Dino Danelli, whose hard-charging, high-energy drumming powered the Rascals to a string of hits within the late Sixties, together with the No. 1 information “Good Lovin’,” “Groovin’” and “Individuals Obtained to Be Free,” died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 78.
Joe Russo, a detailed good friend and the band’s historian, confirmed the loss of life, at a rehabilitation middle. He stated Mr. Danelli had been in declining well being for a number of years.
The Rascals (billed on their first three albums because the Younger Rascals) had been among the many first American bands to emerge in response to the so-called British Invasion of 1964.
Fashioned in New Jersey in 1965, the quartet — that includes Felix Cavaliere on organ and vocals, Eddie Brigati on vocals, Gene Cornish on guitar and Mr. Danelli on drums — drew on a spread of influences, together with doo-wop, jazz and soul.
Mr. Danelli, a protégé of the good jazz drummers Buddy Wealthy and Gene Krupa, merged percussive virtuosity with a rock sensibility. Like Ringo Starr of the Beatles, he set the template for the rock drummer archetype: disciplined and exact, however with a aptitude that drew the gang’s eye. He would twirl his sticks — a trick he discovered from his sister, a cheerleader — and throw them within the air, earlier than catching them with out dropping the beat.
Mr. Danelli was answerable for the band’s first massive hit. He was a fan of obscure soul information, and someday at a report store in Harlem, he discovered a single by the Olympics, “Good Lovin,’” written by Rudy Clark and Arthur Resnick, which reached No. 81 on the Billboard Scorching 100 in 1965.
“We stated, ‘Let’s strive it, let’s put a brand new model to it,’” he stated in a 2008 interview with the drummer Liberty DeVitto. “It was only a fortunate discover.”
The Rascals performed the music throughout a 1966 look on “The Ed Sullivan Present.” It quickly topped the charts and — with its opening shout of “One, two, three!” — grew to become one of many best-known songs of the last decade.
Onstage, the band dressed within the type of foppish outfits favored by a number of different white acts of the mid-Sixties: knee-high socks, quick ties, floppy collars. Nevertheless it was the primary white band signed by Atlantic Data, dwelling of Ray Charles, and it was among the many few American rock bands to be accepted by Black crowds.
The members included a clause of their contracts stating that they’d carry out provided that a Black act was on the invoice with them — a incontrovertible fact that meant giant swaths of the South remained off limits.
Because the Rascals advanced, their sound mellowed they usually turned out summer-vibe classics like “Groovin,’” which hit No. 1 in 1967, and “A Stunning Morning,” which reached No. 3 in 1968. That very same 12 months, shocked by the assassinations of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, they launched “Individuals Obtained to Be Free,” a paean to racial concord — written, like the sooner two songs, by Mr. Cavaliere and Mr. Brigati. It additionally reached No. 1.
The Rascals dissolved within the early Seventies; Mr. Brigati left in 1970 and Mr. Cornish a 12 months later. Mr. Cavaliere and Mr. Danelli stayed for 2 extra albums earlier than the band broke up.
Mr. Danelli performed in a collection of bands by the Seventies, and in 1980 he joined Steven Van Zandt, the lead guitarist in Bruce Springsteen’s E Avenue Band, in a aspect challenge known as the Disciples of Soul.
Mr. Van Zandt had grown up as a die-hard Rascals fan. In 1997 he delivered the speech inducting the band into the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame, calling Mr. Danelli “the best rock drummer of all time.”
Dino Danelli was born on July 23, 1944, in Jersey Metropolis, N.J., the son of Robert Danelli and Teresa Bottinelli.
He’s survived by his sister, Diane Severino.
He started enjoying drums at an early age and, after dropping out of highschool, moved to Manhattan, intent on pursuing a music profession. He picked up gigs within the jazz golf equipment of Greenwich Village, finagled a room on the Metropole Resort in Instances Sq. and met Mr. Wealthy and Mr. Krupa, who each took him underneath their wing.
He traveled to California, Las Vegas and New Orleans for work, together with a stint with the jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton, earlier than returning to New York. He met his future bandmates at a venue in Garfield, N.J., known as the Choo Choo Membership, and after enjoying collectively in one other band, they shaped the Younger Rascals.
The band acquired again collectively for just a few reunion exhibits within the Eighties, after which within the Nineties, minus Mr. Brigati, carried out underneath the identify the New Rascals. At Mr. Van Zandt’s urging, the 4 authentic members performed a 2010 charity present collectively, and in 2012 Mr. Van Zandt wrote and produced a “bioconcert” known as “The Rascals: As soon as Upon a Dream” — a multimedia present that includes performances by the band and clips from its Sixties heyday.
It ran for 15 exhibits on Broadway, then toured the nation for a number of months.
