Here it is on youtube, check it out!
TRACK LISTING:
A1 A Girl Like You 2:46
A2 Find Somebody 3:40
A3 I'm So Happy Now 2:46
A4 Sueno 2:45
A5 How Can I Be Sure 2:50
B1 Groovin' 2:25
B2 If You Knew 3:01
B3 I Don't Love You Anymore 3:04
B4 You Better Run 2:25
B5 A Place in the Sun 4:50
B6 It's Love 3:10
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Here's my review of the album:
The album kicks off with "A Girl Like You," a big hit single that was released just a week or so before the album. The second track "Find Somebody" is very garage sounding and somewhat psychedelic too, with the guitar parts crossing back and forth between the right track and the left track. These guys were very soulful sounding white guys from New Jersey and New York, but they were also very influenced by the hippie rock sounds and the British Rock stuff that was popular at the time. Most of the members of the Rascals were members of Joey Dee and the Starlighters before they formed this band.
The third track "I'm So Happy Now" is straight pop rock in a similar style to the Turtles, who were also huge at this time. It would later be released as the B side to the final single from the album, "How Can I Be Sure." "I'm So Happy Now" was written and sung by Gene Cornish.
Next up is "Sueno," which was the B side of the "Groovin'" single from a few months before the album came out. It's a cross between 60s pop rock and a bit of flamenco guitar showing a mild Latin influence.
After that is the big hit single "How Can I Be Sure." This was the final single from the album, released about a month after the album entered the Billboard charts. Eddie Brigati sings the lead on this one and his brother Dave Brigati is credited on the album cover with providing "vocal background effects" for the album. Believe it or not "How Can I Be Sure" was being used for a time in later years as the theme song of a TV ad for condoms.
Side 2 of the album kicks off with the title track "Groovin'." Band leader Felix Cavaliere takes the lead on this one. This was one of the biggest hit singles ever in the New York City area. It was number one for 7 weeks on the biggest radio staion in town, WABC, and was also number one on the black stations in town, like WWRL and WNJR. The record had mass appeal for most all of the different neighborhoods in the New York City area, White, Black, Hispanic, whatever, it did not matter. Everybody loved the record. Nationally it was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for 4 weeks, and even got to # 3 on Billboard's Top Soul Singles chart. Few white acts were making that chart at all at this time, and almost none were making the top 5, but the Rascals were the epitome of Blue-Eyed Soul in 1967. Like the Righteous Brothers were in 1965.
The next track is "If You Knew." This one is a duet with Eddie and Felix singing together on lead. Most of the Rascals songs were written by Felix and Eddie together, like Jagger-Richard and Lennon-McCartney. The Rascals had excellent singers, and two of them harmonize beautifully on this track.
The next track is another Gene Cornish song where he sings the lead, "I Don't Love You Anymore." He was the George Harrison of the group, the lead guitarist who worked on his own songs apart from the other 2 songwriters in the band. Felix played the keyboards, and Eddie was just a vocalist. Dino Danelli was the drummer. This one is a pretty ballad with great background vocals, sort of like the Association sound on things like "Never My Love" and "Cherish."
Next up is an older single called "You Better Run" that had not been on an album before. It was a top 30 national hit from the summer of 1966, about a year before the album was released. Pat Benetar later had a hit with the song. After this we get to the only song on the album that is not a Rascals original. The boys tackle the big Stevie Wonder hit song "A Place In The Sun." That happens to be my favorite Stevie Wonder record. This reading is somewhat schmaltzy, but the song is just that way to begin with, even Stevie's version. Eddie takes the lead here. The false ending and the eventual real ending are a little over the top.
The album closes now with "It's Love," which was the B side of the "A Girl Like You" single that kicked off the album. It features a flute solo from Hubert Laws. The 1960s stereo is cool on this track, and pretty much on the entire album IMO.
The youtube video has one bonus track, their huge 1968 hit "A Beautiful Morning" which comes on after the album. This album for me evokes a nice early summer day in the New York City area. High 70s in June, not a cloud in the sky, and we are Groovin'!
This band does not have much cred with album fans, but this album is very good, and their debut album "The Young Rascals'" is too, as well as "Collections," which was their second album. Later on they went away from their strengths and tried to be more progressive and hard rockin', and it did not work for me.
Bruce Eder, writing for AllMusic, rates the band's 1967 album "Groovin'" as their best, noting the record's soulful core and innovative use of jazz and Latin instrumental arrangements. The band was enormously popular in Canada, although they never made it big in the United Kingdom, with only "Groovin'" becoming a big hit single over there.
On a scale of 0 to 10 I give this album a 7. I don't think it's great or even excellent, but I think it's very good.