The Young Rascals

THE YOUNG RASCALS

 
The Rascals  (initially known as The Young Rascals) are an American blue-eyed soul group initially active during the years 1965–72.  Between 1966 and 1968 the New Jersey act reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 with nine singles, including the #1s "Good Lovin'" (1966), "Groovin'" (1967), and "People Got to Be Free" (1968), as well as big radio hits such as the much-covered "How Can I Be Sure?" (#4 1967) and "A Beautiful Morning" (#3 1968), plus another critical favorite "A Girl Like You" (#10 1967).  The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Name shortening has been common among rock bands:  The Young Rascals became the Rascalsthe Troglodytes lost a little something in the translation when they changed their name to the Troggs, Small Faces morphed into Faces, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark was abbreviated to OMD, and (believe it or not) the 1990's Irish band the Cranberries started out with the name The Cranberry Saw Us.  Sometimes the official name never changes, but fans and DJ's naturally begin to shorten the name, so the Rolling Stones are just as often the Stones, the Doobie Brothers are sometimes rendered the Doobies (as on two of their Greatest Hits albumsBest of the Doobies and Best of the Doobies Volume II), and bands like, say, Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show are called just Dr. Hook.  Occasionally it can even go the other way:  A DJ on one of our local radio stations where I was growing up in Winston-SalemDick Bennick at WTOB-AM Radio was forever calling the Fab Four "the beetley, bootley Beatles"
 
(June 2012)
 
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The flip side of the hit single "At the Hopby Danny and the Juniors was the David White song "Sometimes (When I'm All Alone)"; according to Wikipedia (as taken from the article on David White): "’Sometimes (When I'm All Alone)’ became a favorite of a lot of street corner groups just starting out who later became successful, including the Capris, the Chimes, the Cleftones, the Young Rascals, the Del Satins, the Dovells, the Elegants, the Impalas, the Earls, Randy and the Rainbowsthe Tokens. the Vogues, and Vito and the Salutations among others."
 
(August 2015)
Last edited: March 22, 2021