Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1968
People Got to Be Free
Buy People Got to Be Free now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
"'People Got to Be Free'" is a song released in 1968 by The Rascals, written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati and featuring a lead vocal from Cavaliere.
Background
The song is a musically upbeat but impassioned plea for tolerance and freedom:
:'All the world over, so easy to see!'
:'People everywhere, just wanna be free.'
:'Listen, please listen! that's the way it should be'
:'Peace in the valley, people got to be free.'
In the song's coda, Felix says in a half-sung, half-spoken voice, that the "Train of Freedom", is "about to arrive any minute now", that "it has been long, long overdue", and that it's "coming right on through", before the song's fade with Felix saying "Chug" repeatedly.
It became a big hit in the turbulent summer of 1968, spending five weeks atop the 'Billboard' Pop Singles chart, the group's longest such stay.Joel Whitburn, 'The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits', Billboard Publications, 1983, p. 223. It was also the group's second-most successful single on the 'Billboard' Black Singles chart, reaching number 14 and trailing only the previous year's "Groovin'".[ "The Rascals - Charts and Awards"], Allmusic. Accessed May 7, 2007. "People Got to Be Free" was RIAA-certified as a gold record on August 23, 1968,[https://www.riaa.com/gp/database/default.asp RIAA Searchable Database] and eventually sold over 4 million copies.Edward Kiersh, "Felix Cavaliere of The Young Rascals: The Long Winter of Discontent", from 'Where Are You Now, Bo Diddley? The Artists Who Made Us Rock and Where They Are Now', Doubleday, 1986. It later was included on the group's March 1969 album 'Freedom Suite'. 'Billboard' ranked the record as the number 5 song for 1968.Billboard Year-End Hot 100 singles of 1968
The single's picture sleeve photo was previously featured in the inner album cover of the Rascals' 'Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hits' compilation. The B-side, "My World", was a track from the group's 'Once Upon a Dream' album.
While "People Got to Be Free" was perceived by some as related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and of Robert F. Kennedy earlier that year, it was recorded before the latter's death. Rather, it was partly a reaction to an ugly encounter wherein the long-haired group was threatened by a group of rednecks, because the group had grown beards and longer hair, after their tour vehicle broke down in Fort Pierce, Florida.
The song is clearly a product of its times; however, two decades later writer Dave Marsh included it as number 237 in his book 'Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time', saying in reference to, and paraphrase of, the song's lyric, "Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be: Dated, but NEVER out of date."
After this song came out, the Rascals would only perform at concerts that featured an African American act; when that condition was not met, the Rascals canceled several shows in protest.
Chart history
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
All-time charts
Cover versions
* Dionne Warwick recorded the song as part of her LP 'Soulful' in 1969, and it was released as a single in the UK in the same year.
* The 5th Dimension recorded "People Got to Be Free" in 1970 as part of a medley with another socially relevant song, Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come." The pairing reached number 60 on the 'Billboard' Pop Singles chart.'Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 19551990' -
* Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge performed this song live in concert, and it has turned up on YouTube as part of The Bridge's "lost tapes" series of songs.
References
Buy People Got to Be Free now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1968