The New Rascals features Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Dino Danelli on drums and Gene Cornish, guitarist and original founding member of the Rascals (a.k.a. the Young Rascals).

No one had more commercial clout in the Sixties than the Rascals (Young Rascals). The Rascals formed in early 1965 when Sid Bernstein got them signed to Atlantic Records after the group turned heads at Manhattan's Phone Booth nightclub. Their first single, "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore," stalled at #52 but its followup, an infectious, uptempo version of the Olympics' "Good Lovin'," went to #1 in March 1966. Several strong pop-R&B singles followed, including "You Better Run" (#20) and "I've Been Lonely Too Long (#16). Then the Rascals underwent a radical shift in direction.

Inspired by sweeping changes in the youth culture of the Sixties, they took a mellower, more atmospheric approach to their music. Their intuitions proved sound when "Groovin'," a soulful reverie about "groovin' on a sunny afternoon," shot to #1 in the spring of 1967. By the end of the year, the Rascals were venturing into psychedelia with effects-laden songs like "It's Wonderful" (#20). This was their last single to be credited to the Young Rascals. They reverted to their original name, the Rascals, with the release of "A Beautiful Morning" in 1968.

One of the Rascals' biggest hits, "People Got to Be Free," was written as an impassioned response to the assassinations of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. It topped the charts for five weeks and inspired a followup single, "A Ray of Hope," written for Teddy Kennedy. At this juncture, the Rascals began focusing on albums instead of singles, as was typical of the time. A more experimental approach resulted in records like Freedom Suite, a double album from 1969.

By the early Seventies, the Rascals had moved from Atlantic to Columbia Records and from punchy pop-soul to mellow jazz-rock. This shift marked a continuing process of evolution for a band that had been pop-soul sharpshooters with an unerring eye on the Top Forty only a few years earlier. The Rascals last album, The Island of Real, appeared in 1972, and the original group disbanded shortly thereafter.

The Rascals reformed in the 1980's for a "Good Lovin' '88" tour and performance at the Atlantic Records' 40th anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York. 1992 saw the release of 'The Rascals: Anthology (1965-1972)', a double-disc compilation, on Rhino Records. In 1997, The Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the twelfth annual induction dinner. Steve Van Zant was their presenter.

"Paragons of blue-eyed soul—that is, soul and R&B music by white performers. Other well-known purveyors include the Righteous Brothers, Steve Winwood, Van Morrison and Joe Cocker. However, no one among them had more commercial clout in the Sixties than the Rascals." Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Today, The New Rascals are fronted by original Rascals Dino Danelli on drums and Gene Cornish on guitar. They will be touring extensively throughout 2007 to bring the music of the Rascals to a new generation of fans.