“Where Were You When I Needed You” is today’s classic song of the. It was released by the Grass Roots in June of 1966 and peaked at #28 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song has an interesting history. P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri wrote the tune for Hermit’s Hermits and their 1966 movie, Hold On!. While the Hermits included the song in the movie, they opted not to release the song as a single.
Sloan and Barri then convinced Lou Adler, head of Dunhill Records, to let them record the song themselves, under the name the Grass Roots, which they did. Dunhill sent a few copies of the single to L.A. radio stations and got a favorable response, but Adler didn’t want his top songwriters to stop writing and go out on the road. So Adler put the single on ice and told Sloan and Barri to find a real band to go out on the road as the Grass Roots.
That leads us to the first version of the Grass Roots, who were actually a San Francisco band called the Bedouins. This was the band who toured in support of the debut Grass Roots album, named after Sloan and Barri’s song, Where Were You When I Needed You. That song was the lead track on the album, which was recorded mostly by studio musicians in the Wrecking Crew. For the single of “Where Were You When I Needed You,” they replaced Steve Barri’s voice from the original recording with that of Bedouin lead singer Willie Fulton.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out with the Bedouins, who wanted more creative control, and Sloan and Barri ended up recruiting a different group to continue on as the Grass Roots. That group, led by lead singer Rob Grill, was the 13th Floor. This is the version of the Grass Roots that supported most of the group’s hits—which were still recorded primarily by members of the Wrecking Crew.
Here’s today’s daily bonus video, the original Grass Roots, AKA the Bedouins (with Willie Fulton on vocals), lip synching “Where Were You When I Needed You” back in 1966. It’s a great tune no matter who’s doing it.
