Old Rancor Lingers as Rascals Wrap Reunion Tour

“Good Lovin’ ” is one of the hits that is likely to please nostalgic fans the most when a reformed version of the Rascals plays Southern California starting this weekend.

But there is no good lovin,’ and little good will, between the two principal Rascals, Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati.

From 1965 to 1970, Cavaliere and Brigati were the partners who keyed the Rascals’ success. Cavaliere wrote the music and Brigati supplied the lyrics for such hits as “Groovin,’ ” “How Can I Be Sure” and the transcendent “People Got to Be Free.” (“Good Lovin’,” the band’s first No. 1 hit, was a remake of a song by the Olympics.)

Cavaliere usually took the vocal leads in a husky, impassioned voice patterned after Ray Charles. Brigati sang lead on some of the hits, but his airier voice was usually part of the Rascals’ rich harmony blend.

Cavaliere, 45, is back on the road in a Rascals reunion tour that includes Dino Danelli and Gene Cornish, the band’s original drummer and guitarist. They wind up a two-month national tour playing Friday at the California Theatre in San Diego, Sunday at the Celebrity Theatre in Anaheim and Tuesday at the Universal Amphitheatre. Brigati, 42, remains in New Jersey.

In separate phone interviews, the two former partners laid out their grievances: Cavaliere depicted Brigati as a man who inexplicably resigned from the Rascals in 1970 and has since resisted promoters’ efforts to put the former band members together for a reunion tour. Brigati cast Cavaliere as an opportunist who turned a band that had been organized as an equal collective into his own vehicle.

“I went personally to his home and asked him to come,” Cavaliere said. “I fulfilled my obligation as a friend. You can only ask someone for so long. From a business viewpoint, we don’t need him.”

Brigati said he never received a formal touring proposal from Cavaliere and the promoters behind the Rascals reunion. He said he would be interested in rejoining his old band mates only if the group were to record and not just be an oldies touring outfit, and with an assurance that the members would be on an equal footing.

Otherwise, he said, he is content to continue a low-key musical career that includes songwriting and occasional live shows with his older brother, David, who sang harmony on most Rascals’ hits.

“I am at least an equal share member in the Rascals legacy,” Brigati said. “Felix has an attitude that we’re his sidemen. Twenty years later, I can’t be his sideman.”

Cavaliere said he took a leadership role out of necessity.

“I was hoping (Brigati) would grow into a person who took on more of the work,” he said. “That didn’t happen, and I felt I was doing more than I was getting credit for as an equal partner.

“I’d have to have a psychologist tell me what happened to him, to be part of a successful group and then retreat from the world.”

Brigati said frustration over the band’s business arrangements led him to quit the Rascals in 1970. His only output since then has been one obscure album released with his brother in the mid-’70s.

The Rascals broke up in 1972 after failing to approach their earlier success. Cavaliere continued as a solo performer until 1980, then dropped out of sight.

“I decided there are ways to make a living in the music industry without having to feel the pain,” Cavaliere said. He resurfaced last year with a band that played a mix of Rascals songs and new material.

When the current tour is over, Cavaliere said, he’ll settle in Nashville and try to blend into the city’s musical community as a songwriter and producer.

“I still want to do new music. To earn a living being a Rascal is not what I want to do.”

As for the possibility of future Rascals reunions, Cavaliere said: “It can be brought back for another special occasion. For argument’s sake, let’s say Eddie wanted to join us next year. That’s a reason to go out.”

The question is whether such a rapprochement is possible.

“The person I want to see come back would also be a person that’s changed in many other ways,” Cavaliere said. “I know he still sings and still sounds great. We get reports. (The Brigati brothers) will always sound good. They had natural ability. But you also have to have desire and ambition.”

Despite what Brigati sees as Cavaliere’s “concerted effort to discredit us” during past negotiations for a Rascals reunion, he says he hasn’t closed the door.

“We must go beyond it,” he said. “I’m alive, you don’t give up.” For now, there is still a gulf of resentment between former friends who, at their creative peak, shared an apartment while turning out hit songs.

“It’s not a good thing to feel after all we’ve accomplished,” Brigati said.