The Rokes - Lets Live For Today - The Rokes In English 1966-1968 (2008)
2008 CD Rev-Ola 262
The Rokes were one of the more unusual British Invasion-era groups to come out of England, if only for the pattern and locale of their success. They never sold many records in England, or any in America, but they were a major act in Italy and also managed to make an extraordinary, albeit indirect, impact on the 1960s with a song that they originally premiered in Italian.
London-born Shel Shapiro (b. 1943) had broken into music as a guitarist and singer with Rob Storm & the Whispers (later the Rob Storme Group) and subsequently backed Gene Vincent during a tour of England. He played in Hamburg as a member of the Shel Carson Combo and then became a member of the band backing Colin Hicks, the brother of Tommy Steele, on an extended tour of Italy in 1963. This group, who later recorded with Hicks, took the name of the Cabin Boys — their lineup consisted of Shel Shapiro on guitar and vocals, Johnny Charlton on guitar and vocals, Bobby Posner on bass and vocals, and Roger Shepstone on drums and vocals.
The Cabin Boys came to the attention of a manager in Italy who got them to sever their ties to Hicks and rename themselves the Rokes. They started out playing on stage behind a female singer named Rita Pavone but were signed to Italian RCA on their own. Their debut release under their new name was a single of "Shake, Rattle and Roll" that failed to sell. Another recording effort, this time in Italian, failed, but their future releases would all be in Italian, with English-language versions issued overseas. The group cut a version of Clint Ballard's "I'm Alive" under the title "Grazie a Te" and Jackie DeShannon's "When You Walk in the Room" as "C'e Una Strana Espressione Nei Tuoi Occhi" in 1965 that reached numbers 12 and 11 in Italy, respectively. These two hits were followed by their debut album and they had further Top 20 successes in 1966 with "Che Colp Abbiamo Noi" and "E La Pioggia Che Va." That same year, the Rokes also won second place in a poll of the most popular beat groups in Italy.
Their big success and their major impact on the world of rock & roll beyond Italy, however, came when Shapiro co-authored a song called "Piangi Con Me," a hit for the group in Italy and later released in England by the group as "Let's Live for Today." The Rokes' version was relatively subdued and reflective. It was first covered by a band called the Living Daylights, but it was when the song was picked up by the Grassroots in America and recorded in a more defiant and dramatic fashion than the Rokes' original, with P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri producing, that it made a permanent impact on music and American popular culture. That record not only sold more than two million copies, but became one of the most enduring hit singles of its period — with a special meaning to Vietnam veterans — and, stylistically, was a forerunner of a sound that Bruce Springsteen would become a star with nine years later.
The Rokes never benefited from the song's success in America. Despite releasing several singles in English in England and evolving new sounds with the times, including moving into psychedelia with "When the Wind Arises," they never charted there. They remained an Italian phenomenon, scoring a number two hit in 1967. They remained in vogue in Italy, even crossing paths with the Cowsills at the San Remo Festival in 1968, and continued to chart records there into 1969. By then, the public taste for pop/rock in Italy was changing and the group broke up during the summer of 1970. In 1972, Italian RCA issued a retrospective album on the group. Shapiro continued to write songs and produce records, forming his own label in Milan in 1977, while the other members of the group eventually left the music business.
Formed in 1962, the Rokes were a better than average English pop group who found the competition for gigs was rather tough at home, so in 1963 they set their sights on Hamburg, where the Beatles had gotten their first break a few years earlier. While the German gigs didn't do much for their career, they did lead to an offer to tour Italy backing up U.K. vocalist Colin Hicks, and the Rokes became a major draw in Italy, scoring a number of hits with both original material and covers of popular American and British rock tunes translated into the native tongue. Rokes leader Norm Shapiro also wrote a number called "Passing Thru Grey" that became a major hit for the Grass Roots when the lyrics were changed to "Let's Live for Today." However, the Rokes' European success and Shapiro's talent as a songwriter didn't translate into any chart success in America or Great Britain, even though the band recorded plenty of English-language material during their long stay in Italy. Let's Live for Today: The Rokes in English 1966-1968 collects 16 rare sides from the group, and the happy irony is how veddy British this stuff sounds, even though it was recorded in Rome and was barely heard outside of Italy. "No No No," "Put the Pen Down," and "Ride On" are classic British Invasion-era pop, "Regency Sue" and "The Works of Bartholomew" suggest the characteristically English whimsy of the Kinks (though Shapiro's melodic sense recalls Dave Davies rather than his brother Ray), "I Would Give the World" and "When You Are Gone" are fine exercises in Baroque pop, and "When the Wind Arises" is a splendid example of early psychedelic pop. The set also includes the Rokes' recording of "Let's Live for Today" as well as the unreleased original version, "Passing Thru Grey"; overall, this disc might seem like barrel-scraping to less educated fans of British beat-era stuff, but despite their obscurity, this collection shows the Rokes earned their success in Italy on their very real merits as musicians and songwriters, even if they didn't get the same respect at home.
Tracks
Title
Composer
Time
1 Let's Live for Today Julien, Mogol, Shapiro 3:00
2 No No No Bardotti, Cenciarelli ... 2:43
Composed by: Bardotti, Cenciarelli, Shapiro
3 Telegram for Miss Marigold Cenciarelli, Shapiro 3:33
4 Ride On Cenciarelli, Shapiro 2:33
5 Put the Pen Down Bardotti, Cenciarelli ... 2:17
Composed by: Bardotti, Cenciarelli, Shapiro
6 The Works of Bartholomew Bardotti, Cini 3:28
7 Regency Sue Bardotti, Migliacci, Shapiro 2:28
8 I Would Give the World Bardotti, Cenciarelli ... 3:13
Composed by: Bardotti, Cenciarelli, Shapiro
9 When the Wind Arises Battisti, Mogol 3:22
10 Hold My Hand Bardotti, Cassia ... 2:44
Composed by: Bardotti, Cassia, Cenciarelli, Shapiro
11 A Thing Like That Bardotti, Cenciarelli ... 2:44
Composed by: Bardotti, Cenciarelli, Shapiro
12 Ripe Apples Cenciarelli, Shapiro ... 3:25
Composed by: Cenciarelli, Shapiro, Shepstone
13 Stop and Watch the Children P Bardotti, Cenciarelli ... 2:57
Composed by: Bardotti, Cenciarelli, Shapiro
14 When You Are Gone Bardotti, Cenciarelli ... 2:46
Composed by: Bardotti, Cenciarelli, Shapiro
15 Somewhere Bernstein, Sondheim 2:26
16 Passing Thru Grey Shapiro 3:07
indicates Track Pick
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