Two weeks? Two whole weeks?!? Could the streak of twenty straight single-week number ones be over after all this time?
Not quite. You see, The Young Rascals' "Good Lovin'" actually spent two non-consecutive weeks at number one in Canada, hitting the top spot on April 25, dropping down to number two the following week before rebounding back to number one on May 9. (Had the RPM charts still been operating under its previous rules, it would have been ineligible to return to the top since singles had been erased from the hit parade as soon as they began to tumble) Looking for something to take the number one spot and stay there for more than seven days? You'll just have to wait a bit longer.
Still, it's nice to see even this modest amount of longevity on the part of a number one hit. Though I'm aware that having a number one is a tremendous accomplishment — even if it happened to be in Canada — there's something to be said for remaining there for at least a second week, if not more so. Give the kids a chance to get sick of something before you they decide to ditch it.
Like The Lovin' Spoonful's "Daydream" just prior to it, "Good Lovin'" is one of those all-too-familiar American pop/rock throwbacks, the type of song that I am always surprised to discover isn't on the Forrest Gump soundtrack and wasn't even included in the movie. (It is, however, on the equally popular soundtrack to the 1983 film The Big Chill, though "Daydream" is not) Oldies radio has been built on such numbers which shouldn't be a point in its favour but it's strong enough to overcome it.
The Young Rascals are going to be appearing in this space several times — on four occasions with their original name and two more as their mature years as 'The Rascals' — so I don't want to say too much here. This is one of two numbers of theirs that people tend to remember (the other one will be discussed here shortly) and with good reason. "Good Lovin'" is catchy and a great example of how to craft pop that is moronic but fun. They didn't put much thought into it and why would they? The Rascals didn't even write the damn thing but they still managed to get it.
The original by California soul group The Olympics has its merits but it's simply too uptight to have any hope of matching its much more famous and popular cover version. It's as if they took all those cries of "Doctor! Mr. MD!" seriously, not realizing how comically stupid they are. Comedy in a song about being prescribed a dose of good lovin'? Well I never!
Lead Rascal Felix Cavaliere seemed to find the perfect balance between knowing a song is a joke but not treating his performance as one. Blue-eyed soul and garage rock may not seem like genres that would mesh well together but they certainly do in this instance. Over-played and over-familiar but the best songs always manage to overcome too much popularity. If not quite a hands down sixties' classic then still a gas all the same.
Score: 8
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C'Mon, Be a CHUM!
We haven't checked in on Toronto's formerly national CHUM chart for a while so let's see what has been topping the charts over there. (With "Good Lovin'" at a surprisingly weak number twenty-right, The Young Rascals were apparently doing a lot better in the rest of Canada) Bill Medley's baritone is comically deep and resonant on The Righteous Brothers' latest hit "(You're My} Soul and Inspiration", a near-copy of their wonderful chart topper "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". If they were trying to move away from Phil Spector, I'm not sure doing a second rate facsimile of his Wall of Sound production style was the way to go about doing so. Proof that there's a fine line between unforgettable and totally forgettable as well as sufficient evidence that they were a flash in the pan. (I mean, it was a hell of a flash so we've got to give them that) Only a number two on RPM's chart but that too is more than it merited. I don't know why anyone would've gone to their local drug store to buy a copy of this when "Secret Agent Man" was available but you can always rely on a slushy love song of limited creative worth to punch above its weight.
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