the classic garage-band compilation Nuggets . Lenny Kaye: I must have been eighteen or nineteen. I was a kid goin’ to school at Rutgers in Jersey, and by a stroke of luck, I decided to take my date to a genuine New York disco, where I saw the Young Rascals before they made their first record. I saw them at a club called the Phone Booth, which was a dis- cotheque that had little phones [with] which you could call a neighboring table. It turned out that DJ Bruce Morrow had also seen the Rascals tear it up at the Phone Booth. While walking my pug Louie the next day, I bumped into Cousin Brucie on the street in Greenwich Village. Bruce Morrow: I’ll never forget my first meeting with the Young Rascals. They met me after my WABC radio show and covered me with a long muskrat coat and hustled me off to the Phone Booth. The next thing I knew, they were on the stage, performing the most amazing set. They were energetic, on target, and so together. It was obvious to me that this band was going to make it big time. Lenny Kaye: They were a fantastic group. I loved their arrange- ments. They had such an incredible, dramatic impact. They were very baroque, really unique. Dino was quite an accomplished drummer. He had a very tight, military way of playing drums.
And Gene’s lead on “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore” was fantastic, simple, and clear. They certainly encapsulated their moment. They were definitely the sound of Long Island. There was a whole host of groups blossoming at the time with the big Hammond B-3 sound. Billy Joel was in the Hassles, and there was the Vagrants, and especially the Vanilla Fudge, who were quite baroque. Felix had played in Joey Dee and the Starliters, who had that big organ sound. If you listen to Joey Dee’s version of “Shout,” you can find the underpinnings of the Rascals’ sound. They were essentially playing dance music. It was great to watch them. They had a real sense of presentation and a real look, but their music wasn’t cute. It was as hard as rock and roll got at that moment. They took “Good Lovin’ ” to the stratosphere. I love “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore.” Eddie had this yearn- ing in his voice. It was a total melodramatic classic. The Young Rascals’ first single was recorded in November of ’65. Sung by Eddie, “I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore” smol- dered with passion and climbed the charts to number fifty-two. Felix Cavaliere: “Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart” [written by Pam Sawyer and Laurie Burton] was given to us by the At- lantic staff. It came from somebody at Motown publishing. We hadn’t developed a writing talent yet. We’d found [the Olympics’] “Good Lovin’ ” in a record store.
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