The original recording of "Midnight Confessions" was a , whose manager – Lou Josie – wrote the song. Josie is a songwriter and guitarist from Ohio whose credits include "Hey Harmonica Man" by Stevie Wonder, "Soul Finger" by the Bar-Kays and "We Can Make Music" by Tommy Roe.
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 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 sections arrangement by Jimmie Haskell. The song was recorded by the group of LA studio-musicians known as the , as were all Grass Roots songs; the band only added vocals later but performed their songs in concert. 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.
This was the biggest hit for The Grass Roots. They also hit the US Top 10 with "Let's Live For Today" and "Sooner Or Later".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySjxZDT_5SA
In their career, they achieved two gold albums, one gold single and charted singles on the Billboard Hot 100 a total of 21 times. Among their charting singles, they achieved Top 10 three times, Top 20 three times and Top 40 eight times. They have sold over 20 million records worldwide.
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