Over the course of their first two albums (The Young Rascals and Collections, both also reissued on CD by Collectors' Choice Music), the Rascals had demonstrated why many fans and critics revere them as the best blue-eyed soul group of the 1960s. As fine as the best tracks from those records were, however, listeners at the time couldn't have been prepared for the explosion of creativity that took the band into bold new directions on their third album, Groovin'. Now writing most of their own material, the Rascals were incorporating thoughtfully orchestrated horns and strings into their organ-guitar-driven sound. Bits of psychedelia, too, were sprinkled over their newly sophisticated songwriting, which remained soulful while bursting with a new-found radiant, relaxed joy in keeping with the spirit of the Summer of Love. For all their ambition, however, the Rascals remained extremely accessible pop-rock masters—so much so that three of the album's songs were Top Ten singles, the title track hitting #1 in the middle of spring 1967 and becoming one of the best-loved rock classics of the 1960s.
The considerable
success of
the Groovin' album itself,
which peaked at #5 in the charts, was almost assured by the phenomenal
performance of the "Groovin'" single. With its breezy feel—a harmonica
as carefree as a summer walk on the beach, conga, classical-influenced
piano, birdcalls (supplied by singer Eddie Brigati's brother David), a
reliably soulful lead vocal from Felix Cavaliere, and impeccable
background vocals with a call-response flavor—it was quite a departure
from the original Rascals sound. There was no swelling Cavaliere
Hammond organ, no crunching guitar, no full drum kit. Indeed, Atlantic
Records was at first reluctant to release this Cavaliere-Brigati
composition as a single. Of course, it not only topped the pop charts,
but also went to #3 in the R&B listings, the Rascals being one of
the few white acts of the era with a sizable following among black
audiences. The Groovin' album
also made the R&B Top Ten, as had its predecessor, Collections. The R&B audience
paid yet further tribute to the song when the top instrumental soul
group of all time, Booker T. & the MG's, took a cover of "Groovin'"
to the edge of the pop Top Twenty later in 1967. Such was "Groovin'"'s
popularity that the Rascals even recorded Italian and Spanish versions
on different sides of a subsequent Atlantic 45.
"Fee wrote the music and came up with 'groovin' on a
Sunday afternoon'," explained Brigati in Melody Maker. "I just thought of
what I'd do if I were groovin' on a Sunday afternoon and took it from
there. When we do it on stage Dino Danelli stands up front with us and
plays congas, [guitarist] Gene [Cornish] on harmonica, Fee on organ and
me on tambourine. It sounds the same as the record." Film clips of the
band performing the song at the time verify the accuracy of this
description, Danelli's conga in fact being about half the size of the
drummer himself, Dino slapping a stick on the conga's side as an
additional effect. The slight Latin feel of "Groovin'" become overt on
the dreamy, mildly psychedelic B-side, "Sueno"—a Cavaliere-Brigati
collaboration, as every song on Groovin'
in which Felix or Eddie had a hand was—which became popular in its own
right.
Also on Groovin'
was the Rascals' next hit single, "A Girl Like You," which peaked at
#10 in 1967. "It has a big band effect and a big rhythm thing with lots
of brass, but it also has harp and piccolo riffs in it," explained
Brigati to Melody Maker at
the time. "It's pretty wild and different. That's all I can say. Wait
'til you hear it and I hope everyone digs it!" The track and its
B-side, "It's Love"—which was decorated by swirling flute,
classical-influenced piano, and eerie high wailing harmonies, though at
heart it was a thumping soul-rock tune—was certainly indicative of the
much wider assortment of instruments and arrangements the Rascals were
taking advantage of in the studio.
The orchestral arrangements on "A Girl Like You"
were handled by Arif Mardin (most famous as producer of the disco-era
Bee Gees), who did the same for "How Can I Be Sure" and "I'm So Happy
Now." Those two tracks were the A- and B-sides respectively of the
group's next-to-last 1967 single, "How Can I Be Sure," which reached #4
and featured Eddie Brigati's finest and most famous lead vocal as a
Rascal. Again it was a track that took chances and succeeded
gloriously, especially with its swoops in and out of waltz time, its
melancholy ambience accented by an lonesome accordion. The
happy-go-lucky "I'm So Happy Now," meanwhile, marked the first
appearance of a Gene Cornish song (and lead vocal) on a Rascals 45.
Like so many rock LPs of the time, Groovin' was dominated by songs
that appeared on singles; no less than eight of its eleven songs were
issued in the seven-inch format. Unlike many such LPs, however, the
tracks were strong whether they'd appeared on 45 or not, and have been
unfairly overlooked to a degree even by Rascals fans, so much do the
group's hits dominate the most listeners' knowledge of their music.
Brigati was keen to note the musical advancement the record marked in Melody Maker, exclaiming, "The
whole album is very different to what we've done before and will, I
think, surprise a lot of people. It goes from a big band sound on some
tracks to a weird and somewhat psychedelic approach on others. All of
it is our own work, except for the flute and violins. We had to hire
session men for them." The LP-only numbers on Groovin' include "Find
Somebody," which for a Rascals song has an almost shockingly
pseudo-garage-psychedelic groove, with a curling circular guitar riff
much like the one the Golliwogs (later to become Creedence Clearwater
Revival) had used on their 1966 single "Fight Fire." There was also
another Cornish composition, "I Don't Love You Anymore," with a conga
and lilting Spanish-influenced guitar and melody that fit in well with
the mood that had been established on the "Groovin'" single.
Groovin'
was still a product of its time, however, in how it filled out its
running time with tracks that had previously been released as singles,
though at least they hadn't yet found their way onto LP. "You Better
Run," in fact, had been a #20 hit for the Rascals back in mid-1966, as
the follow-up to "Good Lovin'." Though it sounded a little out of step
with where the group was going musically a year later, it was
nonetheless a stomping, stuttering soul-rock gem, and—surprisingly,
considering its strength—largely created on the spot in the studio. (It
was also faithfully covered on a 1966 UK Kim Fowley-produced single by
a British band called the 'N Betweens, who would eventually evolve into
Slade.) "If You Knew" had been used as the B-side of the Rascals' first
1967 single, "Lonely Too Long," and was a quite impressive, sweetly
romantic pop-soul tune with some of Felix and Eddie's best dual lead
vocals.
Finally, there was also a lone cover on Groovin', of Stevie Wonder's "A
Place in the Sun," which had ascended to the Top Ten for the soul great
in late 1966. "All the numbers [on the LP] are our own except for one,
Stevie Wonder's 'Place in the Sun,'" Brigati told Melody Maker. "But even that has
our own interpretation. It lasts for about five minutes, opening and
closing on a church sounding organ solo, with a big band in the
middle." Brigati sang lead on the track, another indication of Eddie's
taste for occasional sentimental ballads to break up the pace, Brigati
also having taken the lead vocals for similarly romantic pop crooning
on The Young Rascals ("I
Believe") and Collections
("Since I Fell for You" and "More").
As impressive an expansion of the Rascals' sound as Groovin' was, they'd venture into
deeper psychedelic territory on their next album, which gave them a Top
Ten LP even without the benefit of including any Top Ten singles. That
story is continued on Once Upon a
Dream, which has also been reissued on CD by Collectors' Choice
Music. -- Richie Unterberger
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