April 13, 2021 • 45 mins
Felix Cavaliere started The Rascals in 1965. Felix began playing piano at age six and listened exclusively to classical music until junior high when he first heard Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino. Rock and roll changed his life. In The Rascals, Felix sang and played organ on some of the group’s biggest hits, including It’s a Beautiful Morning, Groovin’, Good Lovin’, and People Got to Be Free. The band signed with Atlantic and, with the legendary producer Arif Mardin, The Rascals had nine hits between 1965-1968, making it big as a crossover hit on Black R&B stations and white stations. Felix took a stand in favor of civil rights, insisting The Rascals would play only if Black acts were also on the ticket, a decision that eliminated parts of the country from their touring schedule. Today, Felix lives in Nashville, and he’s still playing and producing music.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
from my Heart Radio. It's the Beautiful. Just back in
(00:29):
the early days of rock and roll, men and women
wrote songs, played instruments and sang vocals, supported only by
recording technology that is primitive compared to today. In other words,
you actually had to have talent. My guest today is
one of those legendary earlier rock and rollers, Felix Cavalieri
(00:51):
of the Rascals. That's Felix singing and playing his Hammond
B three organ on this track. The Rascals Felix, Eddie Brigatti,
Dino Danelli and Gene Cornish formed in nine and produced
nine hit songs over the next three years, songs everybody knows, grooving, good,
(01:14):
loving people, got to be Free, and It's a Beautiful Morning.
Felix Cavalieri's mother started him on piano at age six,
but his world was turned upside down in junior high
when he first heard the music of Fats Domino, Chuck
Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. It changed his world and
(01:35):
hours forever. Felix is originally from the New York City area,
but he's lived in Nashville for decades. What happened to
me basically is is I had these gentlemen approached me
that they were starting at management company. They invited me
down to Nashville to meet with them. I came down here.
All of a sudden, I started to see people I knew, like,
(01:56):
for example, John k Steppenwolf, Bobby Glaudio was down here
for four seasons. We had two of springsteense guys. We
still have one. Gary Tallant is still down here. I said,
what is this? He said, oh, man, this is the place.
I said, you sure, is it? Yeah, this is the place.
You should come down here. And it was so interesting
because now it's very different because the word is out.
(02:17):
But it was so nice and quaint. You could actually
walk into a place and you didn't have to make
an appointment. And here's my best story. When I first
got here, they said, oh, there's a bank in town
that you know, it really helps out musicians songwriters. I said,
you're kidding. He said, yeah. They got a special department
for publishing and writing and song ring as. It's just
(02:39):
like New York. The department in New York was called
the Exit. They rocked him. You here, I said, and
it's true. How long you been down there? You said
twenty years? Now about thirty years, thirty years, thirty years.
I've been here and I've watched it lose a lot
of that quaintness and a lot of that jeez, just
walking any time you want, what would you say? I
mean your voice, your songs, which you know seem from
(03:02):
such a different error because they're so pure. Your music
is so pure. It's pretty music sung with great passion,
beautiful songs, beautiful armrangements, beautiful singing, great writing. It's in
that category of music that just puts people in a
happy mood the minute they hear it. It relaxes them.
And when I'm wondering, is there anything about the business
(03:23):
now that's better than it used to be? Or was
it all better back then? Now? Just the technology is better,
we can do this. For example, recently, before all this
pandemic started, I was doing an album and then all
of a sudden everything got locked down. I was able
to continue doing the album at home. See that, that's
the difference the technology. So it's good and it's bad.
(03:44):
What's good about it is that, man, it's just so
much fun to make music in your house now. Of
course you really missed the guys in the studio and
all that. But we can do it online now. But
would you prefer when the COVID's over it to be
back face to face with people, because I'm shooting a
TV show right now, and I gotta say that a
little bit of the joy the camaraderie of working with
(04:06):
people that you admire, working with people you like, and
being able to relax not every day but some days
and just shoot the ship with them and have a
good conversation with some actor or actress or writer director
that you really perspect. The joy for me of acting
has been who I met. Of course, we've done only
five shows this year, but we did one in California
in October. There was an outdoor venue as a casino. Normally,
(04:29):
the guys go on stage and they sound check. They
start about three o'clock and then the show is at eight.
We couldn't get them off the stage to stop rehearsing.
They just missed each other so much. One of the
things that I realized when we're doing this, I I
just did this thing for Hello TV, which is a
new kind of idea that what they're doing is they're
filming a live show and then they're going to broadcast it.
(04:51):
I'll tell you now, you do this all the time.
You work in front of a camera, and you don't
necessarily have an audience. I'll tell you, man, there was
no audience that I was exhausted. I'm playing to the
camera and there's nobody out there going yeah, yo, you
know this. I was so tired at the end of
that the ace. You grew up in New York correct,
pretty close to the part of New York. Tell um,
(05:11):
New York right out? And what did your dad do?
My family was all in medicine. I was the only
one that decided to jump out to this crazy world. Yeah,
they were all in medicine. My dad was a dentist,
my mom was a pharmacist. And basically they just saw
some talent in me. So they started when I was
about five classical music lessons playing my piano, paying piano.
(05:32):
And then one day I went to junior high and
this guy who was sitting in front of me was
to become one of my dearest friends, and he said
to me, said, do you like rock and roll? I
didn't know what he was talking about. Really, I've never
heard it classical music. They keep you pretty strict. How
old were you at the time. I was junior high.
So it was no Elvis, no Bill Haley, none of
(05:55):
that fifties music. It's kind of like being Catholic. You
know what I'm saying, You're not allowed to go to
the other You know what I'm saying. Classical people, they
don't want you to go and listen to anything. So
I said yes, I said, yeah, I like it. But
I went home. And the good luck was that Alan
Freed was in New York. He brought it from Cleveland
to New York. Rock and roll. Sure, remember we did it, man.
So I heard all those things those guys from the beginning,
(06:17):
the piano players like Fats Domino, Jerry Lewis flipped me out. Man,
I said, man, this is so cool. It was the
only word I could say. And then that started me.
But when you're playing classical piano and you're sequestered in
this classical music bubble as a young boy, and you
start to appreciate and want to put your toe in
(06:38):
the water there in terms of popular music and rock music,
you're one of the most famous singers in the history
of music. When did the singing. Start just joy, man,
just joy. Wow, I'd love to try that, man, how
cool would that be. It's just when you start out
you start doing other people's songs. I get these phenomenal
singers to copy, like Benny King and and Margot Gay.
(07:01):
So you do their songs and all of a sudden
you say, man, I'm singing these songs man. And then
and then if you're lucky, you get a style if
you're lucky interesting, But it's just the joy of playing
and singing and that music. So Benny King and and
and Marvin Gay and any of those people that were
your earliest exposure. Radio was your gateway. I'm hearing I'm
(07:22):
on the radio, and I'm saying, like, wow, in those days,
you didn't have like the computer to tune your voice, right,
you know what I'm saying. That's why we wanted you
on the show because you could actually sing. Those guys
that names I've mentioned, and there's so many more, they
were phenomenal. Are you kidding me? I mean that these
(07:43):
guys singing, you go like ho. And you know, I've
had the honor of meeting a lot of these guys,
you know, and I just love it so I did it,
tried it. Who was the first person that you regarded
that you respected their opinion? Who told you you could sing?
Who's the person that said to you keep going in
that direction? As of vocalists, well, you know, I started
off the cat Skills. I had took a band from
(08:04):
Syracuse University to the Catskical Mountains. So now you're in college. Yeah,
I'm in college. I took a summer off and I
literally never went back. And it's a great story because
Joey D's band came there and they saw me, and
they were in Europe and their organ player quit. So
they called me up to join them in Germany, and
so I flew and play the organ, play the organ. Yeah,
(08:26):
I went over there. And the way the story goes,
I'm changing the such a little bit. But they were
working with this group called the Beatles, and nobody, nobody
had heard of them yet. Now I'm a college kid
deciding whether I should stay in school or look at
all these girls screaming and hollering and what is this?
You know? And I remember it vividly here in their music.
(08:46):
I'm saying, wow, they were singing group. They weren't that
good on the at least I didn't really get their
music yet. And then when they did arm music, being
American music, they were okay. Well, when they did their music,
it was like outstanding. So I said, I think I
do this. But it was in the Royal Hotel that
people started paying attention to me, you know, they said, hey, man,
you're pretty good. You're pretty good. You're pretty good. Half
(09:07):
of them trying to impress their dates. So when you
go to Europe to play the organ for these guys,
they asked you to start singing. No, they just asked
me to start playing. When when did the singing begin?
When do you become the front man? Has a good question. Well,
I got a little depressed being a side man, and
I met this young lady. Uh we came back to
the States, and she said, what's the matter. I said, man,
(09:28):
you know, I've always been the front man. I've always
been the singer, and uh, you know, I'm sitting way
in the back of the group. And she said to me,
she said, feel it. You don't think this guy's gonna
let you sing, do you? And I said, oh, I
get it. So basically, it was just a matter of
time before I had to start a band, and there's
a long story behind that. We had this wonderful thing
(09:50):
called the draft. In those days, they said to me,
if aliens attack, we'll call you. Other than that, go
back home, because they were a little select off in
the beginning. And that's when I started the band because
I could. The name of the first band was what Well,
I've a number of bands. I had Felix of the Escorts,
I had all this kind of thing. But you know,
when we got the guys together, that was my plan.
(10:12):
Let let me see if I can get the best
guys that I can find in the New York area.
And I found some really talented guys. Of course, Eddie Briggotti.
