In the late 1960s, Dino Danelli’s hard, energetic music brought the Rascals a string of hits including “Good Lovin’,” “Groovin’,” and “People Got to Be Free” on No. 1 records in the late 1960s. Drumming died Thursday in Manhattan. he was 78 years old.
Close friend and band historian Joe Russo confirmed the death at the rehab center.
The Rascals (aka The Young Rascals on their first three albums) were one of the first American bands to emerge in response to the so-called “riots”. british invasion 1964.
Formed in New Jersey in 1965, the quartet features Felix Cavaliere on organ and vocals, Eddie Brigati on vocals, Gene Cornish on guitar and Mr. Danelli on drums, drawing on a variety of influences including doo-wop, jazz and soul. I was.
A pupil of great jazz drummers Buddy Rich and Gene Krupa, Mr. Danelli combines percussive virtuosity with rock sensibility. Like Ringo Starr of The Beatles, he rock set the template for his drummer archetype. He spun the stick, a trick he learned from his sister who was a cheerleader, and threw it in the air before catching it without dropping a beat.
Mr. Danelli was responsible for the band’s first big hit. He was a fan of soul records and one day in his record shop in Harlem he found the Olympic single “Good Lovin'” written by Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick and it reached No. 81 on the Billboard Hot. rice field. In 1965 he had 100 people.
“I said, ‘Let’s do it, let’s put the new version in,'” he said. Interview with drummer Liberty DeVitto in 2008“It was just a lucky find.”
The Rascals performed the song during their 1966 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. It quickly topped the charts, with the opening shout of “One, two, three!” — became one of his most famous songs of the decade.
Onstage, the band wore the fashionable outfits favored by several other white acts of the mid-1960s, including knee-high socks, short ties, and floppy collars. However, it was the first white band signed by Atlantic Records, home of Ray Charles, and one of the few American rock bands to be embraced by the black crowd.
Members included clauses in their contracts that they would only do black acts if they were listed in the bill. This meant that much of the South remained off-limits.
As the Rascals evolved, their sound mellowed, producing summer vibe classics like 1967’s No. 1 “Groovin'” and 1968’s No. 3, “A Beautiful Morning.” I was. With the assassinations of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy, they released “People Got to Be Free,” a hymn to racial harmony. Kavaliere and Mr. Brigati. It also won 1st place.
The Rascals disbanded in the early 1970s. Brigati retired in 1970 and Cornish a year later. Mr. Cavaliere and Mr. Danelli produced two more albums before the band broke up.
Mr. Danelli played in a series of bands throughout the 1970s, and in 1980 joined Disciples of Soul, a side project of Steven Van Zandt, lead guitarist of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
Mr. Van Zandt grew up as a die-hard Rascals fan. In 1997, he gave the band’s induction speech into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, calling Mr. Danelli “the greatest rock drummer of all time.”
Dino Danelli was born on July 23, 1944 in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Robert Danelli and Teresa Bottinelli.
He is survived by his sister, Diane Severino.
He began playing drums at an early age and after dropping out of high school moved to Manhattan to pursue a music career. He began gigging at his jazz clubs in his Village, Greenwich, the Times, cleaning up his hotel room at the Metropole in his square, and meeting Mr. Rich and Mr. Krupa.
His work traveled to California, Las Vegas and New Orleans, and he also worked with jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton before returning to New York. He met his future bandmates at a venue called the Chu Chu Club in Garfield, New Jersey, and formed the Young Rascals after playing together in another band.
The band reformed for a few reunion shows in the 1980s and performed under the name New Rascals in the 1990s, minus Mr. Brigati. They performed together at a charity show in 2010, and in 2012 Van Zandt said,bio concert“The Rascals: Once Upon a Dream” is a multimedia show featuring performances by the band and clips from their 1960s heyday.
It played 15 shows on Broadway, followed by a national tour for several months.