songwriting team. Grill played with The Grass Roots on sixteen albums, seven of which charted. He took part in thirty two Grass Roots singles released, twenty one of which charted.[3]

Death

Grill died July 11, 2011 in an Orlando, Florida hospital. He had been in a coma since sustaining a head injury several weeks earlier when he fell after suffering a stroke in Lake County, FL. He was 67.[1][4]

Discography

Singles

Release date
Title
Flip side
Record Label
Chart Positions
US Cashbox
UK

1967
Depressed Feeling
Dunhill
8
5


Things I Should Have Said
Tip Of My Tongue
Dunhill
23
36


Wake Up, Wake Up
No Exit
Dunhill
68
61


1968
Melody For You
Hey Friend
Dunhill
123



Feelings
Here's Where You Belong
Dunhill




Who Will You Be Tomorrow
Dunhill
5
5


1969
Bella Linda+++
Hot Bright Lights
Dunhill
28
20


Melody For You
All Good Things Come To An End
Dunhill




Lovin' Things
You And Love Are The Same
Dunhill
49
35


River Is Wide, The
(You Gotta) Live For Love
Dunhill
31
16


I'd Wait A Million Years
Fly Me To Havana
Dunhill
15
12


Heaven Knows
Don't Remind Me
Dunhill
24
13


1970
Walking Through The Country
Truck Drivin' Man
Dunhill
44
30


Baby Hold On
Get It Together
Dunhill
35
25


Come On And Say It
Something's Comin' Over Me
Dunhill
61
39


Temptation Eyes
Keepin' Me Down
Dunhill
15
16


1971
Sooner Or Later
I Can Turn Off The Rain
Dunhill
9
12


Two Divided By Love
Let It Go
Dunhill
16
8


1972
Glory Bound
Only One
Dunhill
34
22


Runway, The
Move Along
Dunhill
39
29


Anyway The Wind Blows
Monday Love
Dunhill
107



1973
Love Is What You Make It
Someone To Love
Dunhill
55



Where There's Smoke There's Fire
Look But Don't Touch
Dunhill




We Can't Dance To Your Music
Look But Don't Touch
Dunhill




Stealin' Love (In The Night)
We Almost Made It Together
Dunhill




1975
Mamacita
Last Time Around, The
Haven
71



Naked Man
Nothing Good Comes Easy
Haven




1976
Out In The Open
Optical Illusion
Haven




1979
Rock Sugar
Have Mercy
Mercury




1982
Here Comes That Feeling Again
Temptation Eye
MCA




Keep On Burning
MCA




Powers Of The Night
Powers Of The Night
MCA




++ - Gold Record - RIAA Certification
+++ - Composed by Italian superstar Lucio Battisti)

Albums

(All albums are with the Grass Roots, unless otherwise noted)
Release date
Title
Record Label
Chart Positions
US Cashbox
UK

1967
Dunhill
75



1968
Feelings
Dunhill




Golden Grass ++
Dunhill
25



1969
Lovin' Things
Dunhill
73



Leavin' It All Behind
Dunhill
36



1970
More Golden Grass
Dunhill
152



1971
Dunhill
58



1972
Move Along
Dunhill
86



1973
Alotta' Mileage
Dunhill




1976
The ABC Collection
ABC




1978
14 Greatest
Gusto




1979
Uprooted (solo album)
Mercury




1982
Powers Of The Night
MCA




2000
Live At Last
RFG




2001
Symphonic Hits
Cleopatra




2008
Live Gold
RFG




++ - Gold Record - RIAA Certification

 

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