I was working with his brother, and here's this little
guy man sing his tail off, unbelievable dance and singing.
Cornish came from Rochester, Gene Cornish, and he was also
with Joey d for a while there. And then that
(10:33):
same young lady introduced me to Dino Danelli, the drummer,
and I saw him play one song at the Metropol
in New York. I saw him play one song, I
who Have Nothing, and he did it such a show.
I said, Man, I gotta ask this cat to join us,
and that's how we stuck. Who's the one that sang
that song? Tom Jones, who made a hit out of
I who have nothing? Jeez, I don't know I who
(10:56):
have no song? Great song? So which collection of musicians
that you put together? Do you get your first record
deal with? Your first record contract comes and who's a board? Well?
I got a record contract up to Syracuse, but it
was jive. It was just this guy trying to make
money off me. And then years later came out they
called up the Rascals. This business is something else, man,
(11:18):
but the Rascals really was the first major contract. Atlantic
Records came out to this place we were working on
the island called the Barge in the Hampton's. That was
the place we got to offer it to do this
job out there. There was this a major discotheque in
New York on Dean's and the gentleman who owned that
place invited us to do the Barge in the Hampton's
(11:38):
for the summer. And I knew growing up near Long
Island that the Hamptons was a place where a lot
of people who are really important people going to summer.
Bettie Davis used to summer out there. It was wild.
So I knew that if we were going to get discovered,
we were going to get discovered there. And we did.
And that's the group that you mentioned in before, the
guys you put together, and this would be so now
(11:59):
you have the Rascals together, and the Rascals make their
first record deal win. Right. Then this gentleman saw us
and he knew Sid Bernstein, the promoter who brought the
Beatles to the US, and so Sid came out and
wanted to manage us. He really helped us. He introduced
us to all the right people, and Atlantic was the
only label that would allow us to produce ourselves. I
(12:20):
wanted to produce ourselves. I didn't I didn't want somebody
that I didn't know taking over. Why. Well, I had
an idea, you know, I had a musical idea, you know.
And I kept saying, too, director, look you like what
you heard. That's why you're signing us, give us a shot. Well,
here's where the fantastic luck comes in. So Atlantic signs
us up and they put us in the studio with
(12:42):
two geniuses, Arife Mardin and Tom Dowd. So it was
like thank you, as all you can say, because now
we had our George Martin. You respected them giants, just
absolute giants. And what do they do for a guy
like you who you yourself said that you wanted to
mention to Atlantic I want to do. I want you
(13:03):
to trust me and do my own thing. What do
those guys give you? A good producer does what for you?
A good producer should bring out what you want to
put on in those days tape. You know the words,
You've got an idea for a song, right, well, let
me help you. Know this guy, Arief Martin, was a Turk.
He came over here because what happened was Quincy Jones
(13:24):
went to Turkey and on the way to the airport
the way I hear it, Aliff somehow got him a cassette.
Before Quincy landed back in the United States, he contacted
him and asked him to come and join and be
a professor at Berkeley. That's how good this guy was.
So he ended up producing like Bett Middler. He ended
up a Shaka Khan b G's. When you got somebody
(13:46):
like that on your team, it's like an encyclopedia of
music standing right over here. You know, I like to
do a French song. I like to do a song
sounds like how can I be sure? Oh, no problem,
and he could orchestrate it for your right on this.
I mean, it was just magic. That's what the Beatles
had with George Bournon. So the first album you release
with those guys is what year I was about? And
(14:09):
how did that album do? It? Did? Okay? Okay? So
right away there was some appetite for your recorded sound.
Is where the good luck came in. Because see, uh,
in those days when you worked in the club, everybody
was twenty one or over. So the proprietors that they
wanted you to do covers, they didn't. They were not
interested in the least in anything that you had to say. Originally,
(14:30):
I found these songs that people didn't know. I would
find them, like, for example, I found Bustanks Sally and
I heard this thing on the radio and then I
heard this song called good Love. It from the first
time we paid Good Loving. Everybody got up and danced,
So the first album contained Good Loving. So what they
did Atlantic is they put that out as the second signal.
(14:52):
It was number one. So all of a sudden, this
little obscure bunch of guys coming into the studio guess
and trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
We were stars, we were big, so the table turned
a little bit and now we got a chance to
do our things unproven, totally unproven, and we got lucky.
(15:20):
This is how can I Be Sure? Sung by The
Rascal's other lead vocalist, Eddie Brigatti. Felix Cavalieri is not
the only guest on our show who mentions an individual
producer for the success of his recording career. Go to
our archives and listen to my conversation with Darryl Hall,
who credits the same producer for developing Hall and notes sound.
(15:43):
Is there a producer that comes into your life that
takes you to the next level, that helps you make
the sound that becomes your sound? Yeah, a Reef Morten,
the producer arranger behind Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin. His his
label was in Atlantic, So I was in that world
in that scene. I mean, I remember I'm saying to
me and John, he said, just make music, We'll figure
(16:04):
out how to sell it. Here the rest of my
conversation with Darryl Hall at Here's the Thing dot Org
after the break Felix Cavalieri talks about the Rascals appearances
on The Ed Sullivan Show, and the moment when Eddie
Brigotti decided to leave the band. I'm Alec Baldwin and
(16:51):
you're listening to Here's the Thing. In nineteen seventy, Rolling
Stone magazine dubbed The Rascals the Blackest white group. The
Rascals were considered a crossover rock and soul act, popular
on both black R and B and white stations. Felix
felt a strong connection to black musicians and civil rights,
(17:14):
eventually insisting the Rascals would only perform if black acts
were on the ticket, a choice that eliminated parts of
the country from the Rascals tour schedule. Felix and Eddie
Burgotti wrote most of the group's songs, and they were
eager to reflect the politics of the time through their music.
The industry changed thanks to Bob Dylan and the Beatles
(17:37):
and the Stones, and all of a sudden people were writing.
Prior to that, we would go to publishers and they
would give you songs. Let's tell how Neil Diamond and
Carol King started off. But when those guys came out,
Now all of a sudden you could write. At least
that was the theory. So you have to have a
lot of good luck to be able to write and
get hit records with the bar up that high. Because
(17:58):
those Beatles they had some pretty good songs, you know
what I'm saying. So you want to survive. That's the
level of dude, that's where you gotta be. Now, we're
in the band as everybody, or are people in pairs
or whatever the dynamics are they co writing together or
you're all writing your own songs on your own. Did
you co write with anybody in the band or outside
the band? Yeah? I I co wrote with Eddie because
(18:20):
I thought of Lennon McCartney team would be really cool.
And I always felt that he was a little better
than I was with the lyrics because I was too serious.
I put some serious words down there, you know, especially
when I got into my political life or whatever you
want to call it. I mean, I was a pretty
serious guy. Keyboard players have a tendency to be a
little less nuts than some of the other guys in
the band. Well, let's talk about the political aspect. When
(18:43):
when you say he became political, what are you referring to.
I started working for Robert Kennedy's campaign, the sixty eight campaign. Yeah,
I think a lot of us in those days were involved.
We gave a damn about our world. So I got involved.
And I was dating this woman at the time who
was there at these fascination and man, she was never
the same. She wigged out. That's how People Got to
(19:05):
Be Free came out. I said, Man, I gotta say something.
I don't know why people think that musicians and actors
and people are really not allowed to have an opinion.
And I say this in my show because you have
a right to say something. Now you don't get everybody mad.
Oh my god. Nowadays you got the Dixie Chicks that
come out and all of a sudden, everybody blackballs and
(19:26):
it's nonsense. So we wrote, I wrote People got to
Be Free. And they didn't want to put it at
the label. We had control, and you got it out there.
That was in our contract. And and so me and Jerry,
who actually went head to head. You know, it was
a great relationship, man, when I said, we gotta put
this out. Man, this is it's just it means something
that people know where we're coming from. But at the
(19:48):
same time. And you mentioned the Beatles because the Beatles
had this happen I think in Florida where they wouldn't
play because it was a whites only audience. We had
that What was the venue? Where where did all that
play out? What happened was Baltimore, I think, and there
was this group I think it's called a Young Whole Trio.
It was a black group, but they were really black music.
They were crossover music. So we were crossed over when
(20:10):
we had a hit. We had the R and B
stations and the white stations. So these guys came up
to the backstage and said, Mr Cavalery Felix, we really
like to play for white what it says sometimes? And
I says, you know, man, I love to play for
black audiences sometimes because they rock. And it hit me,
why not let's have a black act opening up for us.
(20:33):
I had no idea the trouble because little that I
know when we went down South where I'm living now,
it's so stupid, you know, I mean, really, you love
the music, but you can't come to the shows. I mean,
wait a second, did you have any were their protests
with them that I got to know stokely car Micha
(20:55):
and all those guys. Because they came out to some
of the gigs, their promoters wouldn't let us play sometimes,
you know, they wouldn't they wouldn't have the shows I
went to school with. I don't know if you know
who Mickey Schwarner was. He was one of those guys
that went down to Mississippi got killed, Jeney Schwarner and Goodman. Yeah,
he was in my school. So I got really in
the beginning of my life for a number of reasons,
(21:16):
mostly because of our Italian heritage. I got pretty rebelized.
I didn't like the way people cheated. Were your parents
or grandparents victimized by prejudice as immigrants? Absolutely, So you
carried that with you. I really carried that with me.
