The Young Rascals emerged from members of Joey Dee & The Starliters, who met drummer Dino Danelli and became the house band at The Barge in Westhampton, New York. A record deal with Atlantic Records followed, resulting in The Rascals being the first all-white act on the R&B label. When “Good Lovin'” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, the band flexed their muscles with the label and demanded they write their own material. The results were hits such as “You Better Run,” “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long,” “How Can I Be Sure,” “It’s a Beautiful Morning,” “People Got to Be Free,” and their biggest, “Groovin’.” The songwriting team of Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati produced some of the best pop/soul hits of the era. Let’s look at the meaning behind “Groovin'” by The Young Rascals.
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Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon
Really couldn’t get away too soon
I can’t imagine anything that’s better
The world is ours whenever we’re together
There ain’t a place I’d like to be instead of
Inspiration
In 2018, Cavaliere told Joe Chambers on Musicians Hall of Fame Backstage what got him into songwriting: “We were inspired by people like The Beatles, for example, writing their own songs, Lovin’ Spoonful, Bob Dylan. All of a sudden, this came in. So, I haven’t always been, you know, on the creative end of things trying to write songs or stuff later, but I said, you know, ‘Why can’t we do it?’ and, of course, you have to prove yourself at that, you can’t just go into a record company and say, ‘I’m gonna write my own songs’, cause—especially then. We got very fortunate that we were able to succeed writing songs. A lot of people, that’s their downfall. They try to write their own songs, and they can’t.”
Movin’ down a crowded avenue
Doin’ anything we like to do
There’s always lots of things that we can see
You can be anyone we like to be
All those happy people we could meet
The Big Bang
Cavaliere continued: “I was a college student in pre-med at the time, and I had a group I started, and I went to the Catskill Mountains for a summer. One of the groups that came into the summer hotel was Joey Dee & The Starliters. These guys come in, and that’s where my story really gets crazy because my life has never been the same since I met those guys. And they saw me, and about a month later, I was supposed to school, and I was kind of starving to death because the summer was over. My dad gave me permission to take a year off to see if you can make it. Which is pretty short, but anyway, I took it.
“I got this call from them that they were in Europe and their organist had quit,” he went on. “He had recently gotten married, and they needed an organ player quick, so I scooted off to Germany. The next thing I know, there’s this band opening up for Joey Dee called The Beatles. Now, nobody knew ’em yet because—they knew ’em over there, but they didn’t know ’em over here. So, I see and hear what was to become musical history for the rest of time. What is this? Everybody screaming and hollering. The kids are going crazy, and I see these guys with long hair. I remember my musical impressions of them because I’m like, ‘What’s going on here?’ When they played American music, they were alright. They wouldn’t scare anybody with that, but when they played their stuff, it was unique, to say the least. I mean, it was pretty cool, man. It was kind of different.”
Just groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon
Really couldn’t get away too soon
No, no, no, no
The Young Rascals
When they returned to the States, Cavaliere tapped Gene Cornish and Eddie Brigati from The Starliters and found Dino Danelli, who was playing drums at a club in New York City. The Young Rascals were born.
We’ll keep on spending sunny days this way
We’re gonna talk and laugh our time away
I feel it coming closer day by day
Life would be ecstasy, you and me endlessly
It’s About Love
In 2017, Cavaliere was on CabaRay with Ray Stevens. He introduced the song with this framework: “Every song has a story, and some of them are very important, like this one. You know, musicians, we work on Friday and Saturday nights. Now, I have never met a woman who really liked that idea. They say, ‘Well, OK, this is great. What are we supposed to do while you’re out there having fun?’ And we say, ‘You don’t understand, this is work. This isn’t just being out there on Friday and Saturday night having fun. This is work.’ ‘Yeah, right,’ they say. So, basically, I had to come up with an idea. There is nothing better than to write a song so that people can understand that you love them. So, that’s what this song’s all about.”
Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon
Really couldn’t get away too soon
No, no, no, no
Groovin’, uh huh…
Groovin’
Spanish and Italian Versions
The song was recorded with both Spanish and Italian lyrics and released as promotional singles by Atlantic Records.
Groovin’, un domingo por la tarde
Realmente no pude escaparme tan pronto
No puedo imaginar nada que sea mejor
El mundo es nuestro cuando estamos juntos
No hay un lugar donde me gustaría estar en lugar de
Groovin’, por una avenida llena de gente
Haciendo cualquier cosa que nos guste hacer
Siempre hay muchas cosas que podemos ver
Podemos ser quien queramos ser
Y toda esa gente feliz que pudimos conocer implemented
Groovin’, un domingo por la tarde
Realmente no pude escaparme tan pronto
Seguiremos pasando los días de sol así
Vamos a hablar y reírnos durante nuestro tiempo
Siento que se acerca día a día
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Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
