Fans of '60s music at Rahway, NJ's UCPAC this Friday October 4, 2024 evening ready themselves for a 2024 People Got to Be Free Tour concert by The Rascals starring Felix Cavaliere and Gene Cornish.
Says Aiden Adams, a 10-year-old singer/songwriter from Maryland who is here with his family, “I just love The Rascals — the goal of their music is to make the world a better place, just like mine is.” Explaining, “I’m in middle school and I play guitar and write songs with a positive message,” Aiden insists, “The Rascals’ ‘It’s a Beautiful Morning’ is one of my favorites. It was co-written by Felix Cavaliere and I’m hoping to get a chance to meet him tonight.”
Bill from South Bound Brook recalls, “I’ve been a fan of The Rascals since I was a kid. I saw their Once Upon a Dream Tour in 2013 which featured all four original band members, and I also saw Felix when he was a part of the Ringo Starr All-Starr Band. I’ve always loved The Rascals’ music because they have so much going for them — they can rock, they’re soulful, and they write songs with great melodies and harmonies, so they have a lot to offer. I’m hoping they’ll do some of my favorites tonight like “Groovin’,” “How Can I Be Sure?,” and “(I’ve Been) Lonely Too Long.”
The auditorium lights dim and music lovers cheer as keyboardist Benny Harrison, bassist Jimmy Keneally, drummer Chuck Tally, guitarist Mike Severs, and a three-piece horn section take the UCPAC stage followed by Rascals’ founding member Felix Cavaliere.
Opening with “Do You Feel It?” Cavaliere, 81, soulfully leads The Rascals as they energetically sing, “Do you feel it? (You know I do)/Do you feel, baby, do you feel it? (You know I do).” Concertgoers tap their toes as Cavaliere’s organ calls, horns answer, and guitars, keyboard, bass, and drums keep the rhythm flowing.
After telling audience members that he co-wrote the next song on the island of Oahu to “remember the feeling,” Cavaliere and Co. launch into a masterful rendition of The Rascals’ 1968 Top 5 hit, “It’s a Beautiful Morning.” Before the song is over, the audience joins in singing, “Beautiful morning, beautiful day,” as Felix soulfully ad libs over top of them.
Cavaliere announces, “It’s a pleasure to be back here in New Jersey where there are a lot of good memories. We wrote a lot of love songs in those days and we’re going to play some of those for you right now.” Here, Cavaliere and friends cruise into The Rascals’ 1967 hit, “A Girl Like You,” where Cavaliere cries, “Must be you that caused this feeling in me/You that fills me confidently,” on an arrangement which features trombone, sax, and trumpet solos, in addition to a rockin’ and rollin’ keyboard solo.
Next up is “Love is a Beautiful Thing” where Cavaliere and keyboardist Benny Harrison handle the lead vocals as images of The Rascals performing through the decades appear on the big screen behind the band.
Cavaliere talks about how during the pandemic he and guitarist Mike Severs produced Felix’s solo album, Then and Now, which features “five old songs and five new songs.” At this point, Cavaliere slides into one of the new numbers entitled “Slip Away,” where he cries, “Can you slip away without him knowing you’re gone?” on this R&B-infused rocker.
Felix announces, “Benny knows the words to this song from the Young Rascals,” before Harrison’s voice is spotlighted on The Rascals’ 1965 hit, “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore.”
Cavaliere tells a story about The Rascals’ early days as musicians playing at the Choo Choo Club in Garfield, NJ where the club owner told them that in order to be successful they needed to play “fast songs.” Here, he and the band launch into The Rascals’ original fast rocker, “Come On Up.” After Felix waxes poetic on the interlude reminding concertgoers, “Many years ago, there were no iPhones and no Facebook, but we had music and we were all connected by music,” he invites the crowd to sing along on The Rascals’ interpretation of Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.”
Cavaliere follows up by singing with soul on the 3/4 time jazz waltz, “Heaven.” Asking, “You remember 45s?” Felix recalls, “Nobody ever told us that one side sells the same as the other side. One time, this guy came up to me and gave me a big kiss saying, ‘You put my song on the other side of ‘Groovin’!” Here, he and The Rascals perform a soulful version of “Mustang Sally,” a number which went on to become a hit for Wilson Pickett.
The audience sings along as Cavaliere works in snippets of The Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It),” Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances,” and The Temptations’ “Get Ready,” before deftly segueing back into “Mustang Sally” where the crowd happily joins in singing on the “Ride, Sally, ride” refrain.