A long story short. You know, my mom was a
very educated person, and you know, when we moved to
Westchester County, there weren't too many of us around in
(21:37):
those days, and they really insulted her. It was a
long story, but very simply, she wanted to join this club,
this flower club whatever it was. They said, oh, certainly
we could use somebody to serve lunch. And I said,
what did you say, come back here. So I hit
this cord a long time ago, and I don't like it,
and I don't like it today because I I don't understand,
(22:00):
you know, I think that you know, as you know,
our nation right now, it's pretty divided. I don't understand that.
Somebody's gonna explain to me. To me, it's like people
are either going to embrace the change or the change
is gonna come down on top of them. But when
you say that your girlfriend at the time, she worked
on the Kennedy campaign, right around the time you're starting
(22:21):
to really make it in the business, they refer to
you as a very black white band, the black sounding
white band. Correct. I start to hear a bit of that. Absolutely.
We were the first white act on the Red and
Black Atlantic label. And you know, the best story I
have his otis reading Man because in those days they
didn't quite especially in Atlantic, they didn't have the barriers
(22:42):
up like recording do not enter. So he came knocking
on the door one day, looks and he goes, oh
my god, they are white. They didn't know. There was
no videos per se in those days. They didn't know.
And of course to me that was like very cool
thing because we're walking around the whole with guys that
guy I have every record they ever made, Sam and
(23:03):
Dave and Benny King and some of these jazz greats.
They're all walking the halls of Atlantic Records, and so
am I. So I felt it was pretty cool. I
really enjoyed it. And you do Sullivan? What year you
guys were on Sullivan twice? We were about five or
six times. You really I had to tell said, you
know enough because we're over exposing. Yeah, that was a
(23:25):
real interesting let me tell you right, I'll never forget.
One of the best books I ever read to appreciate
these seems to the timeline and the seems in the
timeline of the business was Nick Tosh's biography of Dean Martin. Yes,
and man, you can't believe how you see that line
(23:46):
where Elvis comes along and Dean Martin says, I'm doing
what Bing Crosby did, and now Elvis is doing what.
It's like a line Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Elvis. The
style is a little different, the lyrics are different, songs
are different, but crooning is crooning, and it's hard to
believe for people to understand that the guy of Sullivan's background,
(24:07):
who was really the staple of the vaudeville era. Well,
he was a journalist. He was a columnist, columnist, and
he wrote an entertainment column like a you know, army archer.
And he's this unlikely gate keeper. He's such an unlikely figure.
He's the skinny little guy who's you know, this weird
style of talking for people who were obviously talking to
(24:29):
people who don't know Sullivan, which I'm sure most people do.
And yet these emerging acts, including the Beatles, of course,
use that show as the platform to becoming really famous
in the United States. The show and you guys did
that show five times? Yes, what was that? Like? This
is an experience because we had to be there six
(24:51):
actually seven days a week. We started on Monday at
seven am, and you know, we we kind of run through,
run through, run through. One through was very strictly run
Saturday night we did a live show with no TV,
but there was an audience, and then Sunday we do
the real thing, and the real thing. He screwed it
(25:11):
up every time because he would see someone in the
audience that he knew, and as he was getting older,
he'd lose his place and there you go. Now you
just lost fifteen twenty seconds. Where we're going to get
it from. We're going to get it from. Oh yeah,
and Jackie Mason, you can tell you that story. It
was really exciting because it was live, not taped live.
(25:33):
He didn't know how to deal with us, our generations
of you know, I could tell that he really wasn't
too fond a lot of them. He really because I
got into this thing with his staff because after a while,
the rock bands became like the draw for the show.
You know, you want to do the kids want to
see the beginning. In the end, he created a monster. However,
(25:54):
the dressing rooms did not show that. I said, no,
wait a second. Now, this guy over here, he's about
you know what I mean, he's got a whole floor,
you know, and we're over here in this closet. I said,
that's not gonna work. It was too much. It was
too much. Man Like. I remember my dad. You know,
my dad was a dentist. You could not be any
more conservative than my dad. It was impossible. Do you
remember show that was? The week that was? It was
(26:17):
just lovely blonde. I think her name was Nancy. My
dad really liked her. He liked her. She was on
the show with us. So I said, Dad, come on
into the come on into the green room, and here
he is, right standard. It was so much fun, his dream,
so much fun. Man Like, I said, that's the shame
of where our group broke up, because we we had
a lot of fun, you know, a bunch of crazy kids.
(26:39):
And when you say the shame of the way the
group broke up described that if you will to the
extent that you can. Well, it was really a sad
situation because here we are, we were free agents. We
were going from Atlantic to Colombia, and Colombia in those
days was an international label. Atlantic had just become an
international label when Zeppelin got there. They signed up with
Warner Brothers. Now they were an international label, but prior
(27:02):
to that it was a little difficult for us in
Europe and other countries because we had a different record company.
Is that why you went to Columbia? Yes, And at
the signing Eddie Briggott he just decided that he doesn't
want to do this anymore. That's nice. There's a contract
on the table. What should I tell them? And that
started like this kind of like real negativity that happened.
(27:24):
It actually started before that. What do you think it was?
Why was he unhapped? What did he want to do?
What direction did he want to go in? I don't
think it had anything to do with any of that.
I think that some people can live like a gypsy
and some people can't. Eddie was extremely attached to his family.
Where did he live? Where was his home? He's a
Joysey guy, he's New Jersey, lived in Jersey guy. We
(27:46):
had two jerseys. He just didn't want it. He just
didn't want to travel anymore. He was an unhappy camper.
And it's so funny because he had more fun than
all of us put together on the road. He was
a wild man. So I don't know. I was really
saddened by it because the car we lost a wheel,
you know, and it was really tough to keep spinning.
And he left right then left at the signing and
(28:06):
he didn't come back. He did not come back. And
you've never done reunions with him, nothing, Well, we did
a reunion. We did a reunion, so he so he
would come back and and do and stick his toe
in there. Wow, he came back forty years five years later. Really, yeah,
Steve van Zand had this idea to to do something
with us, and so he contacted us. All actually was,
(28:27):
it was an interesting situation. We started off with that
cancer program that Kristen Carr I think it is that
Bruce and he does, and unfortunately one of my one
of my girls, had that and so I said when
he asked us if we would do a reunion, we
did it. And then from there I was able to
get some real good help for my kid. And after
(28:49):
that that he wanted to do this Broadway show kind
of ideas, so we did. That was goal Once upon
a Dream. That was the last time we worked together
as proxy two thirteen. What's interesting to me is when
you see people have this good thing and they have
a good chemistry, and not all of them, but some
of them move on to other acts which don't replicate
that success. Yeah, it's it's tough. Sound is not the same,
(29:12):
and so you replace him with who We tried to
put together something else. I I did a complete, you know, turn,
and I found some really talented guys. We did two
albums on Columbia that were pretty good albums. They were
more jazz oriented, a little bit more open because at
that time we were jumping into the FM world rather
than the A M with the hits hits hits. It
just wasn't the same, you know, because you know, a
(29:36):
group is a group. But I mean it's just so silly.
I mean, you know that you don't break up a
winning team. Now, you notice a lot of the groups,
especially the English groups, they stay together. They may not
really get along that well, but they stayed together. That's
something that I've always kind of been I'm sorry about,
you know, I wish we could have remained friends. So
the year that you're at the signing and Eddie splits,
(29:58):
what year is a nineteen sevent you proxibly? Yeah, nineteen
seventy fifty years ago, A long time ago, man, what
I'm saying. But when you have a contract on the table,
you have a contract in front of you. In order
to fulfill that contract, who takes at the's place? Well,
we I brought a fellow in that I thought it
could help, and then we changed the group entirely, you know,
And and Clive Davis, he gave us the benefit of
(30:20):
the dot. He said, well let's keep going. You know. Actually,
you know, it's just a shame, you know, because so
we had a good thing going. We had a good team,
and the team was good, you know, but you know,
things happened. I'm sure it's happened to many people in
many businesses. They have these partnerships and these situations and
and all of a sudden, you know, it just doesn't
work out. For what reason. I can't answer that. I mean,
(30:43):
we had no embezzling, Nobody took anybody's wife. You know,
there was nothing, you know, really, I don't think we
really had any drug problems that I was aware of.
Just the stupidity when you're coming up and you're performing
in the sixties, when you guys really break out. Everything
is radio. When I bought a Sony transistor radio with
(31:05):
the old earpiece, the individual earpiece you'd plug in so
I could play music under the covers of my bed
at night, when I'm like fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old,
and I'm listening to Build Me Up, Buttercup and all together,
a m hits of the sixties. When did you begin
(31:26):
to sense that the music business was changing in terms
of content? Right after wood Stock? Wood Stock was the
beginning of the end, because the big guys came in
the corporations. Ah ha, there's an audience here, let's go
get them. And they did. See and then what was
a you know, mon pop business, you know, turned into
(31:48):
a conglomerate business, which is you know where we are today.
You know, Let's see now, now, who put this group together?
I think God put this group together. How about if
I try it, we could put together a super group.
Will just match them up, that's all. It doesn't work
like that, you know. And then you know, little things
like you know, you know, we used to have illegal payola,
(32:10):
Well how about legal commercials. I can buy fifteen minutes
of your time, can't I? And I can do what
I want. It's progressed to the point of where we
have that what do you call, I hate to say,
a Patriot Act? And you know, we can now buy
our way into whatever we want. That's what happens to
the music business. However, I always feel the talent such
as Prince Elton John there's gonna be a lot more
(32:34):
people like that coming around, and and they will buck
this system, you know, and they will they will be
known and famous because they're so darned good. That's that's
how I believe. So it's not that I'm all, you know,
coming from a negative point of view, but I think
the corporations really took the charm, you know. I mean
like for example, when we used to travel around the US.
