Rob Grill, American singer and songwriter (The Grass Roots) died he was , 67.

 Robert Frank "Rob" Grill was an American lead singer, songwriter and bass guitarist of the rock and roll band, The Grass Roots died he was , 67.

(November 30, 1943 – July 11, 2011)

Career

Rob was a native of Hollywood, California where he attended Hollywood High School. Soon after graduation, Rob began working at American Recording Studios with musician friends Cory Wells and John Kay (who later formed Three Dog Night and Steppenwolf, respectively). Inspired to become a member of a successful band, Grill eventually was asked to join The Grass Roots.
The Grass Roots grew out of a project originating from Dunhill Records. Writer/producers P. F. Sloan and Steve Barri (The Mamas & the Papas, Tommy Roe, Four Tops and Dusty Springfield) were asked by Dunhill to write songs that would capitalize on the growing interest in the folk-rock movement.
When their song “Where Were You When I Needed You”, recorded as a demo with P.F. Sloan as lead singer and released under the name “The Grass Roots” started to get airplay in San Francisco Bay area, they searched for an existing band to become The Grass Roots. They enlisted a San Francisco group, "The Bedouins", who recorded the first Grass Roots album, titled “Where Were You When I Needed You” with Willie Fulton singing lead on a re-recorded version of the title song. After several months, the Bedouins’ partnership with Sloan and Barri broke up as the band was more interested in performing their own more blues rock-oriented material (which Sloan and Barri were not willing to allow them to do).
Subsequently, a Los Angeles band, The 13th Floor (not to be confused with the 13th Floor Elevators), composed of Creed Bratton, Rick Coonce, Warren Entner, and Kenny Fukomoto, was recruited to become the new Grass Roots. When Kenny Fukumoto was drafted into the army, Rob Grill was brought in as his replacement. With Grill as lead singer, they recorded a third version of "Where Were You When I Needed You." Grill became the band’s longest serving member, appearing with them for more than four decades. The Grass Roots went on to chart twenty nine singles, thirteen of which went gold followed by two gold albums and two platinum albums.^[2]

The Grass Roots played at the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival on Sunday June 11, 1967 in the "summer of love" as their top ten hit "Let's Live For Today" was hitting the airwaves. This music festival is important because it occurred before the Monterey Pop Festival but did not have a movie to document it for the ages (see List of electronic music festivals). On Sunday October 27, 1968 they played at the San Francisco Pop Festival and then played at the Los Angeles Pop Festival and Miami Pop Festival in December of that year as their top ten hit "Midnight Confessions" was hitting the airwaves.
The Grass Roots played at Newport Pop Festival 1969 at Devonshire Downs which was a racetrack at the time but now is part of the North Campus for California State University at Northridge. They played on Sunday June 22 which was the final day of the festival as their top twenty hit "Wait A Million Years" was hitting the airwaves. In Canada, they played at the Vancouver Pop Festival at the Paradise Valley Resort in British Columbia in August 1969 (see List of electronic music festivals).
Grill launched a solo career in 1979, assisted on his solo album by several members of Fleetwood Mac. Responding to 60s nostalgia, Grill then reformed The Grass Roots (billed "The Grass Roots Starring Rob Grill") and had toured the United States with the reunited outfit since the 1980s.
In 2006, former manager Marty Angelo published a book entitled, Once Life Matters: A New Beginning which has numerous stories about his life on the road with Rob Grill and the Grass Roots back in the early 1970s.
In 2008, The Grass Roots Starring Rob Grill released a live album chronicling their 14 top forty Billboard hits titled Live Gold.

Compositions and musical release performance

Grill composed sixteen songs for The Grass Roots and his solo album. One of these appeared as a single "A" side. It is "Come On And Say It". His other fifteen compositions appeared on single "B" sides and albums. He wrote frequently with Warren Entner and they were considered a songwriting team. Grill played with The Grass Roots on sixteen albums, seven of which charted. He took part in thirty two Grass Roots singles released, twenty one of which charted.^[3]

Death

Grill died July 11, 2011 in an Orlando, Florida hospital. He had been in a coma since sustaining a head injury several weeks earlier when he fell after suffering a stroke in Lake County, FL. He was 67.^[1][4]

Discography

Singles

Release date	Title	Flip side	Record Label	Chart Positions
				US Billboard	US Cashbox	UK
1967	Let's Live for Today	Depressed Feeling	Dunhill	8	5
	Things I Should Have Said	Tip Of My Tongue	Dunhill	23	36
	Wake Up, Wake Up	No Exit	Dunhill	68	61
1968	Melody For You	Hey Friend	Dunhill	123
	Feelings	Here's Where You Belong	Dunhill
	Midnight Confessions++	Who Will You Be Tomorrow	Dunhill	5	5
1969	Bella Linda+++	Hot Bright Lights	Dunhill	28	20
	Melody For You	All Good Things Come To An End	Dunhill
	Lovin' Things	You And Love Are The Same	Dunhill	49	35
	River Is Wide, The	(You Gotta) Live For Love	Dunhill	31	16
	I'd Wait A Million Years	Fly Me To Havana	Dunhill	15	12
	Heaven Knows	Don't Remind Me	Dunhill	24	13
1970	Walking Through The Country	Truck Drivin' Man	Dunhill	44	30
	Baby Hold On	Get It Together	Dunhill	35	25
	Come On And Say It	Something's Comin' Over Me	Dunhill	61	39
	Temptation Eyes	Keepin' Me Down	Dunhill	15	16
1971	Sooner Or Later	I Can Turn Off The Rain	Dunhill	9	12
	Two Divided By Love	Let It Go	Dunhill	16	8
1972	Glory Bound	Only One	Dunhill	34	22
	Runway, The	Move Along	Dunhill	39	29
	Anyway The Wind Blows	Monday Love	Dunhill	107
1973	Love Is What You Make It	Someone To Love	Dunhill	55
	Where There's Smoke There's Fire	Look But Don't Touch	Dunhill
	We Can't Dance To Your Music	Look But Don't Touch	Dunhill
	Stealin' Love (In The Night)	We Almost Made It Together	Dunhill
1975	Mamacita	Last Time Around, The	Haven	71
	Naked Man	Nothing Good Comes Easy	Haven
1976	Out In The Open	Optical Illusion	Haven
1979	Rock Sugar	Have Mercy	Mercury
1982	Here Comes That Feeling Again	Temptation Eye	MCA
	She Don't Know Me	Keep On Burning	MCA
	Powers Of The Night	Powers Of The Night	MCA

