#20: The River is Wide by the Grass Roots

City: Fredericton, NB
Radio Station: CFNB
Peak Month: June 1969
Peak Position in Fredericton: #2
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #36
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #31
YouTube: “The River is Wide”
Lyrics: “The River is Wide”

The Grass Roots were a band from Los Angeles. They were a band project by Los Angeles songwriter and producer duo P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri. Sloan and Barri had written several songs in an attempt by their record company, Dunhill Records, to cash in on the folk rock movement. One of these songs was “Where Were You When I Needed You”, which was recorded by Sloan and Barri. Sloan provided the lead vocals and played guitar, Larry Knetchel played keyboards, Joe Osborn played the bass and Bones Howe was on drums. The song was released under “The Grass Roots” name and sent, as a demo, to several radio stations of the San Francisco Bay area.

When moderate interest in this new band arose, Sloan and Barri went to look for a group that could incorporate the Grass Roots name. They found one in The Bedouins, a San Francisco band that won a Battle of the Bands at a Teenage Fair in San Mateo (CA). A new version of “Where Were You When I Needed You” with that band’s lead vocalist, Willie Fulton was recorded. It was later released as the band’s second single.

In 1965 they released their debut single. It was a cover of a Bob Dylan social commentary song titled “Mr. Jones (Ballad of a Thin Man)”. The song was the debut single from their studio album Where Were You When I Needed You. It appeared in the soundtrack of the 1987 film Good Morning Vietnam. The title track – “Where Were You When I Needed You” was the followup. It reached #5 in Toronto and #6 in Hamilton (ON). On the Billboard Hot 100 it stalled at #28. In 1965-66, the Grass Roots were a regular opening band for both the Mama’s and the Papas, and Barry McGuire. They were also a house band at The Trip night club in Hollywood.

A series of lineup changes ensued when the Bedouins (now the Grass Roots) wanted to be able to focus on their blues-rock oriented material. Dunhill Records wasn’t interested. This resulted in Willie Fulton (lead vocals and guitar), Denny Ellis (guitar, backing vocals) and David Stensen (bass, backing vocals) to head back to San Francisco.

The group’s third incarnation was finally found in a Los Angeles band called The 13th Floor. The bandmates were Creed Bratton (born William Charles Schneider; in 1943 in Los Angeles) on vocals and guitar, Eric Michael “Rick” Coonce (born in 1946 in Los Angeles) on drums and percussion, Warren Entner (born in Boston in 1941) on vocals, guitar and keyboards, and Kenny Fukumoto on vocals and bass guitar. When Fukumoto was drafted into the United States Army, he was replaced with Rob Grill (born in Los Angeles in 1943) on lead vocals. All members of The 13th Floor met at a Battle of the Bands event in Hollywood in 1966.

On June 10 and 11, 1967, the Grass Roots appeared at the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival at Mount Tamalpais State Park in Marin County, north of San Francisco. The music festival had the Grass Roots appear alongside The Doors, Spanky & Our Gang, Every Mother’s Son, Canned Heat, The Mojo Men, The Merry-Go-Round, Dionne Warwick, Jefferson Airplane, P.F. Sloan, The Byrds, Hugh Masekela, Steve Miller Band, The Fifth Dimension, The Sparrows, The Seeds, Country Joe and the Fish, and many more. This gave the Grass Roots new record, “Let’s Live For Today”, wider exposure.

In 1967, the Grass Roots most successful hit was “Let’s Live For Today”, with Rob Grill on lead vocals. The song captured the tone of the times – living in the here and now – in the Summer of Love that was the summer of ’67. The song shot to #1 in Winnipeg, #2 in Vancouver, and a Top Ten hit in another half dozen Canadian radio markets. Internationally, the song peaked at #1 in South Africa, #5 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart in the USA, and #9 in New Zealand. “Let’s Live For Today” was an English-language cover version of “Piangi con me”, a 1966 hit for the Anglo-Italian quartet The Rokes.

A followup album, Feelings, was a much heavier rock ‘n roll sound. The album and two tracks released as singles didn’t sell well. Dunhill Records took hold of the band and started to punctuate their sound with horns. Many of the Grass Roots recordings now featured a brass section, which was a novelty in the mid-sixties among American rock bands, with groups like Chicago just developing.

In 1968, the band appeared in a romantic comedy starring Doris Day titled With Six You Get Eggroll.

In 1968, “Midnight Confessions” was a Top Ten hit in Canada, South Africa and the USA. The song was included in the 1997 crime film Jackie Brown.

In the spring of 1968, Italian singer Lucio Battisti released a single titled “Balla Linda”. It became a Top 20 hit in Italy. In the fall of 1968, the Grass Roots recorded an English-language version. It became a Top 20 hit in Canada. On December 22, 1968, the Grass Roots performed at the Los Angeles Pop Festival. Other recording acts on the stage included Blue Cheer, the Box Tops, Chambers Brothers, Canned Heat, the Turtles, Righteous Brothers, Three Dog Night and others. They also appeared at the Miami Pop Festival (December 28-30, 1968). Also in the concert lineup was Marvin Gaye, Joni Mitchell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Pacific Gas & Electric, Procol Harum, Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, Jose Feliciano, Chuck Berry, the Amboy Dukes, Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, Ritchie Havens, Iron Butterfly and others.