We go to New Orleans, we hear New Orleans music.
(32:55):
We go to l A, we hear Beach music. It's
all the same. Everybody's get the same play lists. It's
like driving down the interstate and all the restaurants are
the same and every where. Am I Yeah, we've lost
the indigenous flavor because you know what what you were
saying about, you know, with your transistor radio. You see
the people who are around in those days, they all
(33:16):
have that joy of listening to the music, just like
you did. We all have that, you know what I mean.
It's like Ringo, like when he gets on stage, you
gotta pull him off the stage. He doesn't need to
be on stage for God, He's just it's in his soul,
you know. And and that's that's the type of people.
Like we go around with the zombies and people like that.
They want to play and man, I'm missing I'll tell you,
(33:38):
you know, I'm really looking forward to getting back out
there to You should see the Rascals singer and keyboard
player Felix Cavalieri. If you're enjoying this episode, please follow
Here's the Thing on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
(34:00):
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and while you're there,
we'd love for you to leave us a review. When
we return from the break, Felix Cavalieri talks about producing
artists like Laura Nero and why he always ends up
back out on the road. Simple a man understanding. I'm
(34:52):
Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Since
we were both raised on rock and roll, I want
to to know if Felix remembers the first time he
heard the Rascals on his transistor radio. First smash it
was good loving, But the first time we heard ourselves
on the radio was we were in New York. We're
all living together in this hotel in New York, and
(35:13):
cousin Brucie played I Ain't going out in my heart
anymore seventies seven w ABC, and you know he's back
there now, he's he's back a yeah, yeah, he's in
his eighties. He's still rocking. Man, he's still gone. You
believe God, bless you know what, that's the real deal there, man.
So shout out to him, man, because he's a good
man to the first time you hear it. I mean
(35:35):
we were walking on the street with that same little
transistor radio. Oh my god, it was so cool. What
song it was? I ain't going to addit my heart anymore.
But you know, sometimes I'm walking in like you know,
Publix or one of the supermarkets, and and I hear
one of my songs and I go, that's cool. They
don't know, man, that's me up there. Bro, that's so beautiful.
It's it's thrill. When you would record or when you
(35:58):
would perform live, was there a ritual for you? What
did you do? Wait? Did you Did you wake up
and you were ready? You know, man, you wake up
when you're ready, you know. I mean, like I said,
we we had a ritual. But the ritual also included,
you know, the writing of this song, that the recording
of the song, the producing of the song, and the
playing of the song. Because we played our own instruments,
you know, we we only had one extra guy, which
(36:20):
because we didn't have a bass player. You know, I
had a bass player on my foot, you know, in
the organ so when we went in, yeah, you had
to be ready. You are you producing now? Are you
writing songs down there and producing down there? Well? I
was trying to before all this happened. I you know,
we got some really really talented people around here. This
is really cool. It's a great place for for musicians,
(36:41):
you know, and and up and coming people. The problem
is that, you know, I don't want to tune anybody up.
I want them to be able to sing. I mean
computer enhance. Yeah, and so that that limits a lot
of it, so lest of them can really deliver the
goods absolutely. That's why you got that big doing not
enter side recording. You don't want to hear this, and
(37:01):
it's just as too bad. What are some of the
other acts over these past several years? Have you've been
down there? Thirty years? Down there? You did produce people
like Laura Nero? Correct, yes, out did that association give
made who brought you together? Her manager was a gentleman
by her name of David Geffen. He also managed Janie
and I think he managed Crosby Stills in Dares and
and let me tell you something, he was really a
good manager. And he invited me, he says how would
(37:23):
you like to meet the most difficult person you've ever met?
I said, Wow, I can hardly wait. He says, Laura
has mentioned you many times. She really enjoys your work.
Would would you like to produce Laura? Near? It was
life changing event. She was the coolest lady I've remember
my life. Ah man. She was so talented, complete opposite
(37:45):
of what we're talking about, Like she could care less
if she sold a record. She just wanted to make art.
That was her thing. For example, I called up our reef,
I said, a Reef, I I got this great opportunity
to produced this. Jim, would you like to join me?
Would you like to help me? And he said yeah.
Because you know, it's interesting in those days, he was
(38:05):
working for almad Organ and those guys over Atlantic, and
they didn't realize that they had a complete, absolute diamond
in the rough with this guy. So when he when
I took him out of there and and we went
over to Columbia to produce Laura, they immediately made him
a vice president. But you know, immediately they put him
on the big time payroll. But anyway, what happened basically
(38:27):
is that she just had a kind of almost like
another century outlook on things like if she was born
a hundred years ago, would have made a lot of
sense where she was at. You know, how much did
you work with her? You did one album with her,
I worked as I did. I did two albums with her, Uh,
the second one. I was kind of brought in as
a relief mechanism because she was kind of getting a
(38:49):
little bit too far out or too far in really,
because she didn't even want to go to the studios anymore.
She wanted to work out of her home. So I
was called into kind of finish a couple of projects her.
But what a talent. But did you sense then or
did you a sense later on that you could have
had a career just producing people like that. Yeah, yeah,
(39:10):
I think I could have done that as well. But
you know, as I say, you didn't want that. You
didn't want to pass it on, so to speak. I
love getting on stage and singing and playing. Man. You know,
it's it's hard to get that out of your system,
especially when people want to hear you. You know, if
you work and nobody comes out to see it, okay,
but you know they were, they were coming out, and
I decided let me keep doing that and producing also
(39:32):
became something again. Now it's a huge industry now as
a matter of fact, it's taken precedence over the actual
song and in some cases the singer because the production
could be so maddening good that it's a hit, you know,
And and a lot of it is done in the
box in a computer. Who's the cream that's rising to
the top? Now in the music business, is there anybody
(39:53):
you like? Oh, they're coming there, They're come up there.
There's so much talent out There's ridiculous thing, is it's
just this, so much out there? How do you try
to tune into what's going on? Too much? It's impossible.
There's good things, like I'm talking about streaming, but there's
good things about streaming. I mean, like, for example, I
had a phenomenal record collection. You know, I used to
(40:15):
not have lunch, man. I would go up and buy
you know, like the music, and you know, it all burnt.
I had a big fire. It all it's all gone,
So so did Orbison. That's so funny. Yeah, we were
Royce House in Malibu burned and he lost all his
archive and I had like classical stuff, man, I mean,
I had phenomenal. Where did that happen? Where was the
house I was in? I was in Tennessee, you know,
(40:36):
down here to Tennessee. My kids, your house, their court fire. Yeah,
like my kids left the fluorescent light on and but anyway,
thank god, nobody got hurt. My granddaughter was there and
you know, we were okay. Everything was good except for
the house. How many kids do you have? I had five.
I already lost one of my kids, and I don't
want to ever do that again. You know, it's a
it's a tough thing. You lost one of your kids.
(40:57):
My daughter, yeah, she uh as the reason we did
that cancer foundation. She she had it. She had cancer
Long Island. You know how old was she passed away?
She was how I'm so sorry. That's horrible, or any
of them in the business at all. Thank god. No,
now they got the idea. They get it. You know.
I've got a couple of my daughters. I mean, they're
(41:18):
really excellent singers, but you know, they she tried, she
wanted to New York and got beat up immediately and said,
you know, I'm gonna go and raise a family, you know,
but but go back if you wouldn't tell me so
so the house catches fire, horrible tragedy, and you lost
your record collection, and I lost my Hall of Fame trophy.
They won't even give me another one in the rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. I lost all that stuff.
(41:39):
They wouldn't give you another rock and Roll Hall of
Fame trump. No, no no, no, because so many people seldom
I'm not asking you to choose one, but among the many,
you would choose. If you could take an album out
of that old vinyl collection, if we could restore that
vinyl collection, and you could put an album on a
turntable and laid back and play some music that would
transport you, what would you put on the turn? Well,
(42:01):
you know, seriously, as as I learned to appreciate, you know,
the music comes out of, you know, the classical world,
i'd have to say, somebody from the from that world,
you know, like you would play classical music. Yeah, because
first of all, I want to stay alive for that
forty five minutes an already hear it, none of these
three minutes songs. Who was among your favorite classical composers? Oh,
(42:23):
the pianists, the Chopin's and Schubert's and oh man, As
I say that there's something about the lack of lyric
that transports you to a different place. I'll tell you, man,
I did a symphony with my music here down in Nashville.
We've got an excellent symphon extra here. And it was
really really an honor, a treat for me to do that.
You put you performed with them. I performed with the
(42:43):
seventy piece orchestra. Where did you play? I paid my
whole repertoire everything, or you played your music with that?
I did all my music. It was fantastic. It's just
something after all these years to bring that back. Those
guys been around a long time. Man. That's good music,
really good music. But you know what you're saying, and
I see the joy when you're speaking about that little
transistor radio. That's how it is when I'm playing for
(43:07):
my audiences out there. That's what we had, was that connection,
that musical connection. People really loved that music. It's part
of your soul, It's part oh yeah, oh yeah. Man.
So I try to connect everybody like that, make them sing,
you make them feel together, like when you do it
to Billy Jones, Madison is going, I know every word,
(43:28):
every word. Come on many that that's magic. I wish
I could come see your shows because a lot of
your songs I know every where too. There you go,
we'll get there, yeah, exactly when this is over. Thanks
for doing this with us, Matt, thank you, thank you
with you on a Sunda afternoon. Felix Cavalieri of the Rascals.
