The Rascals

The Rascals (originally known as the Young Rascals) are an American rock and blue-eyed soul band formed in Garfield, New Jersey, southeast of Paterson in 1965. The original lineup featured lead vocalist and keyboardist Felix Cavaliere, vocalist and percussionist Eddie Brigati, drummer Dino Danelli, and guitarist and vocalist Gene Cornish. Cavaliere and Brigati wrote the majority of the Rascals' original material.Between 1966 and 1968 the band gained popularity with a blend of rock, pop and soul music. Nine of their singles charted in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, including the No. 1s "Good Lovin'" (1966), "Groovin'" (1967), and "People Got to Be Free" (1968); as well as big radio hits like the much-covered "How Can I Be Sure?" (No. 4, 1967) and "A Beautiful Morning" (No. 3, 1968). Another critical favorite, "A Girl Like You" (No. 10, 1967), became an early example of the blue-eyed soul genre. Additionally, four of the band's LPs received gold certifications in the US, including the top 10 albums Groovin' (1967) and Once Upon a Dream (1968). The group continued into the early 1970s after the departures of Brigati and Cornish, with Cavaliere leading the Rascals in a more album-oriented direction with strong jazz and funk influences.The Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010, and the classic lineup also reunited in 2012 for a series of shows in New York and New Jersey. The reunion continued in 2013 with shows on Broadway. Cavaliere and Cornish began performing again as the Rascals in 2022 without Brigati and Danelli, the latter of whom died the same year.Felix Cavaliere was already trained in classical piano by his mother when he founded a doo-wop group, the Escorts (not the R&B group with the same name), while enrolled at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. In 1964, Cavaliere took a job with Joey Dee's backing band, the Starliters of "Peppermint Twist" fame, where he met Starliter David Brigati. When the group played the Choo Choo Club in Garfield, Cavaliere met Brigati's younger brother, Eddie, who wanted to follow in his brother's footsteps. Cavaliere, in an interview with journalist Don Paulson, spoke about when he first met the younger Brigati:Canadian guitarist Gene Cornish left his group, The Unbeatables, for which he acted as frontman, to join the Starliters, in early 1965. After meeting Cornish, Cavaliere's interest in forming a band of his own led him to convince both Cornish and (Eddie) Brigati to depart from Dee's backing band to start a new one with an old acquaintance of his, jazz drummer Dino Danelli. The group came up with the name "Rascals" while at the Choo Choo Club. Prior to the Rascals name they were using another group name "Them". Because there was another group, which included Van Morrison, using the name "Them" in the UK they dropped that name and came up with The Rascals name through the help of TV comedy star Soupy Sales whom they met through manager Billy (Amato) Smith. The Rascals were Sales' back up band touring local colleges in the early months of 1965.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.