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Midnight Confessions

"Midnight Confessions"
The Grass Roots - Midnight Confessions single.JPG
Single by The Grass Roots
from the album Golden Grass
B-side "Who Will You Be Tomorrow"
Released June 1968 (1968-06)
Format 7" 45 RPM
Recorded 1968 in Los Angeles, California
Genre Rock, Psychedelic pop
Length 2:42
Label ABC/Dunhill
Writer(s) Lou Josie
Producer(s) Steve Barri
The Grass Roots singles chronology
"Feelings"
(1968)
"Midnight Confessions"
(1968)
"Bella Linda"
(1969)

"Midnight Confessions" is a song written by Lou T. Josie and originally performed by the Ever-Green Blues. It was later made famous by American rock band The Grass Roots, who released the song as a single in 1968 (see 1968 in music). It was the first single from their fourth studio album, Golden Grass. The single was, however, released five months in advance of the album.

The Grass Roots version became the band's biggest charting hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching the Top 5 of both the U.S. and Canadian pop singles charts. The lyrics describe a man who is infatuated with a married woman, knows he can never have her, and is relegated to confessing his love for her audibly, but alone. The song appears to be a musical dramatization of the midnight confession of the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale's love for Hester Prynne in the classic 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, "The Scarlet Letter."

The original recording of "Midnight Confessions" was a demo by the Evergreen Blues Band, whose manager – Lou Josie – wrote the song. The demo contained a horn section and caught the attention of Record producer/engineer Steve Barri, who was looking to produce a song for the Grass Roots that was a "West Coast" version of a Motown-style production. The Grass Roots version was produced/engineered by Steve Barri with the horn section's arrangement by Jimmie Haskell. The performers included vocalist Rob Grill, guitarists Creed Bratton and Warren Entner, drummer Rick Coonce, and various members of the group of LA studio-musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, including Joe Osborn playing the opening and full track bass-line. Other musicians on the recording included John Audino, Bud Childers, and Anthony Terran on trumpet, Richard Hyde, Harold Diner, and Edward Kusby on trombone, Plas Johnson on sax, Don Randi on piano, Larry Knechtel on organ, Hal Blaine on drums, Emil Richards on percussion, Mike Deasy and Lyle Ritz on guitar. Because of the way The Grass Roots was handled by its producers, it is unlikely that any of the members of the band actually played on the recording, although they did provide the vocals and did perform it in concert.


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