The Young Rascals - 1967 - A Girl Like You FLAC

A Girl Like You/It's Love /Love Is A Beautiful Thing/Land Of 1000 Dances




The Rascals, along with the Righteous Brothers, Mitch Ryder, and precious few others, were the pinnacle of '60s blue-eyed soul. The Rascals' talents, however, would have to rate above their rivals, if for nothing else than the simple fact that they, unlike many other blue-eyed soulsters, penned much of their own material. They also proved more adept at changing with the fast-moving times, drawing much of their inspiration from British Invasion bands, psychedelic rock, gospel, and even a bit of jazz and Latin music. They were at their best on classic singles like "Good Lovin'," "How Can I Be Sure," "Groovin'," and "People Got to Be Free." When they tried to stretch their talents beyond the impositions of the three-minute 45, they couldn't pull it off, a failure which -- along with crucial personnel losses -- effectively finished the band as a major force by the 1970s. 

The roots of the Rascals were in New York-area twist and bar bands. Keyboardist/singer Felix Cavaliere, the guiding force of the group, had played with Joey Dee & the Starliters, where he met Canadian guitarist Gene Cornish and singer Eddie Brigati. Brigati would split the lead vocals with Cavaliere and also write much of the band's material with him. With the addition of drummer Dino Danelli, they became the Rascals. Over their objections, manager Sid Bernstein (who had promoted the famous Beatles concerts at Carnegie Hall and Shea Stadium) dubbed them the Young Rascals, although the "Young" was permanently dropped from the billing in a couple of years.

After a small hit with "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" in 1965, the group hit number one with "Good Lovin'," a cover of an R&B tune by the Olympics, in 1966. This was the model for the Rascals' early sound: a mixture of hard R&B and British Invasion energy, with tight harmony vocals and arrangements highlighting Cavaliere's Hammond organ. After several smaller hits in the same vein, the group began to mature at a rapid rate in 1967, particularly as songwriters. "Groovin'," "Beautiful Morning," "It's Wonderful," and "How Can I Be Sure?" married increasingly introspective and philosophical lyrics to increasingly sophisticated arrangements and production, without watering down the band's most soulful qualities. They were also big hits, compiled for the 1968 LP release Time Piece: The Rascals' Greatest Hits, and provided some of the era's most satisfying blends of commercial and artistic appeal.

During the summer of 1968, almost as if to prove they could shake 'em down as hard as any soul revue, the Rascals made number one with one of their best songs, "People Got to Be Free." An infectious summons to unity and tolerance in the midst of a very turbulent year for American society, it also reflected the Rascals' own integrationist goals. Not only did they blend white and black in their music; they also, unlike many acts of the time, refused to tour on bills that weren't integrated as well.

 "People Got to Be Free," surprisingly, was the group's last Top 20 hit, although they would have several other small chart entries over the next few years, often in a more explicitly gospel-influenced style. The problem wasn't bad timing or shifting commercial taste; the problem was the material itself, which wasn't up to the level of their best smashes. More worrisome were their increasingly ambitious albums, such as the 1969 releases Freedom Suite and See, which found Cavaliere in particular trying to expand into jazz, instrumentals, and Eastern philosophy. Not that this couldn't have worked well, but it didn't. They had never been an album-oriented group, but unlike other some other great mid-'60s bands, they were unable to satisfactorily expand their talents into full-length formats.

 A more serious problem was the departure of Brigati, the band's primary lyricist, in 1970. Cornish was also gone a year later, although Cavaliere and Danelli kept the Rascals going a little longer with other musicians. The band broke up in 1972, with none of the members going on to notable commercial or artistic success on his own, though Cavaliere remained the most active.

Young Rascals - 1967 - Groovin' FLAC

Groovin'/Sueсo/Come On Up/Too Many Fish In The Sea


 "Groovin" is a single released in 1967 by the Young Rascals that became a number-one hit and one of the group's signature songs it's B-Side was "Sueno".

Written by group members Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati and with a lead vocal from Cavaliere, it is a slow, relaxed groove, based on Cavaliere's newfound interest in Afro-Cuban music. Instrumentation included a conga, a Cuban-influenced bass guitar line from session musician Chuck Rainey, and a harmonica part, performed first for the single version by New York session musician Michael Weinstein, and later for the album version by Gene Cornish.

"Come On Up" / "What Is the Reason" was released in September 12, 1966 taken from the album Collections it reached #43 on the US charts while "Too Many Fish in the Sea" was a track from the same album.