The band turned down a song titled “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)”, according to Rob Grill because one of the members had a girlfriend named Rosemary and they thought it was inappropriate to have a song with her name and not the other members’ girlfriends. The song became a hit for Edison Lighthouse in the winter of 1969-70. They also turned down a song titled “Don’t Pull Your Love” which became a Top Ten hit in 1971 for Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds. In the years that followed, the Grass Roots would tell the story of declining these two songs and then play them at live concerts.

The Grass Roots changed their name to the Grassroots, removing the space between grass and roots. They released their fourth studio album in March 1969 titled Lovin’ Things. After the title track was released, the band followed up with “The River Is Wide”.

“The River Is Wide” is a song depicting the weather as a setting to spark a romance: clear skies, windy day, lightning flashing and thunder roaring. As rain began to pour on that first date, with each drop of rain, love grew.

Of the two songwriters for “The River Is Wide”, Gary Knight (born Harold Paul Temkin in 1943) is the one who had a career in music. He wrote a song for Connie Francis titled “Vacation”, which was a Top Ten hit in 1962. He also wrote songs that were recorded by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Leslie Gore, the Kalin Twins, Kiki Dee (in an early recording for her in 1967), Jackie DeShannon, The Walker Brothers, Frank Sinatra Jr., Lenny Welch, Jay and the Techniques, Mel Carter, Adam Wade, Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis, Bobby Vinton, The Floaters, Gloria Gaynor, The Ronettes, Meco, and others.

“The River Is Wide” peaked at #1 in New Haven (CT), #2 in Fredericton (NB), #4 in New York City and Washington DC, #5 in Ann Arbor (MI), Omaha (NE), and Jackson (MI), #6 in Fresno (CA) and Boston, #7 in Cleveland, Sandusky (OH), Phoenix, Lincoln (NE), Rochester (NY), and Geneva (NY), #8 in Buffalo and Hanover (NJ), and #9 in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Creed Bratton grew increasingly uncomfortable with Dunhill Records not allowing the band to record its own songs. He left in the spring of 1969, and was replaced by Dennis Provisor. The band released their fifth studio album, Leaving It All Behind. The album contained a Top 20 hit, “I’d Wait A Million Years”, a Top 30 hit titled “Heaven Knows”, and a Top 50 hit titled “Walking Through the Country”.

In late 1970, the Grassroots released “Temptation Eyes” which was their only Top 20 hit that year. They continued to chart well in 1971 with “Sooner Or Later” and “Two Divided By Love”. The latter was from the album Move Along. Two other tracks released as singles sold poorly. Their seventh studio album, Alotta’ Mileage, sold poorly – as did the single releases. In 1972, Rick Coonce left the band and moved to Vancouver Island. From 1972 to 1976, the Grass Roots released ten singles, but none of these cracked the Top 30; And five of these failed to chart in the Billboard Hot 100.

When they were charting Top 40 hits between 1966 and 1971, the Grass Roots appeared on American Bandstand on 16 occasions. They also appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Tonight Show, The Today Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, Good Morning America, and other TV shows.

Creed Bratton began to pursue an acting career in 1975. He has appeared in almost twenty films. These include Heart Like A Wheel (1983) The Wild Pair (1987) and Seven Days to Judgment (1988) each with Beau Bridges, Mask (1985) starring Cher, and The Guilt Trip (2012) starring Barbra Streisand. In television, Creed Bratton was in the cast of the mockumentary sitcom The Office from 2005 to 2013. As well, he has been a guest actor in over twenty other TV shows. His most recent is an appearance in a science fiction show, Upload, in 2020. As a solo recording artist, Creed Bratton released eight studio albums between 2001 and 2020.

After departing from The Grass Roots in the mid 70s, Entner went behind the scenes of the music business and became a manager. Owning his own firm Warren Entner Management, Entner managed a number of hard rock artists including Angel, Quiet Riot, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Deftones, The Grays, Failure and Nada Surf.

Rob Grill launched a solo career in 1979, assisted on his solo album by several members of Fleetwood Mac. 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. He sustained a head injury in a fall in June 2011. After suffering two strokes following the fall, he fell into a coma and died in hospital.

Rick Coonce died of a heart attack in 2011 at the age of 64.

May 3, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
David Riedel, “Rob Grill of the Grass Roots dead at 67,” CBS, June 12, 2011.
Laura Dorwort, “‘The Office’: What is Creed Bratton Doing Now?,” Showbiz CheatSheet, December 3, 2020.
“Happy Birthday to Warren Entner of The Grass Roots: Born on July 7, 1944,” Rock Scene magazine.
“The Grass Roots – Creed Bratton Interview,” Psychedelicbabymag, January 6, 2024.
Rockin’ Robin, “Ronnie Hammond,” Cashbox, March 19, 2011.

CFNB 550-AM Fredericton (NB) Top Ten | June 7 1969