The Rascals included in:
Dave Marsh's Heart of Rock and Soul
The 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time

In 1989, Dave Marsh wrote a book entitled
"The Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made."
In his work, he included several Rascals? singles.
His Rascals' entries follow:

No. 108
Good Lovin'
The Young Rascals
Produced by the Rascals with Arif Mardin and Tom Dowd
Written by Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick
Atlantic 2321
1966
Billboard: #1 (1 week)

"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. It's probably the greatest example ever of a remake surpassing the quality of an original without changing a thing about the arrangement. In this case, the (not bad, but far from inspired) original was produced by Jerry Ragovoy for the Olympics in March 1965; the Rascals took it to the top the next year, not just by mimicking its virtues but by extracting what was fascinating from the song and discarding the soul boilerplate. Felix Cavaliere's shouts from the song over Gene Cornish's gritty guitar riff and Dino Danelli's cascading drums, but the best part is his own showpiece organ break. That and the finale, which is so completely bar band that it damn near demands a round on the house.

No. 237
People Got To Be Free
The Rascals
Produced by the Rascals with Arif Mardin
Written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati
Atlantic 2537
1968
Billboard: #1 (5 weeks)

Sung like a funky Italian boys choir, arranged like a cross between Dyke and the Blazers and the Buckinghams, written from the fullest immersion in the glorious naivete of the times. Does hearing Felix try to preach about "the train to freedom" render "People Got To Be Free" dated? Of course. But what a glorious date, and what a way of celebrating the part of it that's eternal: "I can't understand, it's so simple to me. People everywhere just got to be free." Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be: Dated, but NEVER out of date.

No 477
Groovin?
The Rascals
Produced by The Rascals
Written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati
Atlantic 2401
1967
Billboard #1 (4 weeks)

Atlantic Records chief Jerry Wexler made some great records, and some big mistakes. He hated the Drifters "There Goes My Baby" in 1959, calling it a "mess," until it hit Number Two. And Wexler led Atlantic's widespread prerelease criticism of the Rascals? fifth single, claiming it was too laid-back, not enough like the white soul of "Good Lovin'," with which the group had topped the charts in 1966. But "Groovin'" not only wasn't too laid back - it took only four weeks to reach Number One, which is about as fast as the chart can be climbed by mortals - it's impact stemmed from one of the more important insights of Felix Cavaliere's career. "I discovered that most of the rhythms that our soul-rock...are based on, come from Afro-Cuban rhythms," he remembered years later. "So I was able to put a conga in the song and it felt very nice. I mean, to me it felt very nice but to the record company it did not feel nice at all." Ironically, what lends "Groovin'" it's great groove isn't just the conga, nice touch though it is, but Chuck Ramsey's bass. (The Rascals had no bass player, so they picked up a session man whenever they needed one in the studio.) And Rainey's bass pattern is based, once again, on the Cuban naion, the rhythm that Mort Shuman brought back from his Mexican vacation, and used with his partner, Doc Pumus, on so many hits for the Drifters, during the "There Goes My Baby" days. More than anything else, even the greeting card romanticism of the lyrics, that's what made "Groovin'" such a great and lasting hit.

No. 544
I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
The Rascals
Produced by the Rascals with Arif Mardin and Tom Dowd
Written by Pam Sawyer and Laurie Burton
Atlantic 2312
1965
Billboard #52

By the time they signed with Atlantic records in 1965, the Rascals were veterans of so many R & B-based lounge and disco acts (most notably, Joey Dee and the Starlighters, where the membership first coalesced) that their blue-eyed soul routine had been absorbed as completely natural. Atlantic's willingness to allow them to produce themselves (even with Mardin and Dowd?s "supervision") reflects that level of experience, as does the immediate result. "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore," an amazing concoction of crazed rock and roll moves picked up from the British beat boom and the toughest, most syncopated group soul. Eddie Brigati's exuberant vocal flights off Felix Cavaliere's slashing, Dylanesque organ to become the centerpoint of a virtuosic performance. Dino Danelli plays like a domestic Charlie Watts. Though the Rascals had an almost teen idol image, Gene Cornish's lethally distorted guitar solo and Brigati's anguished interpretation of Sawyer and Burton's lyric give "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" a mood much more akin to deep soul than teenybop pop, reflecting a stylistic maturity utterly belied by those Lord Fauntleroy costumes.

No. 836
I?ve Been Lonely Too Long
The Rascals
Produced by the Rascals, Arif Mardin, and Tom Dowd
Written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati
Atlantic 2377
1967
Billboard #16

Holland-Dozier-Holland deserve royalties for the intro, but after Felix's organ comes in, the Rascals are on their own with one of the most distinctive performances in blue-eyed soul. The highlight, though, is Dino Danelli's drumming, which merges Benny Benjamin funk with Ketih Moon power.

Back