Rascals – People Got To Be Free

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday!

The Young Rascals or by this time…The Rascals were the ultimate singles band. A great band that ruled the singles charts. I found the Rascals in 1985 at the same time I found Cream and The Lovin Spoonful. The Rascals and Lovin’ Spoonful were not known for their albums but man did they ever do some incredible great singles. Some of the best of the 60s. Steven Van Zandt is a huge fan of the band and I can see why. 

This is one of their biggest songs. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #14 in New Zealand in 1968. This was their 3rd number 1 song and would be their last. 

A very positive message for all the listeners. Rascals co-leaders Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati wrote the song together. The Young Rascals  / The Rascals had had 6 top ten hits in their career and 13 top-40 songs. The record sold over 4 million copies. They wrote this song in reaction to Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy’s murders, condensing King and Kennedy’s message into a simple missive calling for unity and understanding. The message was simple and clear and not overly political.

Felix Cavaliere wrote it after working for Bobby Kennedy’s presidential campaign. After Kennedy’s assassination, the follow-up song “A Ray of Hope,” was written for the Kennedy family after RFK’s death and the band received a thank-you letter from Bobby’s little brother, Ted Kennedy.

Felix Cavaliere has said that he had to fight with Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records to get this released because Wexler was worried that a message song would hurt the Rascals’ career. Cavaliere won and the song became their biggest hit. 

Felix Cavaliere: I was working for Bobby Kennedy’s (presidential) campaign, and you know that Robert Kennedy got assassinated. I just felt compelled to say something. The record company didn’t really like the idea, but they let it [be released as a single] and it became number one in all the places that were oppressed, such as South Africa, Berlin and Hong Kong, So I was always very proud of that. [Writing this song] was a direct result of the assassination. In my eyes, Bobby Kennedy was an idealistic person who had visions for how our country should be, and his brother (John Kennedy) as well. So I was attracted very much to that. I just thought that it would be a good direction for me, and the United States of America.

People Got To Be Free

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
Listen, please listen, that’s the way it should be
There’s peace in the valley, people got to be free

You should see
What a lovely, lovely world this’d be
Everyone learned to live together, ah hah
Seems to me
Such an itty bitty thing should be
Why can’t you and me learn to love one another?

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free (wanna be free)
I can’t understand it, so simple to me
People everywhere just got to be free

If there’s a man
Who is down and needs a helpin’ hand
All it takes is you to understand and
To pull him through, ah hah
Seems to me
We got to solve it individually, ah ah
And I’ll do unto you what you do to me
Said, no

Hear the shoutin’ from the mountains on out to the sea
No two ways about it, people have to be free (they gotta be free)
Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be
Natural situation for a man to be free

Get right on board now, huh, huh

Yeah oh, what a feelin’s just come over me
Love can move a mountain, make a blind man see
Everybody sing it now come on let’s go see
Peace in the valley now, we all can be free

See that train over there?
Now that’s the train of freedom
It’s about to ‘arrive any minute, now
You know it’s been a long, long overdue
Look out ’cause it’s a’comin’ right on through
Ha, ha, yeah, ha, ha, yeah

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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.

30 thoughts on “Rascals – People Got To Be Free”

  2. Pingback: Rascals – People Got To Be Free – MobsterTiger

  4. Up there with the Righteous Brothers as the ultimate in blue-eyed soul. B3, entertaining drummer (Dino Danelli may be the most fun drummer to watch, twirling sticks and never missing a beat – played with Lionel Hampton be fore the Rascals), tight band, soulful vocals…what’s not to like? Without The Rascals would there have been a Doobie Brothers?

    It’s a beautiful morning to start with the Young Rascals.

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    1. Some of those bands do get overlooked because of the lack of big named albums but you are right. The Doobies were on that musical path as well.
      Yes it is!

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  5. Good call Max! My Dad loved his ‘Blue Eyed Soul’ & the Rascals (Young Rascals) were one of his favorites. My favorite song by them was one of the most rockinest (if that’s a word) songs of the era later done by Pat Benatar-‘You Better Run’.

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    1. Yes it’s a word here anyway…I might use it in the future.
      I blogged You Better Run last time I did a Rascals song…great song. Great…unlike my Vols who withered.

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      1. Ah ya’, I didn’t make predictions as old play-by-play guy Steve Physioc once told me not to do at a game that we were working in our perspective jobs years & years ago. The Buckeyes were ready Max…yes they were. I’ve got some suggestions that I’ll put in my ‘Round-Up’ tomorrow about what should happen in the offseason to tweak the new playoff system which is here to stay.

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      2. Well…at least the Vols got there so maybe this is part of their climb back up the ladder. Yea they were ready. It was good to see TN fans there though.

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  7. Good song by a band I never paid much attention to really, but looking at their discography they had a few more good singles than I remembered or would have thought. No idea they did ‘You better run’ mentioned by Carl, originally for instance.

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    1. They really do…. they had 13 top 40 hits….not bad at all. The three number 1’s is what surprised me…a very good blue eyed soul band.

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  8. Did not know the story with these songs, and actually I don’t think I heard “Ray of Hope” before today. As you say a great singles band and consequently overlooked these days I think. I have mention these guys a few times and I have a couple of their songs pegged for my 60s Sunday series.

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  10. ‘People Gotta Be Free’ belts along but it does it lightly, it isn’t a heavy thumping classic rocker- thats quite a trick. Also, ya gotta love the Spoonful- so many great songs, simple, melodic, memorable. I still whistle ‘Daydream’ when I’m sitting unmoving in the car, stuck in traffic or biding my time waiting patiently in the long line at the market hoping to get served as Christmas nears, whatever. (Seems you CAN whistle through gritted teeth- who jolly well knew?)

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    1. You mentioned something that I miss about masks. When we had to wear them and people got in your way…you could mouth all kinds of evil treacherous stuff…no reading lips.
      You can whistle while angry…I guess we need some relief from idiots.

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      1. Actually, I am exaggerating more than a little- in the main this Christmas (gotta slam in a Wham! comment) our/my Xmas shopping has been relatively stress free. One last foray out today and its time for us to sit back, sip a nice brandy perhaps(?) and wait for the big day. The grandchild’s eyes will hopefully be as big as saucers…

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      2. The brandy sounds really nice! That is awesome. Glad…dare I say it? That you are feeling more Chrismassy this year. I won’t tell anyone! lol. Yes the Grandchild makes all the difference.

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  14. Wikipedia, on the page devoted to this song, says something I think is a wonderful idea: The 5th Dimension recorded “People Got to Be Free” in 1970 as part of a medley with another socially relevant song, Sam Cooke‘s “A Change Is Gonna Come.” The pairing reached number 60 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.

    I never heard it, but the two songs really do go together. In spirit at least.

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