This is Rob Grill of the Grass Roots, the big headliner Sunday that filled the streets with all the folk-rock love of the mid-’60s and early 1970s you could want. It was a perfect pick for a big Sunday show.
This act flew under the radar for me, so I was happy to feel the love when I went. I found myself immediately knowing the words to their songs, songs like “Midnight Confessions,” “Two Divided by Love,” and “Temptation Eyes.”
The Grass Roots scored 14 Top 40 hits, including seven gold singles and one platinum single. A couple of hits collections went gold.
People seemed to be attached to the music more than the musicians, I think because this band started after a couple of writer/producers got together some great music, and then found a band to perform it. That started in ’65 with one group, which lasted for all of a year, as I understand it. Rob Grill joined up in ’66 and rode the wave to its height in the early ’70s.
By 1980, there was nothing. But people started getting into the “oldies” again, and Grill reconstituted the Grass Roots. Now they’re playing all over the place.
Regardless of the band’s history, it was a groovy show for a Bele Chere Sunday. People just wanted to sing along. One couple we talked to while waiting on Sunday brought along a 1971 vinyl record of the Grass Root’s 1971 greatest hits collection. They said they were going to get it autographed after the show.