(43:51):
I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
from my Heart radio. I can't imagine anything that the
world as ours whenever went to in a place I
like to be, it stead a bood, she's down, a
(44:16):
crowded halling you to it, and a thing we likes
to do. It's only lots of things that we can see.
We can't be anywhere. We're elected, all the happy people
(44:42):
we did me to do that. I'm a Sunday afternoon feah.
I couldn't get away too soon. No no, no no
I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
from my Heart Radio. It's the Beautiful. Just back in
(00:29):
the early days of rock and roll, men and women
wrote songs, played instruments and sang vocals, supported only by
recording technology that is primitive compared to today. In other words,
you actually had to have talent. My guest today is
one of those legendary earlier rock and rollers, Felix Cavalieri
(00:51):
of the Rascals. That's Felix singing and playing his Hammond
B three organ on this track. The Rascals Felix, Eddie Brigatti,
Dino Danelli and Gene Cornish formed in nine and produced
nine hit songs over the next three years, songs everybody knows, grooving, good,
(01:14):
loving people, got to be Free, and It's a Beautiful Morning.
Felix Cavalieri's mother started him on piano at age six,
but his world was turned upside down in junior high
when he first heard the music of Fats Domino, Chuck
Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. It changed his world and
(01:35):
hours forever. Felix is originally from the New York City area,
but he's lived in Nashville for decades. What happened to
me basically is is I had these gentlemen approached me
that they were starting at management company. They invited me
down to Nashville to meet with them. I came down here.
All of a sudden, I started to see people I knew, like,
(01:56):
for example, John k Steppenwolf, Bobby Glaudio was down here
for four seasons. We had two of springsteense guys. We
still have one. Gary Tallant is still down here. I said,
what is this? He said, oh, man, this is the place.
I said, you sure, is it? Yeah, this is the place.
You should come down here. And it was so interesting
because now it's very different because the word is out.
(02:17):
But it was so nice and quaint. You could actually
walk into a place and you didn't have to make
an appointment. And here's my best story. When I first
got here, they said, oh, there's a bank in town
that you know, it really helps out musicians songwriters. I said,
you're kidding. He said, yeah. They got a special department
for publishing and writing and song ring as. It's just
(02:39):
like New York. The department in New York was called
the Exit. They rocked him. You here, I said, and
it's true. How long you been down there? You said
twenty years? Now about thirty years, thirty years, thirty years.
I've been here and I've watched it lose a lot
of that quaintness and a lot of that jeez, just
walking any time you want, what would you say? I
mean your voice, your songs, which you know seem from
(03:02):
such a different error because they're so pure. Your music
is so pure. It's pretty music sung with great passion,
beautiful songs, beautiful armrangements, beautiful singing, great writing. It's in
that category of music that just puts people in a
happy mood the minute they hear it. It relaxes them.
And when I'm wondering, is there anything about the business
(03:23):
now that's better than it used to be? Or was
it all better back then? Now? Just the technology is better,
we can do this. For example, recently, before all this
pandemic started, I was doing an album and then all
of a sudden everything got locked down. I was able
to continue doing the album at home. See that, that's
the difference the technology. So it's good and it's bad.
(03:44):
What's good about it is that, man, it's just so
much fun to make music in your house now. Of
course you really missed the guys in the studio and
all that. But we can do it online now. But
would you prefer when the COVID's over it to be
back face to face with people, because I'm shooting a
TV show right now, and I gotta say that a
little bit of the joy the camaraderie of working with
(04:06):
people that you admire, working with people you like, and
being able to relax not every day but some days
and just shoot the ship with them and have a
good conversation with some actor or actress or writer director
that you really perspect. The joy for me of acting
has been who I met. Of course, we've done only
five shows this year, but we did one in California
in October. There was an outdoor venue as a casino. Normally,
(04:29):
the guys go on stage and they sound check. They
start about three o'clock and then the show is at eight.
We couldn't get them off the stage to stop rehearsing.
They just missed each other so much. One of the
things that I realized when we're doing this, I I
just did this thing for Hello TV, which is a
new kind of idea that what they're doing is they're
filming a live show and then they're going to broadcast it.
(04:51):
I'll tell you now, you do this all the time.
You work in front of a camera, and you don't
necessarily have an audience. I'll tell you, man, there was
no audience that I was exhausted. I'm playing to the
camera and there's nobody out there going yeah, yo, you
know this. I was so tired at the end of
that the ace. You grew up in New York correct,
pretty close to the part of New York. Tell um,
(05:11):
New York right out? And what did your dad do?
My family was all in medicine. I was the only
one that decided to jump out to this crazy world. Yeah,
they were all in medicine. My dad was a dentist,
my mom was a pharmacist. And basically they just saw
some talent in me. So they started when I was
about five classical music lessons playing my piano, paying piano.
(05:32):
And then one day I went to junior high and
this guy who was sitting in front of me was
to become one of my dearest friends, and he said
to me, said, do you like rock and roll? I
didn't know what he was talking about. Really, I've never
heard it classical music. They keep you pretty strict. How
old were you at the time. I was junior high.
So it was no Elvis, no Bill Haley, none of
(05:55):
that fifties music. It's kind of like being Catholic. You
know what I'm saying, You're not allowed to go to
the other You know what I'm saying. Classical people, they
don't want you to go and listen to anything. So
I said yes, I said, yeah, I like it. But
I went home. And the good luck was that Alan
Freed was in New York. He brought it from Cleveland
to New York. Rock and roll. Sure, remember we did it, man.
So I heard all those things those guys from the beginning,
(06:17):
the piano players like Fats Domino, Jerry Lewis flipped me out. Man,
I said, man, this is so cool. It was the
only word I could say. And then that started me.
But when you're playing classical piano and you're sequestered in
this classical music bubble as a young boy, and you
start to appreciate and want to put your toe in
(06:38):
the water there in terms of popular music and rock music,
you're one of the most famous singers in the history
of music. When did the singing. Start just joy, man,
just joy. Wow, I'd love to try that, man, how
cool would that be. It's just when you start out
you start doing other people's songs. I get these phenomenal
singers to copy, like Benny King and and Margot Gay.
(07:01):
So you do their songs and all of a sudden
you say, man, I'm singing these songs man. And then
and then if you're lucky, you get a style if
you're lucky interesting, But it's just the joy of playing
and singing and that music. So Benny King and and
and Marvin Gay and any of those people that were
your earliest exposure. Radio was your gateway. I'm hearing I'm
(07:22):
on the radio, and I'm saying, like, wow, in those days,
you didn't have like the computer to tune your voice, right,
you know what I'm saying. That's why we wanted you
on the show because you could actually sing. Those guys
that names I've mentioned, and there's so many more, they
were phenomenal. Are you kidding me? I mean that these
(07:43):
guys singing, you go like ho. And you know, I've
had the honor of meeting a lot of these guys,
you know, and I just love it so I did it,
tried it. Who was the first person that you regarded
that you respected their opinion? Who told you you could sing?
Who's the person that said to you keep going in
that direction? As of vocalists, well, you know, I started
off the cat Skills. I had took a band from
(08:04):
Syracuse University to the Catskical Mountains. So now you're in college. Yeah,
I'm in college. I took a summer off and I
literally never went back. And it's a great story because
Joey D's band came there and they saw me, and
they were in Europe and their organ player quit. So
they called me up to join them in Germany, and
so I flew and play the organ, play the organ. Yeah,
(08:26):
I went over there. And the way the story goes,
I'm changing the such a little bit. But they were
working with this group called the Beatles, and nobody, nobody
had heard of them yet. Now I'm a college kid
deciding whether I should stay in school or look at
all these girls screaming and hollering and what is this?
You know? And I remember it vividly here in their music.
(08:46):
I'm saying, wow, they were singing group. They weren't that
good on the at least I didn't really get their
music yet. And then when they did arm music, being
American music, they were okay. Well, when they did their music,
it was like outstanding. So I said, I think I
do this. But it was in the Royal Hotel that
people started paying attention to me, you know, they said, hey, man,
you're pretty good. You're pretty good. You're pretty good. Half
(09:07):
of them trying to impress their dates. So when you
go to Europe to play the organ for these guys,
they asked you to start singing. No, they just asked
me to start playing. When when did the singing begin?
When do you become the front man? Has a good question. Well,
I got a little depressed being a side man, and
I met this young lady. Uh we came back to
the States, and she said, what's the matter. I said, man,
(09:28):
you know, I've always been the front man. I've always
been the singer, and uh, you know, I'm sitting way
in the back of the group. And she said to me,
she said, feel it. You don't think this guy's gonna
let you sing, do you? And I said, oh, I
get it. So basically, it was just a matter of
time before I had to start a band, and there's
a long story behind that. We had this wonderful thing
(09:50):
called the draft. In those days, they said to me,
if aliens attack, we'll call you. Other than that, go
back home, because they were a little select off in
the beginning. And that's when I started the band because
I could. The name of the first band was what Well,
I've a number of bands. I had Felix of the Escorts,
I had all this kind of thing. But you know,
when we got the guys together, that was my plan.
(10:12):
Let let me see if I can get the best
guys that I can find in the New York area.
And I found some really talented guys. Of course, Eddie Briggotti.
I was working with his brother, and here's this little
guy man sing his tail off, unbelievable dance and singing.
Cornish came from Rochester, Gene Cornish, and he was also
with Joey d for a while there. And then that
(10:33):
same young lady introduced me to Dino Danelli, the drummer,
and I saw him play one song at the Metropol
in New York. I saw him play one song, I
who Have Nothing, and he did it such a show.
