Warren Entner (born 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, organist and guitarist for the

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

band,

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, two ...

. He then became a manager for several successful heavy metal/rock groups.

Overview

Entner is best known for his vocal contributions on some of The Grass Roots' biggest hits, most notably the memorable "1-2-3-4" count-in to the chorus, as well as lead vocal on the chorus, of Let's Live for Today and the Middle 8 of the song Midnight Confessions. Entner and his group The Grass Roots played at the

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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 to 18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix ...

but did not have a movie to document it for the ages (see

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). On Sunday October 27, 1968, they played at the

San Francisco Pop Festival The KYA San Francisco International Pop Festival was held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds on Saturday October 26 and Sunday October 27, 1968. Groups The groups playing at the festival included (in alphabetical order): * The Animals * Canned ...

and then played at the

Los Angeles Pop Festival The Los Angeles Pop Festival was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in California. The dates of the festival were December 22 and 23, 1968. It was also called a "Christmas Happening". The groups playing at the festival included (in alph ...

and Miami Pop Festival in December of that year as their top ten hit "Midnight Confessions" was hitting the airwaves. Entner and his group The Grass Roots played at

Newport Pop Festival The Newport Pop Festival, held in Costa Mesa, California, on August 3–4, 1968, was the first music concert ever to have more than 100,000 paid attendees. Its sequel, billed as Newport 69, was held in Northridge, California, on June 20–22, 196 ...

1969 at

Devonshire Downs Devonshire Downs, sometimes informally called The Downs, was a horse racing track and multipurpose event facility in Northridge, California. It was located at the southwest corner of Devonshire Street and Zelzah Avenue, east of Reseda Boulevard. T ...

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

). Entner had the opportunity to network with many famous groups and musicians playing these large festivals. This helped him fine tune his skills as a group manager. It was with The Grass Roots that Entner practiced his first efforts as band manager that he would fine tune to become a professional manager for other groups after 1974. Entner identified several songs written by other composers that proved successful when The Grass Roots covered them. He was instrumental in identifying "Let's Live For Today", "Midnight Confessions" and "Lovin' Things" (written by Artie Schroeck) to name a few. In 1970, he married the Welsh actress, model and beauty queen, Miss World 1961, Rosemarie Frankland. In 1976, she gave birth to their only child together, a daughter, Jessica. The couple divorced in 1981. He was married again on May 25, 1985, to Stacey Elizabeth Babbitt, who gave birth to his second child, Lauren, in 1986.

Compositions and musical release performance

Entner composed twenty one songs for The Grass Roots. Two of these appeared as single "A" sides. They are "Feelings" and "Come On And Say It". His other nineteen compositions appeared on single "B" sides and albums. He wrote frequently with Rob Grill and they were considered a songwriting team. Entner played with the group on their first nine albums – seven of which charted. He took part in the first twenty five singles released, twenty of which charted.

Group management

After departing from The Grass Roots in the mid 70s, Entner went behind the scenes of the music business and became a successful manager. Owning his own firm Warren Entner Management, Entner managed a number of successful hard rock artists including

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Quiet Riot Quiet Riot is an American heavy metal band founded in Los Angeles in 1973 by guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni. The original lineup featured Rhoads and Garni with lead vocalist Kevin DuBrow and drummer Drew Forsyth, though tha ...

Faith No More Faith No More is an American Rock music, rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before settling on the current name in July 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, k ...

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commer ...

, Deftones, as well as other acts such as The Grays, Failure and Nada Surf. He currently manages Biffy Clyro in the US.

Discography

Singles

++ – Gold Record – RIAA Certification +++ – Composed by Italian superstar

Lucio Battisti Lucio Battisti (5 March 1943 – 9 September 1998) was an influential Italian singer-songwriter and composer. He is widely recognized for songs that defined the late 1960s and 1970s era of Italian songwriting. Battisti released 18 studio albums ...

)

Albums

++ – Gold Record – RIAA Certification

References

External links

Official Grass Roots Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Entner, Warren 1944 births American male singer-songwriters American rock songwriters American rock singers American rock guitarists American folk guitarists American male guitarists American rock keyboardists American music managers Living people Musicians from Boston Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts Guitarists from Massachusetts 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians