Young Rascals COLLECTIONS

The S on the end of the title should be a clue, but just in case: this is not a Rascals greatest-hits compilation. Released in 1967, COLLECTIONS is a studio album that finds the Young Rascals (they hadn't dropped the prefix yet) at the height of their blue-eyed soul era, bashing out smart funky covers of R&B hits and a small handful of meaty originals.
Too sophisticated to be a garage band, the Young Rascals still had a rough edge to their sound--even on a version of the middle-of-the-road favorite "More (Theme from Mondo Cane)"--that gives the album its excitement. The boys are in full-on human jukebox mode, tossing off their interpretations of the Miracles' "Mickey's Monkey," the Marvellettes' "Too Many Fish in the Sea," and a version of "Land of 1000 Dances" owing more to Wilson Pickett than Cannibal and the Headhunters. Good sweaty R&B fun.

• Internal ID: JITRE
• Genre: Rock
• Format: Vinyl