I said, Man, I gotta ask this cat to join us,
and that's how we stuck. Who's the one that sang
that song? Tom Jones, who made a hit out of
I who have nothing? Jeez, I don't know I who
(10:56):
have no song? Great song? So which collection of musicians
that you put together? Do you get your first record
deal with? Your first record contract comes and who's a board? Well?
I got a record contract up to Syracuse, but it
was jive. It was just this guy trying to make
money off me. And then years later came out they
called up the Rascals. This business is something else, man,
(11:18):
but the Rascals really was the first major contract. Atlantic
Records came out to this place we were working on
the island called the Barge in the Hampton's. That was
the place we got to offer it to do this
job out there. There was this a major discotheque in
New York on Dean's and the gentleman who owned that
place invited us to do the Barge in the Hampton's
(11:38):
for the summer. And I knew growing up near Long
Island that the Hamptons was a place where a lot
of people who are really important people going to summer.
Bettie Davis used to summer out there. It was wild.
So I knew that if we were going to get discovered,
we were going to get discovered there. And we did.
And that's the group that you mentioned in before, the
guys you put together, and this would be so now
(11:59):
you have the Rascals together, and the Rascals make their
first record deal win. Right. Then this gentleman saw us
and he knew Sid Bernstein, the promoter who brought the
Beatles to the US, and so Sid came out and
wanted to manage us. He really helped us. He introduced
us to all the right people, and Atlantic was the
only label that would allow us to produce ourselves. I
(12:20):
wanted to produce ourselves. I didn't I didn't want somebody
that I didn't know taking over. Why. Well, I had
an idea, you know, I had a musical idea, you know.
And I kept saying, too, director, look you like what
you heard. That's why you're signing us, give us a shot. Well,
here's where the fantastic luck comes in. So Atlantic signs
us up and they put us in the studio with
(12:42):
two geniuses, Arife Mardin and Tom Dowd. So it was
like thank you, as all you can say, because now
we had our George Martin. You respected them giants, just
absolute giants. And what do they do for a guy
like you who you yourself said that you wanted to
mention to Atlantic I want to do. I want you
(13:03):
to trust me and do my own thing. What do
those guys give you? A good producer does what for you?
A good producer should bring out what you want to
put on in those days tape. You know the words,
You've got an idea for a song, right, well, let
me help you. Know this guy, Arief Martin, was a Turk.
He came over here because what happened was Quincy Jones
(13:24):
went to Turkey and on the way to the airport
the way I hear it, Aliff somehow got him a cassette.
Before Quincy landed back in the United States, he contacted
him and asked him to come and join and be
a professor at Berkeley. That's how good this guy was.
So he ended up producing like Bett Middler. He ended
up a Shaka Khan b G's. When you got somebody
(13:46):
like that on your team, it's like an encyclopedia of
music standing right over here. You know, I like to
do a French song. I like to do a song
sounds like how can I be sure? Oh, no problem,
and he could orchestrate it for your right on this.
I mean, it was just magic. That's what the Beatles
had with George Bournon. So the first album you release
with those guys is what year I was about? And
(14:09):
how did that album do? It? Did? Okay? Okay? So
right away there was some appetite for your recorded sound.
Is where the good luck came in. Because see, uh,
in those days when you worked in the club, everybody
was twenty one or over. So the proprietors that they
wanted you to do covers, they didn't. They were not
interested in the least in anything that you had to say. Originally,
(14:30):
I found these songs that people didn't know. I would
find them, like, for example, I found Bustanks Sally and
I heard this thing on the radio and then I
heard this song called good Love. It from the first
time we paid Good Loving. Everybody got up and danced,
So the first album contained Good Loving. So what they
did Atlantic is they put that out as the second signal.
(14:52):
It was number one. So all of a sudden, this
little obscure bunch of guys coming into the studio guess
and trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
We were stars, we were big, so the table turned
a little bit and now we got a chance to
do our things unproven, totally unproven, and we got lucky.
(15:20):
This is how can I Be Sure? Sung by The
Rascal's other lead vocalist, Eddie Brigatti. Felix Cavalieri is not
the only guest on our show who mentions an individual
producer for the success of his recording career. Go to
our archives and listen to my conversation with Darryl Hall,
who credits the same producer for developing Hall and notes sound.
(15:43):
Is there a producer that comes into your life that
takes you to the next level, that helps you make
the sound that becomes your sound? Yeah, a Reef Morten,
the producer arranger behind Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin. His his
label was in Atlantic, So I was in that world
in that scene. I mean, I remember I'm saying to
me and John, he said, just make music, We'll figure
(16:04):
out how to sell it. Here the rest of my
conversation with Darryl Hall at Here's the Thing dot Org
after the break Felix Cavalieri talks about the Rascals appearances
on The Ed Sullivan Show, and the moment when Eddie
Brigotti decided to leave the band. I'm Alec Baldwin and
(16:51):
you're listening to Here's the Thing. In nineteen seventy, Rolling
Stone magazine dubbed The Rascals the Blackest white group. The
Rascals were considered a crossover rock and soul act, popular
on both black R and B and white stations. Felix
felt a strong connection to black musicians and civil rights,
(17:14):
eventually insisting the Rascals would only perform if black acts
were on the ticket, a choice that eliminated parts of
the country from the Rascals tour schedule. Felix and Eddie
Burgotti wrote most of the group's songs, and they were
eager to reflect the politics of the time through their music.
The industry changed thanks to Bob Dylan and the Beatles
(17:37):
and the Stones, and all of a sudden people were writing.
Prior to that, we would go to publishers and they
would give you songs. Let's tell how Neil Diamond and
Carol King started off. But when those guys came out,
Now all of a sudden you could write. At least
that was the theory. So you have to have a
lot of good luck to be able to write and
get hit records with the bar up that high. Because
(17:58):
those Beatles they had some pretty good songs, you know
what I'm saying. So you want to survive. That's the
level of dude, that's where you gotta be. Now, we're
in the band as everybody, or are people in pairs
or whatever the dynamics are they co writing together or
you're all writing your own songs on your own. Did
you co write with anybody in the band or outside
the band? Yeah? I I co wrote with Eddie because
(18:20):
I thought of Lennon McCartney team would be really cool.
And I always felt that he was a little better
than I was with the lyrics because I was too serious.
I put some serious words down there, you know, especially
when I got into my political life or whatever you
want to call it. I mean, I was a pretty
serious guy. Keyboard players have a tendency to be a
little less nuts than some of the other guys in
the band. Well, let's talk about the political aspect. When
(18:43):
when you say he became political, what are you referring to.
I started working for Robert Kennedy's campaign, the sixty eight campaign. Yeah,
I think a lot of us in those days were involved.
We gave a damn about our world. So I got involved.
And I was dating this woman at the time who
was there at these fascination and man, she was never
the same. She wigged out. That's how People Got to
(19:05):
Be Free came out. I said, Man, I gotta say something.
I don't know why people think that musicians and actors
and people are really not allowed to have an opinion.
And I say this in my show because you have
a right to say something. Now you don't get everybody mad.
Oh my god. Nowadays you got the Dixie Chicks that
come out and all of a sudden, everybody blackballs and
(19:26):
it's nonsense. So we wrote, I wrote People got to
Be Free. And they didn't want to put it at
the label. We had control, and you got it out there.
That was in our contract. And and so me and Jerry,
who actually went head to head. You know, it was
a great relationship, man, when I said, we gotta put
this out. Man, this is it's just it means something
that people know where we're coming from. But at the
(19:48):
same time. And you mentioned the Beatles because the Beatles
had this happen I think in Florida where they wouldn't
play because it was a whites only audience. We had
that What was the venue? Where where did all that
play out? What happened was Baltimore, I think, and there
was this group I think it's called a Young Whole Trio.
It was a black group, but they were really black music.
They were crossover music. So we were crossed over when
(20:10):
we had a hit. We had the R and B
stations and the white stations. So these guys came up
to the backstage and said, Mr Cavalery Felix, we really
like to play for white what it says sometimes? And
I says, you know, man, I love to play for
black audiences sometimes because they rock. And it hit me,
why not let's have a black act opening up for us.
(20:33):
I had no idea the trouble because little that I
know when we went down South where I'm living now,
it's so stupid, you know, I mean, really, you love
the music, but you can't come to the shows. I mean,
wait a second, did you have any were their protests
with them that I got to know stokely car Micha
(20:55):
and all those guys. Because they came out to some
of the gigs, their promoters wouldn't let us play sometimes,
you know, they wouldn't they wouldn't have the shows I
went to school with. I don't know if you know
who Mickey Schwarner was. He was one of those guys
that went down to Mississippi got killed, Jeney Schwarner and Goodman. Yeah,
he was in my school. So I got really in
the beginning of my life for a number of reasons,
(21:16):
mostly because of our Italian heritage. I got pretty rebelized.
I didn't like the way people cheated. Were your parents
or grandparents victimized by prejudice as immigrants? Absolutely, So you
carried that with you. I really carried that with me.
A long story short. You know, my mom was a
very educated person, and you know, when we moved to
Westchester County, there weren't too many of us around in
(21:37):
those days, and they really insulted her. It was a
long story, but very simply, she wanted to join this club,
this flower club whatever it was. They said, oh, certainly
we could use somebody to serve lunch. And I said,
what did you say, come back here. So I hit
this cord a long time ago, and I don't like it,
and I don't like it today because I I don't understand,
(22:00):
you know, I think that you know, as you know,
our nation right now, it's pretty divided. I don't understand that.
