The Atlantic American Crisi

If ever an American band went through a more startling transformation than the Rascals did during the six years the original band recorded for Atlantic, let them show their colors. Here was a young east group who from the jump had complete creative control over their recordings, publishing, production, and packaging – something unheard of then – and issued over 15 Top 40 singles, three Top Ten albums, and two more that cracked the Top 40, most of which were issued without critical acclaim at the time. This six-CD retrospective of the band's entire tenure on Atlantic (there were two more recordings afterwards, issued on Columbia with a splintered version of the band), documents their complete studio output of eight albums over four and a half discs, and devotes a disc and a half to singles, A- and B-sides, alternates, and different versions of hits. For those familiar with the hits, it's difficult to imagine that the Rascals ever rocked as hard as they did on their first two albums, The Young Rascals and Collections.