Biography
Eddie Brigati served as co-lead vocalist for the Rascals alongside organist and singer Felix Cavaliere while also acting, frequently in tandem with Cavaliere, as one of the band’s two primary songwriters. Born Edward Brigati, Jr. in Garfield, NJ, in 1945, he came of age during the waning years of the initial American rock & roll explosion, although R&B and, subsequently, soul music formed his deepest musical passions. He performed with several ensembles across northern New Jersey and New York before replacing his older brother David Brigati in Joey Dee & the Starliters. A year later, Brigati joined Cavaliere and guitarist Gene Cornish in recruiting drummer Dino Danelli to launch a new quartet. The resulting outfit, introduced to audiences as the Young Rascals and soon shortened to the Rascals, featured Brigati and Cavaliere trading lead vocals. Although the group began as a cover act capable of reworking as many as twenty-five songs nightly in its distinctive style—an approach that won over crowds and secured management from Sid Bernstein, yielding the breakthrough hit “Good Lovin’”—it soon shifted focus to original material. Brigati and Cavaliere assumed that songwriting responsibility, and the Rascals ultimately earned recognition for their own compositions as much as for their overall sound. Among Brigati’s contributions stand the enduring tracks “Groovin’,” “I’ve Been Lonely Too Long,” “How Can I Be Sure,” “You Better Run,” and “People Got to Be Free.” He stayed with the band until 1970, departing the same year the group moved from Atlantic to Columbia Records. In subsequent years he explored solo projects and other collaborations, among them the 1976 album Lost in the Wilderness issued with his brother under the name Brigati. Of all the original members, Brigati has remained the least inclined toward reunion, particularly with Cavaliere, though Cornish and Danelli have periodically performed together since the quartet disbanded. The Rascals entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, and twelve years afterward, in 2009, both Brigati and Cavaliere received induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.