The history of '60s rock is littered with stories of great rock classics -- the Savages' album,
the Thirteenth Floor Elevators' first two albums, the first two
Chocolate Watch Band albums -- that should have been better known than they were.
The Young Rascals is that rare example of a genuinely great album that got heard and played, and sold and sold. Apart from the presence of a hit ("Good Lovin'") to drive sales, every kid (and his girlfriend) in any aspiring white rock band on the East Coast in 1966 seemingly owned a copy. And it's easy to see why --
the Rascals' debut couples a raw garage band sound with compelling white soul more successfully than just about any record since
the Beatles'
Please Please Me. The band had three powerful singers in
Felix Cavaliere,
Eddie Brigati, and
Gene Cornish, and an attack honed in hundreds of hours of playing dance clubs on Long Island and New York City. The result is a record without a weak moment or a false note anywhere in its 35 minutes: "Do You Feel It" shows them crossing swords stylistically with
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles; "Just a Little" and "Like a Rolling Stone" show off their folk-rock chops; and "Slow Down," "Good Lovin'," "Mustang Sally," and "In the Midnight Hour" are all '60s rock & roll classics in these versions. "Like a Rolling Stone," in particular, now seems all the more compelling, pointing the way toward a future that included
Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower." The CD reissue is one of Warner Special Products' better sounding releases, having been remastered by Rhino's
Bill Inglot. The original album was on Atlantic, and was one of the label's best-sellers of the mid-'60s. ~ Bruce Eder