Rascals – You Better Run

I graduated in 1985…and when I hear anything by The Rascals or Cream…I think of that spring and riding around in my car with friends. That is when I bought two cassettes…The Rascal’s greatest hits and a best of Cream. This band was so talented and you can tell they influenced Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, and others.

What a great band! I could almost leave it at that and post the song. They were technically the Young Rascals when this song came out of AM radio in the sixties. They were never really an album band but more of a super singles band. Another band like that was The Lovin’ Spoonful. They dropped the “young” in 1968 and continued having hits.

The Rascals made it by playing rhythm and blues and soul music. Their 1966 cover of the Rudy Clark and Artie Resnick song…Good Lovin went to the top of the Billboard Pop Singles chart. They had the majority of their hits between 1966-1968.

You Better Run peaked at #20 on the Billboard 100 and #22 in Canada in 1966.

They had nine top 20 hits and thirteen top 40 hits…they also had three number 1 hits and a total of 18 songs in the Billboard 100 before they disbanded in 1972. This song was written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati.

You Better Run

What you tryin’ do to my heart?
What you tryin’ do to my heart?
You go around tellin’ lies
You foolin’ round with the other guy’s
What you tryin’ do to my heart?

You better run
You better hide
You better leave from my side

What you tryin’ do to my soul?
What you tryin’ do to my soul?
Everythin’ I had was yours
And no I’m closing all the doors
What you tryin’ do to my soul?

You better run
You better hide
You better leave from my side

I love you girl, I love you so
Can’t you see it, don’t you know
I can’t stand you alibi
You’re tellin’ lies, and tell me why

What you tryin’ do to my head?
What you tryin’ do to my head?
Now I go my jaw out of line
You’re not gonna take my mind?
What you tryin’ do to my head?

You better run
You better hide
You better leave from my side

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

43 thoughts on “Rascals – You Better Run”

  1. Great song Max. I like The Rascals, not sure why they dropped the Young. I think they were very important to American music at the time, as you pointed out they had some hits, pretty tough for a rock band up against the British Invasion. Is this the song Pat Benetar covered?

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    1. Yes it was Randy….I never put that together! I just looked it up. This is the version I grew up with because I owned the greatest hits.

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      2. Now that you mentioned it I remembered that version. It’s like You Really Got Me…I grew up with the Kinks version more than Van Halen.

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      4. ….and a happy one! I found my old High School journal…I have rock band names on the cover. Yardbirds, Beatles, WHO, Stones, The Troggs, Kinks, and…you will be proud….I was trying…REO and Van Halen!

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    1. I was just reminded that Pat Benatar had a hit with this…I didn’t put it together until Randy said something.
      Yea I like their songs….Good Lovin’ and the others.

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  5. Yep, I only know it as a Pat Benatar tune! This to me, hers (which I’ve known since the beginning of the 80s) is the ‘right’ one. I knew she hadn’t written it nor Chapman who produced the first one, I seem to remember, but I didn’t know it was a well-known song. That said, this original ‘s not bad!
    Famous trivia on the Benatar one- the second video played on MTV

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    1. I know the Benatar song but I never put it together! I don’t know why but I never did. This is the one I just know more…
      Oh cool…must have been right after Video Killed The Radio Star.

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      2. I didn’t consciously know they had so many familiar hits. Some, like other people seem to suggest I think I thought were Lovin Spoonful ones instead.

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      3. Yea they had quite a few hits in the 60s…not really an album band but a great singles one like the Spoonful.

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    1. I feel damn stupid. I didn’t even think of the Benatar version as I was writing it…this is the one I listened to the most…I like grit!

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    1. They had a boatload full of hits…some really good song like I’ve Been Lonely Too Long, People Got To Be Free, How Can I Be Sure, A Beautiful Morning…and more

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  12. Pingback: Rascals – You Better Run – MobsterTiger

  14. The first video had me smiling at the “hippy vibe” of the crowd sitting around charismatic leaders. So strange this song is not familiar at all. The name of the band is familiar and they’ve had a lot of hits, wow!

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  15. You are too funny Max, disregarding much of the then-current music of the mid-80s as a teen, instead grooving (pun intended) on the music of the 60s that came out at the time you were born. The Young Rascals/Rascals were fantastic, and I loved all their hits, though I can’t recall ever hearing this song.

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