++ - Gold Record - RIAA Certification
+++ - Composed by Italian superstar Lucio Battisti)

Albums

(All albums are with the Grass Roots, unless otherwise noted)

Release date	Title	Record Label	Chart Positions
			US Billboard	US Cashbox	UK
1967	Let's Live for Today	Dunhill	75
1968	Feelings	Dunhill
	Golden Grass ++	Dunhill	25
1969	Lovin' Things	Dunhill	73
	Leavin' It All Behind	Dunhill	36
1970	More Golden Grass	Dunhill	152
1971	Their 16 Greatest Hits ++	Dunhill	58
1972	Move Along	Dunhill	86
1973	Alotta' Mileage	Dunhill
1976	The ABC Collection	ABC
1978	14 Greatest	Gusto
1979	Uprooted (solo album)	Mercury
1982	Powers Of The Night	MCA
2000	Live At Last	RFG
2001	Symphonic Hits	Cleopatra
2008	Live Gold	RFG

++ - Gold Record - RIAA Certification

 

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Jaroslav Jiřík, Czech hockey player (St. Louis Blues), died from a plane crash he was , 71

Jaroslav Jiřík was a Czech former professional ice hockey right winger died from a plane crash he was , 71. He became the first player that an Eastern Bloc country released to play in the National Hockey League when he appeared in three games with the St. Louis Blues in the 1969–70 season.
Jiřík played seventeen seasons in the Czechoslovak Extraliga, scoring 300 goals in 450 games.^[3] Jiřík was named an all-star at the 1965 World Ice Hockey Championships,^[6] and he was a member of the Czechoslovak national team that won the bronze medal at the 1964 Winter Olympics and the silver medal at the 1968 Winter Olympics.^[5][7] He scored 83 goals in 134 international games for Czechoslovakia.^[5]

(December 10, 1939 - July 11, 2011)

Jiřík was first noticed by St. Louis Blues assistant general manager Cliff Fletcher in 1969. Fletcher actually signed three Czechoslovak players: Jiřík, Jan Havel, and Josef Horešovský, all of whom were given permission to transfer to North America by the Czechoslovak government. However, the government changed its mind about Havel and Horesovský, because they were still in their twenties. Jiřík, 30 at the time, was the only player allowed to go.^[4]
Jiřík spent most of the 1969–70 season with St. Louis's minor-league affiliate, the Kansas City Blues of the Central Hockey League.^[5] He played well in Kansas City, scoring 35 points in 53 games.^[1] St. Louis called him up late in the season, and he played three games with the club, going scoreless. He was invited to remain with the organization for the 1970–71 season; however, Jiřík decided to return to Czechoslovakia instead.^[4]
On 11 July, 2011, Jiřík, an experienced pilot, died in a plane crash near Medlánky Airfield at the notrthern suburb of Brno.^[5][2] Prior to his death Jaroslav Jirik was the last prominent Czech expartriate in the United states.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1957–58	HC Kladno	CZE
1958–59	HC Kladno	CZE		22	16
1959–60	HC Kladno	CZE
1960–61	HC Kladno	CZE
1961–62	Rudá hvězda Brno	CZE		32	28
1962–63	ZKL Brno	CZE		32	23
1963–64	ZKL Brno	CZE
1964–65	ZKL Brno	CZE		32	23
1965–66	ZKL Brno	CZE
1966–67	ZKL Brno	CZE
1967–68	ZKL Brno	CZE		32	25	12	37
1968–69	ZKL Brno	CZE		36	36	7	43
1969–70	Kansas City Blues	CHL		53	19	16	35	11		—	—	—	—	—
1969–70	St. Louis Blues	NHL		3	0	0	0	0		—	—	—	—	—
1970–71	ZKL Brno	CZE		36	26	12	28
1971–72	ZKL Brno	CZE
1972–73	ZKL Brno	CZE
1973–74	ZKL Brno	CZE			8	7	15
1974–75	ZKL Brno	CZE
NHL totals				3	0	0	0	0		0	0	0	0	0

International

Year	Team	Comp		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1959	Czechoslovakia	WC		8	6	2	8
1960	Czechoslovakia	Oly		5	1	3	4	2
1963	Czechoslovakia	WC		7	4	3	7	9
1964	Czechoslovakia	Oly		7	3	1	4	6
1965	Czechoslovakia	WC		7	8	4	12	5
1966	Czechoslovakia	WC		7	4	1	5	2
1967	Czechoslovakia	WC		6	5	3	8	2
1968	Czechoslovakia	Oly		4	3	3	6	0
1969	Czechoslovakia	WC		5	2	3	5	0

Note: Statistics are incomplete. Jiřík scored 300 goals in 450 Czechoslovak league games, and 83 goals in 134 international games.

 

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