After the Young Rascals had their number one hit, “Good Lovin’” back in 1966, they struggled to get another one. “Good Lovin’” had been written by outsiders and the band wanted to write their own music. So, Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati set about to do just that. Their next two hits were written by them. ”You Better Run” and “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long” were both top twenty hits, but didn’t break any records and Atlantic, their recording company were starting to think the Young Rascals had run their course.

Then Felix fell in love. Her name was Adrienne Buccheri and Felix fell hard. He later said that he believed she came along just when he needed a shot to his creativity. So, when you listen to “Groovin’” he is talking about he and Adrienne. They cut the song and then played it for Jerry Wexler who was their producer. Wexler didn’t like it. The song had a completely different sound than anything the Rascals had done before. Then Murray the K entered the picture.

If you haven’t heard of Murray the K then you weren’t listening to the radio in the Sixties. He was one of the most famous disk jockeys in American during this time. One day he was in the studio and he heard “Groovin’” played over a speaker, He told the band, “That’s a smash.” Murray went to Wexler and told him “Are you crazy? This is a friggin’ hit record.” This was enough motivation that Wexler agreed to release the record.

The main problem Wexler had with the song was that there was no drum beat. The closest thing they had to a drum was an conga that one member beat. This was a slow relaxing song that was meant to give you the feeling of just chilling (or groovin’) out on a Sunday afternoon with your girlfriend. Something, almost anyone can relate to.

“Groovin’” entered the Hot 100 at number 79 on April 22, 1967 and four weeks later, it was number one. It stayed at the top for two weeks and was then bumped out by Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” for two weeks (see next article) and then it came back to number one for two more weeks, making a total of four weeks at number one. This made it one of the top sellers of the year for the Young Rascals.