Rascals - 1968 - A Beautiful Morning FLAC

A Beautiful Morning/Rainy Day/My World/Silly Girl



"A Beautiful Morning" is a song written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati and recorded by The Rascals. Coming out in early 1968, it was the group's first single released under that name rather than The Young Rascals. The first album on which the song appeared was Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hits. It continued the theme of carefree optimism that had distinguished the previous year's "Groovin'". The song was a big hit in the United States, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and also reaching number 36 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. It was RIAA-certified as a Million Seller on June 28, 1968. "A Beautiful Morning" charted in Australia at      #36. The song had an introductory sound of mystical wind chimes and bells.


A Beautiful Morning was used in advertisements for the drug Vioxx produced by Merck & Co., for Bounce fabric softener, and in the early 1990s for the Days Inn hotel chain. The song also featured in a Scrubs episode, at the start of a season 6 episode with Zach Braff who plays J.D. dancing to it. It was also featured at the end of a second season episode of The Greatest American Hero in which Ralph had to disarm a nuclear missile. It was also featured in the movie Kingpin immediately following the scene that shows how Roy got his rubber hand. The song was featured during the 1969 college graduation scene in The First Wives Club. The song was also used in the 1993 movie A Bronx Tale opening the racetrack scene, as well as on Arrow at the end of the eighteenth episode of the fifth season, titled "Disbanded."Renée Geyer covered the song on her album Dedicated (2007).

The Young Rascals - 1966 - Good Lovin' FLAC

 Good Lovin'/Mustang Sally/I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore/Just A Little


The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) were an American rock band, formed in Garfield, New Jersey in 1965. Between 1966 and 1968 the New Jersey act reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 with nine singles, including the #1s "Good Lovin'" (1966), "Groovin'" (1967), and "People Got to Be Free" (1968), as well as big radio hits such as the much-covered "How Can I Be Sure?" (#4 1967) and "A Beautiful Morning" (#3 1968), plus another critical favorite "A Girl Like You" (#10 1967). The band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

The Rascals were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010 and also reunited in 2012 for a series of shows in New York and New Jersey. The reunion continued on in 2013 with shows on Broadway.

"Good Lovin'" is a song written by Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick that was a number one hit single for The Young Rascals in 1966. The song was first recorded in early 1965 by Canton, Ohio, R&B singer Limmie Snell under the name "Lemme B. Good". About a month later the song was redone—with considerably rewritten lyrics—by R&B artists The Olympics; this version reached number 81 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.

The Young Rascals' version The tale is told that Rascal Felix Cavaliere heard it on a New York City radio station and the group added it to their concert repertoire. Co-producer Tom Dowd captured this live feel on the recording, even though the group did not think the performance held together well. "Good Lovin'/Mustang Sally" rose to the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the spring of 1966 and represented the Young Rascals' first real hit. "Good Lovin'" reached #43 on the charts here in Australia.

 "Good Lovin'" is one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll, and was ranked #333 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. Writer Dave Marsh placed it at number 108 in his 1989 book The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made, saying it is "the greatest example ever of a remake surpassing the quality of an original without changing a thing about the arrangement," and that "'Good Lovin' all by itself is enough to dispel the idiotic notion that rock and roll is nothing more than white boys stealing from blacks."


"I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" is a song written by Pam Sawyer and Laurie Burton, originally recorded by The Young Rascals. It was released as their first single in November 1965 and featured on their eponymous debut album the following year. A minor hit when released, the song peaked at number fifty-two on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart it did slightly better here in Australia making it to #48.

The Young Rascals - It's Wonderful FLAC

Nineteen Fifty Six/What Is The Reason/It's Wonderful/Of Course


The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) were an American rock band, formed in Garfield, New Jersey in 1965. Between 1966 and 1968 the New Jersey act reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 with nine singles, including the #1s "Good Lovin'" (1966), "Groovin'" (1967), and "People Got to Be Free" (1968), as well as big radio hits such as the much-covered "How Can I Be Sure?" (#4 1967) and "A Beautiful Morning" (#3 1968), plus another critical favorite "A Girl Like You" (#10 1967). The band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

The Rascals were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010 and also reunited in 2012 for a series of shows in New York and New Jersey. The reunion continued on in 2013 with shows on Broadway.

 Eddie Brigati (vocals), Felix Cavaliere (keyboard, vocals), Gene Cornish (guitar) and Dino Danelli (drums) started the band in Brigati and Danelli's hometown of Garfield, New Jersey. Brigati, Cavaliere, and Cornish had previously been members of Joey Dee and the Starliters. Eddie's brother, David Brigati, an original Starliter, helped arrange the vocal harmonies and sang backgrounds on many of the group's recordings (informally earning the designation as the "fifth Rascal"). When Atlantic Records signed them, they discovered that another group, Borrah Minnevitch's and Johnny Puleo's 'Harmonica Rascals', objected to their release of records under the name 'The Rascals'. To avoid conflict, manager Sid Bernstein decided to rename the group 'The Young Rascals'.

