Ranking the Rock Writers, 1955-1991
Writer Team #40:  Eddie BRIGATI/Felix CAVALIERE


The world of pop music is replete with stories of acts that had magical runs of about eighteen months.  The Supremes.  Andy Gibb.  The 4 Seasons.  Add to that list the Young Rascals/Rascals. In 1967 and 1968, they strung together seven hits in 18 months that averaged nearly 5 times the chart strength of the average song around them.  That included two that ranked well into the top 1%: Groovin’ and People Got To Be Free.

The band only charted two songs not written by Eddie Brigati and/or Felix Cavaliere.  First was “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Any More” by Lori Burton and Pam Sawyer.  Pam Sawyer charted 30 songs as a writer including co-credit on the Supremes’ biggest hit, Love Child; Lori Burton was co-credited on the Royal Guardsmen’s song-against-type, Baby Let’s Wait.

The other, Good Lovin’, has more of a story, because there were two versions.  One is a solo writing effort by Rudy Clark, who charted 20 times, including Everybody Plays The Fool by Main Ingredient and Got My Mind Set On You by George Harrison.  That one-writer version was recorded by “Lemme B. Good,” and released in April, 1965.  It did not chart.

The second version, first recorded by The Olympics, was a collaboration between Clark and Artie Resnick.  It consisted of a very similar tune to the Clark solo writer version, but different lyrics written by Resnick.  Resnick charted 19 times including three versions of Under The Boardwalk and the qualitatively different Yummy Yummy Yummy. 

You would think the Clark solo writer version would predate the Clark-Resnick version, and maybe it did; but there’s no official trail that demonstrates that.  In fact, the Clark-Resnick Olympics version was released first in March, 1965, and the Clark solo Lemme B. Good version was released in April, 1965.  Curiously, the Clark/Resnick version was copyrighted March 1, 1965, prior to the copyright of the Clark-only version, March 26, 1965.  A revised Clark-Resnick version with a new arrangement was also copyrighted March 26, 1965.

The Rascals’ hit string started with I’ve Been Lonely Too Long; Groovin’ came next.  As Murray the K predicted, it went to number one and nearly made the Top 50 of the period 1955-1991.  Groovin’ was followed by A Girl Like You, How Can I Be Sure and A Beautiful Morning—all top five hits.  The overtly psychedelic It’s Wonderful was a bit of a dip to number 12, but People Got To Be Free marked a return to the top, scoring in the top 100 songs (of over 24,000) for the period.

For whatever reason, the end of the string corresponded with a shift from singles co-written by Eddie Brigati and Felix Cavaliere to those written solely by Cavaliere.  It would be wrong to blame the fall totally on the writer change: this was 1968 and music was changing too.  In his book, Tommy James talked about how the entire ethos of music changed during the period of one summer on tour.  The Rascals were bitten by that same dog.  They were a singles band that never made the transition to an album world.

The combination of Brigati/Cavaliere and the Rascals was the sixth highest writer team-act pairing, averaging nearly 3900 points for nine entries, 3.9 times the average song, and right behind Michael Jackson.  The Rascals themselves were the number 50 act.

See also http://ranking.rocks for more on Ranking the Rock Writers


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