What a bunch of delightful goofballs. One of my absolute favorite bands cuz they defy easy categorization.
From left to right our intrepid players are Gene Cornish (guitar, third lead vocals), Dino Danelli (drums), Felix Cavaliere (organ, keyboards, first lead vocals), and Eddie Brigatti (percussion, second lead vocals).
This was a goofy band to begin with and always stayed strange.
Danelli was a jazz drummer, Brigatti couldn’t really play any instruments other than shake tambourines, Cavaliere was a first-rate organist, they never had a bass player officially in the group, and Cornish was Canadian.
Strange, I tells ya!
Also these guys were the real deal in terms of soul. That Rolling Stone article from the early ‘70s has its dated sensibilities from the author, but the band shines through like gems.
The Rascals were the first all-white act signed to Atlantic Records, which was known as an R&B label to that point. Great Black artists like Ray Charles and The Drifters vut their teeth there in the 1950s. In the 1960s Atlantic was the home of Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin.
We’re talking soul royalty and these guys are the first non-Blacks through the door.
Couldn’t have happened to better people. After acquiring enough gravitas (that is enough hits), they refused to play any concerts anywhere in the country that did not have at least one Black group on the bill. Cost them money, but they gained credibility.
Anyways, as the Young Rascals in 1966 they released their debut album on Atlantic Records, The Young Rascals. It went gold and had a #1 pop single in “Good Lovin’” that highlighted their typical (at the time) style: garage rock spliced with sloppy R&B.
Tellingly the debut album and its follow up, Collections, were filled with lots of cover songs.
In mid-1967 the group released their third album, Groovin’, which notably had almost all original material. Only one of the 11 tracks was a cover. Felix and Eddie were the main writers, while Gene and Dino got in minor contributions. That album had another #1 pop single in the title track and went gold.
Interestingly, Groovin’ also largely left behind the garage rock sound of their first two LPs for a wide spectrum of musical influences.
In 1968, they dropped the “Young” from their name and the Rascals furthered their musical experimentation with the psychedelic Once Upon A Dream and then the double album Freedom Suite in 1969 that also held their final #1 pop single, “People Got To Be Free”, which was written as a response to the assassination of Martin Luther King.
By this point, given their radical experimentation, the Rascals were relying on a constellation of studio musicians to augment their sound.
Unfortunately, the group’s commercial decline came hard and fast in 1969. The LP See was a minor success, but nothing on the order of their previous albums.
1971’s Search and Nearness was the last album to have the original lineup.
Eddie left during the album’s recording and he is featured as a vocalist on three of the songs. (Eddie’s brother David had also worked as a backing vocalist for the band over the years and ceased his duties with the Rascals as well). Gene left shortly after the album’s release.
The two were replaced by Buzzy Feiten (guitar for two albums) and eventually Robert Popwell (bass for a single LP).
Anyhoo, by this point the Rascals were immersed in a stew of soul, jazz, and rock. Far removed from their garage rock origins and even some of the psychedelic pop they engaged with in the late 1960s.
Their final two albums The Island of Real and Peaceful World were released to little fanfare on Columbia Records. Felix and Dino pulled the plug on the group in 1972 and that’s been it except for brief reunions over the years.
PLAYLIST on Tidal
The playlist contains 50 songs. But I think all their albums are worth listening to. Except Peaceful World and Freedom Suite. See the reviews below for further details on how to digest those double albums…
ALBUM REVIEWS
The Young Rascals: C
Collections: B
Groovin’: A
Once Upon A Dream: B
Freedom Suite: C+
See: B
Search and Nearness: B
Peaceful World: C+
The Island of Real: B-
Notable guest musicians on Rascals albums
Ron Carter, Chuck Rainey (bass)
Hubert Laws (flute)
Alice Coltrane (harp)
Ralph MacDonald (percussion)
David “Fathead” Newman, King Curtis, Joe Farrell, David Sanborn (saxophone)
The Sweet Inspirations, Cissy Houston (vocals)