Robert Frank Grill (November 30, 1943 – July 11, 2011) was an American musician and songwriter, best known as lead singer and bassist of the
rock and roll
Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...
group
The Grass Roots
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 ...
. Though not a founding member, Grill was the longest-serving member of the band prior to his death in 2011.
Career
Grill was a native of Hollywood, California, where he attended
Hollywood High School
Hollywood High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California.
His ...
. Soon after graduation, he began working at American Recording Studios with musician friends
Cory Wells
Cory Wells (born Emil Lewandowski; February 5, 1941 – October 20, 2015) was an American singer, best known as one of the three lead vocalists in the band Three Dog Night.
Early life
Wells came from a musical family and began playing in Buffal ...
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night is an American rock band formed in 1967, founded by vocalists Chuck Negron, Cory Wells, and Danny Hutton. This lineup was soon augmented by Jimmy Greenspoon (keyboards), Joe Schermie (bass), Michael Allsup (guitar), and Floyd Sn ...
and Steppenwolf, respectively).
Grill was asked to join
The Grass Roots
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 ...
, which grew out of a project originating from
Dunhill Records
Dunhill Records was started in 1964 by Lou Adler, Jay Lasker, Pierre Cossette and Bobby Roberts as Dunhill Productions to release the music of Johnny Rivers on Imperial Records. It became a record label the following year and was distribute ...
owned by
Lou Adler
Lester Louis Adler (born December 13, 1933) is an American record and film producer and the co-owner of the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California. Adler has produced and developed a number of high-profile musical artists, including The G ...
Steve Barri
Steve Barri (born Steven Barry Lipkin; February 23, 1942, New York City) is an American songwriter and record producer.
Career
Early in his career, Barri was a staff writer with Dunhill Records. He produced such huge hits as " Dizzy" by Tommy R ...
(
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were an American folk rock vocal group that recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968, with a brief reunion in 1971. The group was a defining force in the music scene of the counterculture of the 1960s. Formed in New York C ...
,
Tommy Roe
Thomas David Roe (born May 9, 1942) is an American rock and pop singer-songwriter.
Best-remembered for his hits " Sheila" (1962), "Sweet Pea" (1966) and " Dizzy" (1969), Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of th ...
,
Four Tops
The Four Tops are an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1953 as the Four Aims. They were one of the most commercially successful American pop music groups of the 1960s and helped propel Motown Records to international fame. The ...
and
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), better known by her stage name Dusty Springfield, was a British singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano voice, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, Pop mus ...
) were asked by Dunhill to write songs that would capitalize on the growing interest in the folk-rock movement. After their song “Where Were You When I Needed You” — recorded as a demo with P.F. Sloan as lead singer — was released under the name “The Grass Roots” and received airplay in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dunhill searched for a band to become The Grass Roots. After the first group they chose departed, a Los Angeles band composed of
Creed Bratton
Creed Bratton (born William Charles Schneider; February 8, 1943) is an American actor and musician. A former member of the rock band the Grass Roots, he is best known for playing a Creed Bratton (character), fictionalized version of himself o ...
Warren Entner
Warren Entner (born 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, organist and guitarist for the rock and roll band The Grass Roots. He subsequently became a manager for several successful heavy metal/rock groups.
Overview
Entner is best known ...
, and Kenny Fukomoto was recruited to become The Grass Roots.
When Fukumoto was drafted into the army, Grill was brought in as his replacement. With Grill as lead singer, they recorded another version of "Where Were You When I Needed You" and he became the band’s longest serving member, appearing with them for more than four decades. Grill went on to produce and manage the band and became owner of The Grass Roots name.
Classic rock festivals
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
The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16-18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix Ex ...
but did not have a movie to document it for the ages (see
List of electronic music festivals
The following is an incomplete list of music festivals that feature electronic music, which encapsulates music featuring electronic instruments such as electric guitars and keyboards, as well as recent genres such as electronic dance music (E ...
). 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 10 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
The following is an incomplete list of music festivals that feature electronic music, which encapsulates music featuring electronic instruments such as electric guitars and keyboards, as well as recent genres such as electronic dance music (E ...
).
Solo career and 1960s nostalgia
Grill launched a solo career in 1979, assisted on his solo album by several members of
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...
. Responding to 1960s nostalgia, Grill then led The Grass Roots (billed "The Grass Roots Starring Rob Grill") and toured the United States until his death in 2011.
Compositions and musical release performance
Grill composed 16 songs for The Grass Roots and his solo album. One of these, "Come On and Say It", appeared as a single
A-side
The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...
. His other 15 compositions appeared on single B-sides and albums. He wrote frequently with
Warren Entner
Warren Entner (born 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, organist and guitarist for the rock and roll band The Grass Roots. He subsequently became a manager for several successful heavy metal/rock groups.
Overview
Entner is best known ...
and they were considered a songwriting team. Grill played with The Grass Roots on 16 albums, seven of which charted. He took part in 32 Grass Roots singles released, 21 of which charted.
Death
Grill sustained a head injury in a fall in June 2011. After suffering two strokes following the fall, each located in different parts of his brain, he fell into a coma. With his wife Nancy by his side, Grill died on July 11, 2011, in a hospital in Tavares, Florida, from complications after a stroke.