Somebody's gonna explain to me. To me, it's like people
are either going to embrace the change or the change
is gonna come down on top of them. But when
you say that your girlfriend at the time, she worked
on the Kennedy campaign, right around the time you're starting
(22:21):
to really make it in the business, they refer to
you as a very black white band, the black sounding
white band. Correct. I start to hear a bit of that. Absolutely.
We were the first white act on the Red and
Black Atlantic label. And you know, the best story I
have his otis reading Man because in those days they
didn't quite especially in Atlantic, they didn't have the barriers
(22:42):
up like recording do not enter. So he came knocking
on the door one day, looks and he goes, oh
my god, they are white. They didn't know. There was
no videos per se in those days. They didn't know.
And of course to me that was like very cool
thing because we're walking around the whole with guys that
guy I have every record they ever made, Sam and
(23:03):
Dave and Benny King and some of these jazz greats.
They're all walking the halls of Atlantic Records, and so
am I. So I felt it was pretty cool. I
really enjoyed it. And you do Sullivan? What year you
guys were on Sullivan twice? We were about five or
six times. You really I had to tell said, you
know enough because we're over exposing. Yeah, that was a
(23:25):
real interesting let me tell you right, I'll never forget.
One of the best books I ever read to appreciate
these seems to the timeline and the seems in the
timeline of the business was Nick Tosh's biography of Dean Martin. Yes,
and man, you can't believe how you see that line
(23:46):
where Elvis comes along and Dean Martin says, I'm doing
what Bing Crosby did, and now Elvis is doing what.
It's like a line Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Elvis. The
style is a little different, the lyrics are different, songs
are different, but crooning is crooning, and it's hard to
believe for people to understand that the guy of Sullivan's background,
(24:07):
who was really the staple of the vaudeville era. Well,
he was a journalist. He was a columnist, columnist, and
he wrote an entertainment column like a you know, army archer.
And he's this unlikely gate keeper. He's such an unlikely figure.
He's the skinny little guy who's you know, this weird
style of talking for people who were obviously talking to
(24:29):
people who don't know Sullivan, which I'm sure most people do.
And yet these emerging acts, including the Beatles, of course,
use that show as the platform to becoming really famous
in the United States. The show and you guys did
that show five times? Yes, what was that? Like? This
is an experience because we had to be there six
(24:51):
actually seven days a week. We started on Monday at
seven am, and you know, we we kind of run through,
run through, run through. One through was very strictly run
Saturday night we did a live show with no TV,
but there was an audience, and then Sunday we do
the real thing, and the real thing. He screwed it
(25:11):
up every time because he would see someone in the
audience that he knew, and as he was getting older,
he'd lose his place and there you go. Now you
just lost fifteen twenty seconds. Where we're going to get
it from. We're going to get it from. Oh yeah,
and Jackie Mason, you can tell you that story. It
was really exciting because it was live, not taped live.
(25:33):
He didn't know how to deal with us, our generations
of you know, I could tell that he really wasn't
too fond a lot of them. He really because I
got into this thing with his staff because after a while,
the rock bands became like the draw for the show.
You know, you want to do the kids want to
see the beginning. In the end, he created a monster. However,
(25:54):
the dressing rooms did not show that. I said, no,
wait a second. Now, this guy over here, he's about
you know what I mean, he's got a whole floor,
you know, and we're over here in this closet. I said,
that's not gonna work. It was too much. It was
too much. Man Like. I remember my dad. You know,
my dad was a dentist. You could not be any
more conservative than my dad. It was impossible. Do you
remember show that was? The week that was? It was
(26:17):
just lovely blonde. I think her name was Nancy. My
dad really liked her. He liked her. She was on
the show with us. So I said, Dad, come on
into the come on into the green room, and here
he is, right standard. It was so much fun, his dream,
so much fun. Man Like, I said, that's the shame
of where our group broke up, because we we had
a lot of fun, you know, a bunch of crazy kids.
(26:39):
And when you say the shame of the way the
group broke up described that if you will to the
extent that you can. Well, it was really a sad
situation because here we are, we were free agents. We
were going from Atlantic to Colombia, and Colombia in those
days was an international label. Atlantic had just become an
international label when Zeppelin got there. They signed up with
Warner Brothers. Now they were an international label, but prior
(27:02):
to that it was a little difficult for us in
Europe and other countries because we had a different record company.
Is that why you went to Columbia? Yes, And at
the signing Eddie Briggott he just decided that he doesn't
want to do this anymore. That's nice. There's a contract
on the table. What should I tell them? And that
started like this kind of like real negativity that happened.
(27:24):
It actually started before that. What do you think it was?
Why was he unhapped? What did he want to do?
What direction did he want to go in? I don't
think it had anything to do with any of that.
I think that some people can live like a gypsy
and some people can't. Eddie was extremely attached to his family.
Where did he live? Where was his home? He's a
Joysey guy, he's New Jersey, lived in Jersey guy. We
(27:46):
had two jerseys. He just didn't want it. He just
didn't want to travel anymore. He was an unhappy camper.
And it's so funny because he had more fun than
all of us put together on the road. He was
a wild man. So I don't know. I was really
saddened by it because the car we lost a wheel,
you know, and it was really tough to keep spinning.
And he left right then left at the signing and
(28:06):
he didn't come back. He did not come back. And
you've never done reunions with him, nothing, Well, we did
a reunion. We did a reunion, so he so he
would come back and and do and stick his toe
in there. Wow, he came back forty years five years later. Really, yeah,
Steve van Zand had this idea to to do something
with us, and so he contacted us. All actually was,
(28:27):
it was an interesting situation. We started off with that
cancer program that Kristen Carr I think it is that
Bruce and he does, and unfortunately one of my one
of my girls, had that and so I said when
he asked us if we would do a reunion, we
did it. And then from there I was able to
get some real good help for my kid. And after
(28:49):
that that he wanted to do this Broadway show kind
of ideas, so we did. That was goal Once upon
a Dream. That was the last time we worked together
as proxy two thirteen. What's interesting to me is when
you see people have this good thing and they have
a good chemistry, and not all of them, but some
of them move on to other acts which don't replicate
that success. Yeah, it's it's tough. Sound is not the same,
(29:12):
and so you replace him with who We tried to
put together something else. I I did a complete, you know, turn,
and I found some really talented guys. We did two
albums on Columbia that were pretty good albums. They were
more jazz oriented, a little bit more open because at
that time we were jumping into the FM world rather
than the A M with the hits hits hits. It
just wasn't the same, you know, because you know, a
(29:36):
group is a group. But I mean it's just so silly.
I mean, you know that you don't break up a
winning team. Now, you notice a lot of the groups,
especially the English groups, they stay together. They may not
really get along that well, but they stayed together. That's
something that I've always kind of been I'm sorry about,
you know, I wish we could have remained friends. So
the year that you're at the signing and Eddie splits,
(29:58):
what year is a nineteen sevent you proxibly? Yeah, nineteen
seventy fifty years ago, A long time ago, man, what
I'm saying. But when you have a contract on the table,
you have a contract in front of you. In order
to fulfill that contract, who takes at the's place? Well,
we I brought a fellow in that I thought it
could help, and then we changed the group entirely, you know,
And and Clive Davis, he gave us the benefit of
(30:20):
the dot. He said, well let's keep going. You know. Actually,
you know, it's just a shame, you know, because so
we had a good thing going. We had a good team,
and the team was good, you know, but you know,
things happened. I'm sure it's happened to many people in
many businesses. They have these partnerships and these situations and
and all of a sudden, you know, it just doesn't
work out. For what reason. I can't answer that. I mean,
(30:43):
we had no embezzling, Nobody took anybody's wife. You know,
there was nothing, you know, really, I don't think we
really had any drug problems that I was aware of.
Just the stupidity when you're coming up and you're performing
in the sixties, when you guys really break out. Everything
is radio. When I bought a Sony transistor radio with
(31:05):
the old earpiece, the individual earpiece you'd plug in so
I could play music under the covers of my bed
at night, when I'm like fourteen, fifteen, sixteen years old,
and I'm listening to Build Me Up, Buttercup and all together,
a m hits of the sixties. When did you begin
(31:26):
to sense that the music business was changing in terms
of content? Right after wood Stock? Wood Stock was the
beginning of the end, because the big guys came in
the corporations. Ah ha, there's an audience here, let's go
get them. And they did. See and then what was
a you know, mon pop business, you know, turned into
(31:48):
a conglomerate business, which is you know where we are today.
You know, Let's see now, now, who put this group together?
I think God put this group together. How about if
I try it, we could put together a super group.
Will just match them up, that's all. It doesn't work
like that, you know. And then you know, little things
like you know, you know, we used to have illegal payola,
(32:10):
Well how about legal commercials. I can buy fifteen minutes
of your time, can't I? And I can do what
I want. It's progressed to the point of where we
have that what do you call, I hate to say,
a Patriot Act? And you know, we can now buy
our way into whatever we want. That's what happens to
the music business. However, I always feel the talent such
as Prince Elton John there's gonna be a lot more
(32:34):
people like that coming around, and and they will buck
this system, you know, and they will they will be
known and famous because they're so darned good. That's that's
how I believe. So it's not that I'm all, you know,
coming from a negative point of view, but I think
the corporations really took the charm, you know. I mean
like for example, when we used to travel around the US.
We go to New Orleans, we hear New Orleans music.
(32:55):
We go to l A, we hear Beach music. It's
all the same. Everybody's get the same play lists. It's
like driving down the interstate and all the restaurants are
the same and every where. Am I Yeah, we've lost
the indigenous flavor because you know what what you were
saying about, you know, with your transistor radio. You see
the people who are around in those days, they all
(33:16):
have that joy of listening to the music, just like
you did. We all have that, you know what I mean.
