The Rationals

Serious collectors often place the Rationals near the top whenever they assemble rankings of overlooked 1960s groups that never reached a wider audience. The band emerged from the Ann Arbor, Michigan scene that also produced the MC5 and the Stooges, carving out a niche with a garage-inflected style of blue-eyed soul centered on the soul-shaded singing of frontman Scott Morgan. Singles issued in the mid-1960s stayed largely confined to local success in Michigan despite strong regional reception there, and by the time an album finally appeared the group’s most vital period had already slipped away.

In fact the Rationals predated both the MC5 and the Stooges in years and outlook alike. Their first recordings for the hometown A2 label in 1965 reflected the British Invasion influences common to many garage outfits, though they added a stronger soul dimension to the material. “Gave My Love” topped the Ann Arbor charts and registered as a Detroit hit, just as the follow-up single “Respect” did—an early version that reached listeners before Aretha Franklin’s later hit. Cameo/Parkway picked up the track for national distribution, allowing it to graze the bottom of the national charts.

Subsequent releases on Cameo and Capitol steered the band deeper into blue-eyed soul territory on songs such as “I Need You” and “Hold on Baby,” yet the pattern remained unchanged: major traction inside Michigan and minimal impact elsewhere. Scott Morgan passed on an offer to join Blood, Sweat & Tears, and the Rationals finally issued a full album on Crewe in early 1970. By then their moment had passed, their finest work already behind them, and attempts to reshape their energetic pop-soul sound for the psychedelic market fell flat.

The group disbanded in the summer of 1970. Morgan continued to earn underground respect over the next twenty-five years through intermittent projects with Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, which included MC5 guitarist Fred Smith, as well as the Scott Morgan Band and Scot’s Pirates. Licensing complications delayed any thorough anthology of their 1960s singles for A2, Cameo/Parkway, and Capitol until Big Beat Records released the two-disc collection Think Rational! in 2009, gathering most of the key recordings made between 1965 and 1968.