The band that recorded the song had replaced another set of players who had been using the same name. And the song in question was written for yet another band, only to be pilfered by an enterprising producer. No one would ever say that “Midnight Confessions” came about in the usual way. Nonetheless, the song provided the 60s and 70s hitmakers The Grass Roots with their biggest ever single.
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Unearthed Roots
The Grass Roots formed as a vehicle for a pair of aspiring California songwriters. P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan made a splash by writing the 1965 No. 1 hit “Eve Of Destruction” for Barry McGuire. To make their new enterprise happen, the pair recruited an existing band called The Bedouins from the California area.
Sloan and Barri envisioned themselves as the lead singers for this outfit. But The Bedouins already had a lead singer in Willie Fulton, who took the vocal on “Where Were You When I Needed You”, a minor hit single for the band that also served as the title track for their 1966 debut album.
When the players that Sloan and Barri had enlisted expressed a desire to change the band’s sound a bit, the duo essentially fired them and brought in a new outfit. Among the new members of the Grass Roots was an aspiring singer-songwriter named Creed Bratton. Yes, that’s the same Creed Bratton who would appear on the legendary sitcom The Office some four decades later.
Until “Midnight”
On Let’s Live For Today, the second Grass Roots’ album and the first with the new lineup, Sloan and Barri gave up any pretense about performing, instead concentrating on writing and producing. The title track for that album provided the band with their breakthrough Top 10 single.
On Feelings, the Grass Roots’ third album, released in 1968, the band handled most of the playing and songwriting. When that LP failed to deliver a hit single, Barri decided that their next single would include the band as singers only. Wrecking Crew session pros would handle the instrumentation.
“Midnight Confessions” was written by Lou Josie, who had intended it for a group that he managed called the Evergreen Blues Band. Instead, Barri pounced on it for his group. Featuring a refreshing horn arrangement, an unforgettable bass line from The Wrecking Crew’s Carol Kaye, and Rob Grill and Warren Entner of the band trading off on lead vocals, “Midnight Confessions” shot to No. 5 in 1968.
Behind the Lyrics of “Midnight Confessions”
“Midnight Confessions” tells a story of unrequited, unexpressed love. Well, almost unexpressed, because the narrator does tell all when he’s alone and no one can hear. “In my midnight confessions,” he admits. “When I tell all the world that I love you.”
He must see this girl regularly, because he speaks of being tormented by her “soft, gentle motion.” The ring on her finger establishes that she’s off-limits. And yet he fights to hold back his desire: “But sometimes the feelings/Are so hard to hide.”
This version of The Grass Roots, for the most part, stuck around. And they’d develop into one of the most reliable singles acts of the next five years or so. With “Midnight Confessions”, they formed the sturdy template for their future success.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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