Meanwhile, over at Super 'CFL, Tommy James and the Shondells leap from #7 into the #1 Position with their latest, "Mirage".
From Jeff March and Marti Smiley Childs ...
In late 1966, the members of the first lineup of the Grass
Roots defected to form a different band. In response, Dunhill records recruited
another band, the Thirteenth Floor, the members of which agreed to become the
Grass Roots.
The new complement consisted of lead guitarist Creed Bratton,
rhythm guitarist-keyboard player Warren Entner, drummer Rick Coonce, and
bassist Rob Grill -- whose singing voice mesmerized Dunhill owner Lou Adler and
the label's writing and production team of Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan.
"When we heard Rob's voice, we felt he really had the sound that we were
looking for as a vehicle for our song writing," Barri told authors Marti
Smiley Childs and Jeff March for their book "Where Have All the Pop Stars
Gone? Volume 2." But the first substantial hit for the recomposed Grass
Roots came from another writing team.
In early 1967 Sloan and Barri got wind of
"Piangi Con Me" (Cry With Me), a pop hit in Italy performed in
Italian by an English group called the Rokes. The song, written by David
Shapiro, Ivan Mogull, and Michael Julian, was translated to "Let's Live for
Today" in English. The Grass Roots version, which Sloan and Barri produced
for the Dunhill label, premiered on May 13, 1967, soared up the pop chart,
peaked at No. 8 on the Hot 100, and remained on the chart for 12 weeks.
By the spring of 1967, the Moody Blues recognized that their
blues repertoire had run its course, and decided to develop their own style.
The band members conceived a new approach: a stage show -- a musical about the
passage of a single day. "At the time, we could not get money for enough
studio time. We used to get three hours to do the A and the B side, and
everything had to be three minutes or less, with a catchy hook, which was
crap," the band's flutist Ray Thomas told authors Marti Smiley Childs and
Jeff March for their book "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone? Volume
2." On their own, the Moody Blues began writing songs for the musical, and
the band's keyboard player, Mike Pinder, obtained a Mellotron instrument to
orchestrate the musical on stage.
On BBC's "Saturday Club" program
that aired on May 13, 1967, the band premiered one of those songs that Justin
Hayward had written.
It was "Nights in White Satin." Mike Pinder
recalls, "As we started writing more, we knew there was something to it.
Once we had 'Tuesday Afternoon' and 'Nights in White Satin' we thought 'oh --
we need something for the morning, something for the evening, dawn, and
sunset,' and that's how the whole thing came about." He was referring, of
course, to the band's milestone concept album "Days of Future
Passed."
http://www.editpros.com/WHATPSG_Vol_2.html
http://www.editpros.com/WHATPSG_Vol_2.html
