1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die - #95. The Young Rascals - Groovin' (1967)

The Young Rascals - Groovin' (1967)

Label – Atlantic
Producer – Tom Dowd / Arif Mardin / Young Rascals
Art Direction – Uncredited
Nationality – USA
Running Time – 34:44

Track Listing (standout tracks listed in bold)

1. Girl Like You
2. Find Somebody
3. I'm So Happy Now
4. Sueño
5. How Can I Be Sure
6. Groovin'
7. If You Knew
8. I Don't Love You Anymore
9. You Better Run
10. Place in the Sun
11. It's Love

The Young Rascals best record. The album was a huge seller thanks to the title track, which is the group's signature tune (#1 one on the pop charts, #3 on R&B), but there is more to the record than just "Groovin'". The record has a garage band feel about it with a dash of psychedelia thrown in, including fuzztone guitars and downright catchy lyrics and choruses and just feel good music. "How Can I Be Sure" is the another song that sounded familiar to me but tracks I had never heard before such as "I'm So Happy Now," leave you compelled to tap your feet and bob your head. Which is what I think good music should do. Make you physically MOVE. "You Better Run" is another track that I was familiar with, but more so due to the cover versions by Pat Benatar and KISS member Peter Criss. It is a good track and a great piece of rock & roll. There is also a really good cover of the Motown track, "A Place in the Sun".
This was the last album on which the band was billed as "The Young Rascals"; by their next album they would be credited as simply "The Rascals" – and never reached the popularity they achieved with this record.
I was lucky enough to have seen Felix Cavaliere in 1995 when he toured with Ringo Starr and his vocals that night were just amazing!
This record is recommended.

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You can purchase the CD here.

ABSOLUTE ROCK BIRTHDAYS FOR APRIL 22
Peter Frampton is 59; Paul Carrack of Ace, Mike + the Mechanics and Squeeze is 58; Shavo Odadjian of System of a Down is 35; Daniel Johns of Silverchair is 30;

ON THIS DATE
1969 John Winston Lennon legally became John Ono Lennon on top of the Apple building, and he and Paul McCartney record "The Ballad Of John & Yoko". That same day the Who performed for the first time the rock opera Tommy in Dolton, England
1974 The Who start filming the movie of Tommy
1981 Eric Clapton has a car accident in Seattle, suffering broken ribs
1998 Faith No More announce they are finished
2008 Richie Samboara of Bon Jovi pleads no contest to a drunk driving charge due to an arrest a month earlier in Laguna Beach, California

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