“Let’s Live for Today” (The Grass Roots)/”I Count the Tears” (The Drifters)

Your classic song that sounds an awful lot like another classic song of the day is “Let’s Live for Today” by the Grass Roots. It was released in May of 1967 and hit #8 on the Billboard Hot 100—and it bears a striking resemblance to the Drifters’ 1961 hit, “I Count the Tears.”

The music for “Let’s Live for Today” was written in 1966 by British musician David “Shel” Shapiro, who was a member of an English beat band called the Rokes. You’ve probably have never heard of the Rokes, and that’s no fault of yours. The original version of the song was titled “Passing Thru Grey” and had lyrics by the Rokes’ drummer, Mike Shepstone.

By this time, the Rokes had relocated to Italy, signed with RCA Italiana, and enjoyed success in that country with several top twenty hits on the Italian charts. To make the song more acceptable to their growing number of Italian fans, the group’s record label hired a local lyricist named Mogol to rewrite the lyrics into Italian. The result was a big Italian hit titled “Piangi Con Me” (in English, “Cry With Me”).

Mogol, the Italian lyricist, made a good living rewriting lyrics from English-language songs into Italian. He also wrote several songs in Italian that were later translated into English, the most notable of which was 1961’s “Uno del Tanti” (in English, “One of Many”) that was later rewritten (by the famous songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) into “I (Who Have Nothing),” which was a big hit for Ben E. King in 1963.

All this language back-and-forthing getting you dizzy yet? Just wait, there’s more…

“Piangi Con Me” was the Rokes’ biggest Italian hit to date, so the band decided to release a version of the song in the UK. Their intent was to release the song with Shepstone’s original English-language lyrics (as “Passing Thru Grey”), but the song’s British publisher, Dick James Music, didn’t like that. Instead, the publisher had one of their staff writers, Michael Julien, supply brand new English-language lyrics, and the song we now know as “Let’s Live for Today” took final form.

The Rokes’ version of “Let’s Live for Today” was released in the UK in April of 1967 but went absolutely nowhere. That single, however, found its way across the Atlantic and into the hands of the head of Dunhill Records, who passed it on to the house producing team of Steve Barri and P.F. Sloan. Barri and Sloan were in charge of creating new material for the Grass Roots, a band they had originally created as an outlet for their own songs, and they really liked what they heard. Sloan was particularly impressed with the song’s similarity to the Drifters’ earlier hit, “I Count the Tears,” and decided it would be perfect for their group. The Grass Roots recorded it (with a little help from the studio musicians in the Wrecking Crew, as usual), they rushed it to radio stations across America, and the rest is history.

Let’s return to that similarity to “I Count the Tears.” To my ears, the two songs aren’t just similar, they’re identical, at least in the melody of the chorus. Listen to the bit in “Let’s Live for Today” that goes “Shah-la, la-la-la-la, live for today” and compare it to the chorus of “I Count the Tears” that starts out “Na, na, na, na, na, na late at night.” They are note-for-note identical. Even the use of nonsense syllables is mirrored from the first song to the second. I am shocked the writers of “I Count the Tears” didn’t sue for plagiarism.

The guys who wrote “I Count the Tears” were Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, one of the top ten songwriting teams of the rock era, two guys that are right up there with Mann and Weil, Barry and Greenwich, Goffin and King, Bacharach and David, and Lennon and McCartney. Doc and Mort wrote such stellar tunes as “A Teenager in Love” (for Dion and the Belmonts); “Turn Me Loose” (for Fabian); “Hushabye” (for the Mystics); “Sweets for My Sweet” (for the Searchers); “Can’t Get Used to Losing You” (for Andy Williams); “Suspicion” (for Terry Stafford); “Surrender,” “Marie’s the Name (His Latest Flame),” “Little Sister,” and “Viva Las Vegas” (for Elvis Presley); and “This Magic Moment” and my personal favorite “Save the Last Dance for Me” (for the Drifters). I can go on and on about Pomus and Shuman (and ultimately will in some future posts), but suffice to say that they were the real deal. Not surprisingly, “I Count the Tears” went to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #6 on the R&B charts back in 1961.

Doc and Mort didn’t sue Shel Shapiro, although they would have had a terrific case if they’d chosen to do so. Both songs stand on their own and in different eras, which may be the biggest difference between the two. “I Count the Tears” was a faster R&B song from the pre-English Invasion Brill Building era; “Let’s Live for Today” was a slower, soulful rocker that made it big in the Summer of Love. That’s that.

I’ll talk more about Steve Barri and P.J. Sloan in future posts. For now, know that, in addition to other endeavors, the two of them were the driving force behind the Grass Roots. They created what started out as a studio band as an outlet for their creative juices, but when the fake band started having real hits, they had to find some actual musicians to make the fake band real on stage. The easiest route to this end was to hire an existing band and change their name. Their first attempt was with a band called the Bedouins, who performed as the Grass Roots for a brief period from 1965-1966. When that didn’t work out, Barri and Sloan tried again, hiring a band called the 13th Floor and turning them into the Grass Roots. This version clicked, thanks in no small part to musicians Rob Grill (vocals and bass guitar), Warren Entner (rhythm guitar, keyboards), Rick Coonce (drums), and Creed Bratton (lead guitar). You may know Mr. Bratton as an actor who played a fictional(?) version of himself on the classic TV show The Office. The man was versatile.

Whomever was playing live on stage, the Grass Roots were always Barri and Sloan’s band. The two of them wrote or produced all the group’s big hits, of which there were many, including “Where Were You When I Needed You” (#28 in 1966), “Things I Should Have Said” (#23 in 1967), “Midnight Confessions” (#5 in 1968), “Bella Linda (#28 in 1968), “Lovin’ Things” (#49 in 1969), “The River is Wide” (#31 in 1969), “I’d Wait a Million Years” (#15 in 1969), “Heaven Knows” (#24 in 1969), “Temptation Eyes” (#15 in 1970), “Sooner or Later” (#9 in 1971), and “Two Divided By Love” (#16 in 1971). That last one was the last of their big hits, although some replacement members continue performing as the Grass Roors on the oldies circuit, including being part of the ever-popular Happy Together tour.

Rob Grill continued to lead the group until his death in 2011, aged 67. Rick Coonce also passed away in 2011, aged 64. Warren Entner, when he left the band in the mid-70s, moved behind the scenes and became a successful manager in the music business, including managing bands like Angel, Quiet Riot, Faith No More, and Rage Against the Machine. Creed Bratton continues acting and performing today—and you can see him in reruns of The Office on your favorite streaming service.

One last thing to share: I’m a particular fan of Rosanne Cash’s haunting, somewhat countrified version of “I Count the Tears,” recorded for the compilation album Till the Night is Gone: A Tribute to Doc Pomus. It’s a great album that celebrates Doc’s songwriting genius, with performances by artists such as Brian Wilson, John Hiatt, Shawn Colvin, Lou Reed, Solomon Burke, Dion DiMucci, Los Lobos, B.B. King, Irma Thomas, Aaron Neville, Dr. John, and some guy from Minnesota named Bob Dylan. I recommend searching it out.