||||Bold Soul Brother

The (Young) Rascals - A Beautiful Morning

All throughout the time leading up to, and during, this year’s Wimbledon tennis championship the BBC were playing snippets of this tune. Hearing it again sent me digging and I pulled it, ripped it and scanned it (with the intention of posting here during that time; unfortunately work got in the way).

Better late than never (?) tonight’s offering is from a ‘blue-eyed’ soul band. The Rascals (originally The Young Rascals) were responsible for a number of singles during their first incarnation (1965-1972); with tonight’s offering from January 1968.

A Beautiful Morning is exactly as the name suggests, an up-beat offering extolling the joy of being outside (“It’s a beautiful morning; I think I’ll go outside a while and just smile; just take in some clean fresh air, boy. Ain’t no sense in staying inside, If the weather’s fine and you got the time, It’s your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day. Either way, It’s a beautiful morning when the sun is shining…“) a vocal led song with an up-tempo back-beat. The only thing I don’t like about this song is the rather harsh fade at the end – can catch you unawares.

Rainy Day on the other hand is a piano led ballad, a rather dreamy sound with an unexpected (and unwelcome) jump to some super fast violins half way through – ruins what could be a great slow-dancer.

The band constituted Eddie Brigati on vocals, Felix Cavaliere on keyboard and vocals, Gene Cornish  on guitar and Dino Danelli  on drums. Despite the apparent continued success; Brigati left the group in 1970, followed by Cornish in 1971.

After the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary Celebration (1988), the Rascals reunited for a brief reunion tour; but Brigati opted not to participate. The (Young) Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and for the first time in years, all four original members appeared together and in 2010 all four members of the Rascals reunited for the Kristen Ann Carr benefit.