Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Single Disc Rascals Collection Available., July 17, 2003
There is one reason why you should purchase "The Ultimate Rascals", over the Rhino collections, "Best Of", or "Anthology". The Warner collection is the only one that has the full album length version of "Lonely Too Long". It is hard to believe that Rhino would place a short edit version of the song and eliminate a whole verse? The "Ultimate", collection is just the perfect sampler for the casual fans, who would like a nice 20 song overview of this great band at a great price. All the chart-toppers are here as well as several great album cuts.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
stop here, April 28, 2000
If you're looking for the best Rascals collection, you can stop right here. I excitedly bought the 2 disc collection when it came out years ago, and was disappointed with the sound and the fact that most of the first disc was mono. I knew this collection existed, but was leary as it was released at he dawn of the CD age (way back in '86). I finally took a chance and it's fantastic! All the tracks are stereo, all the essential Rascals tracks are here, and it sounds better than the 1992 remaster! Go figure.If you're looking for the perfect 20 song distillation of essential Rascals, you've found it. Ah, go ahead. Remind yourself why these guys had so many hits between 1966 and 1968. They were awesome!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most underrated bands of the 1960's, April 27, 2005
This disk is an excellent starting point for anyone even mildly interested in The Rascals. Before I got this disk, I only knew the big standard hits, which include "Good Lovin", "Groovin", "A Beautiful Morning", and "People Got to be Free". Each of these songs sounds better than ever on this collection for two main reasons. First, all songs on this disk (except "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore") are in stereo (apparently the only Rascals collection with "almost" all-stereo versions on it), and second, there are many other great songs on this disk for the listener to discover.
Although it took a few listens to really appreciate the rest of the songs on this CD, I realized that there was a lot of great music here that I hadn't discovered yet. Just about every song on this album is solid on its own, yet they really make the disk flow well when put together here.
Aside from the four standards mentioned above, which I'm sure many people know pretty well, a brief description of the other songs is listed below:
"I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore" - shows their bluesy rocking potential prior to their first hit, "Good Lovin"; Eddie on vocals (although this song is in mono here, it still sounds great)
"Mustang Sally" - a great cover song; showcases their R&B roots
"You Better Run" - has a very strong rhythm section of drums, bass, and guitar; Felix's vocals sound threatening, ready to put the girl that wronged him in her place
"Come on Up" - has a quick, steady blues beat
"Love Is a Beautiful Thing" - a nice love song with a good beat to it
"What Is the Reason" - another nice love song with a faster beat to it and crazy drum rolls at the end
"I've Been Lonely Too Long" - nice piano, light brass in the background; a fairly big hit for them
"Girl Like You" - a good love song with a beat that swings along, with piano, light strings, and brass in the background
"How Can I Be Sure" - a great love song with just Eddie on vocals; has nice accordion playing in background
"It's Wonderful" - every cool band in 1967-68 had to have at least one psychedelic hit; this was theirs, and it's not bad at all, although a little goofy at the end
"Heaven" - has kind of a countryish waltz/shuffle beat to it with lots of brass at the end
"See" - starts out slow, sounding almost like a song finale, then it kicks into gear doubling the tempo featuring the keyboards; one of the last great hits with the original line-up of Felix-Eddie-Gene-Dino
"Carry Me Back" - another good bluesy number with some brass in it; again, one of the last great hits with the original line-up of Felix-Eddie-Gene-Dino
"Find Somebody" - a great album cut from the LP "Groovin", again showing they knew how to create a decent psychedelic song but still keeping their R&B sound at the same time
"Easy Rollin" - another great album cut, this time from the album "Once Upon a Dream"; has a laid-back countryish/psychedelic sound to it
"A Ray of Hope" - good album cut from "Freedom Suite", with a smooth beat and some brass in the background
The song selection is fantastic here and I highly recommend it to either the casual fan or a more serious fan that wants the best in overall sound quality, song selection, and good price. The first seventeen songs were either A-side or B-side singles. Unfortunately, there is noticeable hiss in each song and several songs have dropouts (most noticeably at the very beginning of "Good Lovin"), but this is no worse than your average compilation album of 1960's material on it. Also, there is no history of the band in the liner notes, but it does tell us who wrote each song, the date it was recorded, and the original album it came from. Because of the sound quality, I would only give four and ½ out of five stars here, but because this disk really turned me on to the great music of The Rascals, I will gladly give this collection five stars instead. It's nice to know that the other reviewers share the same interest in this fine collection.
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