The party continues with The Rascals’ 1967 Top 20 hit, “(I’ve Been) Lonely Too Long,” which includes a brief segue into The Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg.” The crowd cheers, and Cavaliere invites keyboardist Harrison to sing lead on The Young Rascals’ 1967 Top 5 hit, “How Can I Be Sure?”
The crowd cheers when Cavaliere announces, “We haven’t seen him in a while so we wanted to bring him out,” and Gene Cornish, 80, joins the band on stage, exclaiming, “Hey, New Jersey! I’m so happy to be here. Thank you so much for coming out tonight!”
Felix asks, “Are you ready, bro?” and Cornish begins to wail on his harmonica on The Rascals’ 1967 chart-topper, “Groovin’.”
Music lovers happily sing along on the song’s well-known “Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon” lyric before Cavaliere and the band interlace segments of Jay and the Techniques’ “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie,” and The Temptations’ “My Girl” and “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)” into the arrangement before smoothly segueing back into “Groovin’” to enthusiastic cheers and applause.
As drummer Chuck Tally plays a marching beat, Cavaliere thanks all the Vietnam veterans in the audience for their service. Here, Felix and Co. launch into The Rascals’ 1968 #1 hit, “People Got to Be Free,” where music lovers join in singing the song’s “All the world over, so easy to see/People everywhere just wanna be free” lyric, and Cornish and Severs play guitar counterpoint to the horns. With the band still rockin’ underneath him, Cavaliere incorporates snippets of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” Martha Reeves and the Vandellas’ “Nowhere to Run,” and The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ “Oh,Happy Day,” before returning to “People Got To Be Free,” which ends with the audience reacting with enthusiastic hoots and hollers.
Cavaliere warns, “This is your last chance to dance tonight!” and concertgoers dance at their seats to the evening’s last song — a medley which opens with Kool and the Gang’s “Celebrate” and “Hollywood Swinging” before kicking into a roof-rockin’ rendition of The Young Rascals’ 1966 #1 hit, “Good Lovin’.” The audience joyfully sings the lyrics along with Felix as the ensemble shifts into Richie Valens’ “La Bamba” and the crowd sings along in Spanish prior to shifting back into “Good Lovin’” where concertgoers hoot, holler, cheer, and applaud for Felix, Gene, and the band.
Cornish inquires, “Do you want to hear one more?” and the crowd replies in the affirmative as the group plays a medley of classic tunes which starts with Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour,” continues with Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin,” and concludes with a raucous version of Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven.”
The crowd stands and cheers one last time as Cavalieri exclaims, “God bless you all and God bless the USA! Thank you so much!” while Cornish and the rest of the musicians leave the stage and Cavaliere remains to shake hands with fans at the front of the house.
As concertgoers make their way out of the UCPAC auditorium, several comment on tonight’s performance by The Rascals. Declares Doris from Basking Ridge, “The Rascals were great tonight! They did a lot of songs I remembered, and God bless Felix at the age of 81!” prior to revealing, “This is my birthday week — even though I’m celebrating the whole month — and this show counts as part of the celebration!” Remarks Doris’ friend, Lori from Asbury, “I thought The Rascals’ show was fantastic — I love their music,” explaining, “We listened to the Rascals’ CD on the way here in the car and we were all chair dancing by the end of the show!”
Emily from Piscataway exclaims, “It was an awesome concert and it brought back a lot of memories! Felix was amazing, and I was surprised to see a nine-piece band with horns, which made for a really good time.” Kathy from Roselle Park agrees, revealing, “I thought it was a fantastic show — it was energetic and a lot of fun — and I was dancing just enough not to embarrass my husband!”
Lastly, Maria from Clark comments, “I liked the musicianship of all the Rascals band members! It was heartwarming to see Gene Cornish perform — he looked like he was having a great time up there — and I liked how Felix combined various tunes into whatever song he was playing and invited the audience to sing along,” before concluding, “I had a lot of fun tonight — for me, it was a great evening of blue-eyed soul!”
To learn more about The Rascals, please go to felixcavalieremusic.com. For more information on great upcoming performances at UCPAC — including Damien Escobar with Kim Waters on October 25, The Robert Cray Band on October 26, The Ultimate Elvis Concert on November 16, and The Who’s Bad 20th Anniversary Tour on November 23 — please click on ucpac.org.
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