The Young Rascals' first television performance was on the program Hullabaloo on 27 February 1965 where they performed their debut single "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore". The track reached #23 in Canada and touched the lower reaches of the US charts. This modest success was followed by the US/Canada #1 single "Good Lovin'" (1966, originally recorded by Lemme B. Good & The Olympics in 1965 with much different lyrics).

 The band's songwriting team of Eddie Brigati and Cavaliere then began providing most of their songs, and the hits kept coming for two years. Their immediate follow-ups to "Good Lovin'", including "You Better Run" (1966; covered in 1980 by Pat Benatar) and "Come On Up" were only modest hits. "(I've Been) Lonely Too Long" (1967) did better, and "Groovin'"[3] (#1 US/Canada, 1967) returned them to the top of the charts. They reeled off a succession of top 20 US hits, including "A Girl Like You" (1967), "How Can I Be Sure" (1967), "It's Wonderful" (1968), and "A Beautiful Morning" (1968). The band were exceptionally popular in Canada where "A Girl Like You", "How Can I Be Sure?", and "A Beautiful Morning" all reached #1. But they struggled in the UK, where they only twice reached the top 75, with "Groovin'" (#8) and "A Girl Like You" (#35). The band would bill themselves as the Young Rascals for the last time with the single release of "It's Wonderful"; they were known thenceforwards as simply 'the Rascals'.

 Bruce Eder, writing for AllMusic, rates the band's 1967 album Groovin' as their best, noting the record's soulful core and innovative use of jazz and Latin instrumental arrangements. 1968's Once Upon A Dream was the first Rascals album designed from conception as an album, rather than as a vehicle to package their singles (eight of Groovin''s eleven songs had been released as single A or B sides, most in advance of the album). Once Upon a Dream, which peaked at #9 on the album charts, contained the single "It's Wonderful" plus many other strong songs, including "Easy Rollin'," "Rainy Day," "My World," and the title track. Perhaps understandably, the album's song "My Hawaii" became a top of the charts hit in Hawaii.

Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hits, released in mid-1968, topped the U.S. album chart and became the group's best-selling album. The same year, "People Got to Be Free", a horn-punctuated plea for racial tolerance (the band was known for refusing to tour on segregated bills) in the wake of the assassinations that year of Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., became their third and final U.S. #1 single, and their sixth and final Canadian #1. It was also their final U.S. Top Ten hit, although they remained a Canadian top 10 act for the next few years. 

 "A Ray of Hope", "Heaven", "See", and "Carry Me Back" were all modest U.S. hits for the band during late 1968 and 1969; all entered the top 40, but none higher than #24. In Canada, however, the Rascals were still major stars; all these songs went top ten, completing a run of 11 straight Canadian top ten hits for The Rascals from 1967 to 1969. December 1969's "Hold On" broke the run of top 40 US singles for the Rascals, stalling at #51, as well as the run of Canadian top tens, peaking at #22.

During their period of greatest celebrity, the band's influence on aspiring R & B-flavored white acts was without equal, especially in the northeastern U.S. Notable bands that incorporated (sometimes to the point of parody) the Rascals' full-on stage demeanor and energy as well as the intense, hyper-dramatic vocalizing, drumstick-spinning gyrations and heavy bottom-end rhythm also achieved some prominence: the Vagrants (featuring Leslie West, later of Mountain), and the epitome of over-the-top funky psychedelia, the Vanilla Fudge, all owed their styles to the Rascals' synthesis of show-biz and soul.

 Brigati left the group in 1970, followed by Cornish in 1971. Their last Rascals album was Search and Nearness (#198 U.S.), which featured Brigati's lead vocals on the Cornish-penned "You Don't Know" and a cover of The Box Tops' hit "The Letter", and drummer Danelli's composition "Fortunes". The only single release from the album was the spiritually themed "Glory, Glory" (#58 U.S., #40 Canada), with backing vocals by The Sweet Inspirations. Search and Nearness would be the Rascals' last album for Atlantic Records, with Cavaliere and Danelli taking the band to Columbia Records in mid-1971.

Cavaliere shifted towards more jazz- and gospel-influenced writing for the Rascals' next two albums, Peaceful World (U.S. #122) and The Island Of Real (U.S. #180), using Robert Popwell and Buzzy Feiten on bass and guitar respectively, and new singers Annie Sutton and Molly Holt. These albums didn't sell as well as their earlier work, with none of their associated singles reaching higher than #95 on the U.S. chart. Towards the end of 1970 Danny Weis (previously with Rhinoceros and Iron Butterfly) then joined as a replacement for Feiten on guitar and Feiten then again replaced Weis before the group disbanded.