It's like Ringo, like when he gets on stage, you
gotta pull him off the stage. He doesn't need to
be on stage for God, He's just it's in his soul,
you know. And and that's that's the type of people.
Like we go around with the zombies and people like that.
They want to play and man, I'm missing I'll tell you,
(33:38):
you know, I'm really looking forward to getting back out
there to You should see the Rascals singer and keyboard
player Felix Cavalieri. If you're enjoying this episode, please follow
Here's the Thing on the I Heart Radio app, Apple
(34:00):
Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and while you're there,
we'd love for you to leave us a review. When
we return from the break, Felix Cavalieri talks about producing
artists like Laura Nero and why he always ends up
back out on the road. Simple a man understanding. I'm
(34:52):
Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Since
we were both raised on rock and roll, I want
to to know if Felix remembers the first time he
heard the Rascals on his transistor radio. First smash it
was good loving, But the first time we heard ourselves
on the radio was we were in New York. We're
all living together in this hotel in New York, and
(35:13):
cousin Brucie played I Ain't going out in my heart
anymore seventies seven w ABC, and you know he's back
there now, he's he's back a yeah, yeah, he's in
his eighties. He's still rocking. Man, he's still gone. You
believe God, bless you know what, that's the real deal there, man.
So shout out to him, man, because he's a good
man to the first time you hear it. I mean
(35:35):
we were walking on the street with that same little
transistor radio. Oh my god, it was so cool. What
song it was? I ain't going to addit my heart anymore.
But you know, sometimes I'm walking in like you know,
Publix or one of the supermarkets, and and I hear
one of my songs and I go, that's cool. They
don't know, man, that's me up there. Bro, that's so beautiful.
It's it's thrill. When you would record or when you
(35:58):
would perform live, was there a ritual for you? What
did you do? Wait? Did you Did you wake up
and you were ready? You know, man, you wake up
when you're ready, you know. I mean, like I said,
we we had a ritual. But the ritual also included,
you know, the writing of this song, that the recording
of the song, the producing of the song, and the
playing of the song. Because we played our own instruments,
you know, we we only had one extra guy, which
(36:20):
because we didn't have a bass player. You know, I
had a bass player on my foot, you know, in
the organ so when we went in, yeah, you had
to be ready. You are you producing now? Are you
writing songs down there and producing down there? Well? I
was trying to before all this happened. I you know,
we got some really really talented people around here. This
is really cool. It's a great place for for musicians,
(36:41):
you know, and and up and coming people. The problem
is that, you know, I don't want to tune anybody up.
I want them to be able to sing. I mean
computer enhance. Yeah, and so that that limits a lot
of it, so lest of them can really deliver the
goods absolutely. That's why you got that big doing not
enter side recording. You don't want to hear this, and
(37:01):
it's just as too bad. What are some of the
other acts over these past several years? Have you've been
down there? Thirty years? Down there? You did produce people
like Laura Nero? Correct, yes, out did that association give
made who brought you together? Her manager was a gentleman
by her name of David Geffen. He also managed Janie
and I think he managed Crosby Stills in Dares and
and let me tell you something, he was really a
good manager. And he invited me, he says how would
(37:23):
you like to meet the most difficult person you've ever met?
I said, Wow, I can hardly wait. He says, Laura
has mentioned you many times. She really enjoys your work.
Would would you like to produce Laura? Near? It was
life changing event. She was the coolest lady I've remember
my life. Ah man. She was so talented, complete opposite
(37:45):
of what we're talking about, Like she could care less
if she sold a record. She just wanted to make art.
That was her thing. For example, I called up our reef,
I said, a Reef, I I got this great opportunity
to produced this. Jim, would you like to join me?
Would you like to help me? And he said yeah.
Because you know, it's interesting in those days, he was
(38:05):
working for almad Organ and those guys over Atlantic, and
they didn't realize that they had a complete, absolute diamond
in the rough with this guy. So when he when
I took him out of there and and we went
over to Columbia to produce Laura, they immediately made him
a vice president. But you know, immediately they put him
on the big time payroll. But anyway, what happened basically
(38:27):
is that she just had a kind of almost like
another century outlook on things like if she was born
a hundred years ago, would have made a lot of
sense where she was at. You know, how much did
you work with her? You did one album with her,
I worked as I did. I did two albums with her, Uh,
the second one. I was kind of brought in as
a relief mechanism because she was kind of getting a
(38:49):
little bit too far out or too far in really,
because she didn't even want to go to the studios anymore.
She wanted to work out of her home. So I
was called into kind of finish a couple of projects her.
But what a talent. But did you sense then or
did you a sense later on that you could have
had a career just producing people like that. Yeah, yeah,
(39:10):
I think I could have done that as well. But
you know, as I say, you didn't want that. You
didn't want to pass it on, so to speak. I
love getting on stage and singing and playing. Man. You know,
it's it's hard to get that out of your system,
especially when people want to hear you. You know, if
you work and nobody comes out to see it, okay,
but you know they were, they were coming out, and
I decided let me keep doing that and producing also
(39:32):
became something again. Now it's a huge industry now as
a matter of fact, it's taken precedence over the actual
song and in some cases the singer because the production
could be so maddening good that it's a hit, you know,
And and a lot of it is done in the
box in a computer. Who's the cream that's rising to
the top? Now in the music business, is there anybody
(39:53):
you like? Oh, they're coming there, They're come up there.
There's so much talent out There's ridiculous thing, is it's
just this, so much out there? How do you try
to tune into what's going on? Too much? It's impossible.
There's good things, like I'm talking about streaming, but there's
good things about streaming. I mean, like, for example, I
had a phenomenal record collection. You know, I used to
(40:15):
not have lunch, man. I would go up and buy
you know, like the music, and you know, it all burnt.
I had a big fire. It all it's all gone,
So so did Orbison. That's so funny. Yeah, we were
Royce House in Malibu burned and he lost all his
archive and I had like classical stuff, man, I mean,
I had phenomenal. Where did that happen? Where was the
house I was in? I was in Tennessee, you know,
(40:36):
down here to Tennessee. My kids, your house, their court fire. Yeah,
like my kids left the fluorescent light on and but anyway,
thank god, nobody got hurt. My granddaughter was there and
you know, we were okay. Everything was good except for
the house. How many kids do you have? I had five.
I already lost one of my kids, and I don't
want to ever do that again. You know, it's a
it's a tough thing. You lost one of your kids.
(40:57):
My daughter, yeah, she uh as the reason we did
that cancer foundation. She she had it. She had cancer
Long Island. You know how old was she passed away?
She was how I'm so sorry. That's horrible, or any
of them in the business at all. Thank god. No,
now they got the idea. They get it. You know.
I've got a couple of my daughters. I mean, they're
(41:18):
really excellent singers, but you know, they she tried, she
wanted to New York and got beat up immediately and said,
you know, I'm gonna go and raise a family, you know,
but but go back if you wouldn't tell me so
so the house catches fire, horrible tragedy, and you lost
your record collection, and I lost my Hall of Fame trophy.
They won't even give me another one in the rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. I lost all that stuff.
(41:39):
They wouldn't give you another rock and Roll Hall of
Fame trump. No, no no, no, because so many people seldom
I'm not asking you to choose one, but among the many,
you would choose. If you could take an album out
of that old vinyl collection, if we could restore that
vinyl collection, and you could put an album on a
turntable and laid back and play some music that would
transport you, what would you put on the turn? Well,
(42:01):
you know, seriously, as as I learned to appreciate, you know,
the music comes out of, you know, the classical world,
i'd have to say, somebody from the from that world,
you know, like you would play classical music. Yeah, because
first of all, I want to stay alive for that
forty five minutes an already hear it, none of these
three minutes songs. Who was among your favorite classical composers? Oh,
(42:23):
the pianists, the Chopin's and Schubert's and oh man, As
I say that there's something about the lack of lyric
that transports you to a different place. I'll tell you, man,
I did a symphony with my music here down in Nashville.
We've got an excellent symphon extra here. And it was
really really an honor, a treat for me to do that.
You put you performed with them. I performed with the
(42:43):
seventy piece orchestra. Where did you play? I paid my
whole repertoire everything, or you played your music with that?
I did all my music. It was fantastic. It's just
something after all these years to bring that back. Those
guys been around a long time. Man. That's good music,
really good music. But you know what you're saying, and
I see the joy when you're speaking about that little
transistor radio. That's how it is when I'm playing for
(43:07):
my audiences out there. That's what we had, was that connection,
that musical connection. People really loved that music. It's part
of your soul, It's part oh yeah, oh yeah. Man.
So I try to connect everybody like that, make them sing,
you make them feel together, like when you do it
to Billy Jones, Madison is going, I know every word,
(43:28):
every word. Come on many that that's magic. I wish
I could come see your shows because a lot of
your songs I know every where too. There you go,
we'll get there, yeah, exactly when this is over. Thanks
for doing this with us, Matt, thank you, thank you
with you on a Sunda afternoon. Felix Cavalieri of the Rascals.
(43:51):
I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
from my Heart radio. I can't imagine anything that the
world as ours whenever went to in a place I
like to be, it stead a bood, she's down, a
(44:16):
crowded halling you to it, and a thing we likes
to do. It's only lots of things that we can see.
We can't be anywhere. We're elected, all the happy people
(44:42):
we did me to do that. I'm a Sunday afternoon feah.
I couldn't get away too soon. No no, no no
Host
Alec Baldwin
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