The Rascals

Originally known as The Young Rascals, the New Jersey pop rock band The Rascals wrote and performed some of the defining pop songs of the 1960s. Although they have retired and reformed on more than one occasion the period between 1965 and 1972 was the band's heyday. Between 1966 and 1968 the band entered the Billboard Hot 100 top 20 no less than nine times with a variety of finely crafted pop singles, three of which reached number one. Their 1967 release 'Groovin'' is possibly the band's best known tune and is a slick blend of soul coupled with Latin rhythms which firmly established the band's distinctive sound. By 1968 the band had amassed enough hit singles to release a greatest hits album which also became a number one bestseller. During the same year the band released what was to be their final number one record, a protest song titled 'People Got to Be Free' about a plea for racial tolerance during a time of segregation. Like many bands of the era, their appeal waned as the market became flooded with new acts and the band broke up in 1972 with future incarnations failing to hit the dizzy heights of their 1960s success.

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