"Groovin'"
Single by Booker T & the M.G.s
from the album Hip Hug-Her
Released	1967
Genre	R&B, soul
Length	2:40
Label	Stax Records 224
Writer(s)	Felix Cavaliere Eddie Brigati

"Groovin" is a single released in 1967 by the Young Rascals that became a number-one hit and one of the group's signature songs.

Written by group members Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati and with a lead vocal from Cavaliere, it is indeed a slow, relaxed groove, based on Cavaliere's newfound interest in Afro-Cuban music. Instrumentation included a conga, a Cuban-influenced bass guitar line from ace session musician Chuck Rainey, and a harmonica part, performed first for the single version by New York session musician, Michael Weinstein, and later for the album version by Gene Cornish.

The result was fairly different from the Rascals' white soul origins, enough so that Atlantic Records head Jerry Wexler did not want to release "Groovin'". Cavaliere credits disc jockey Murray the K with intervening to encourage Atlantic to release the song. “To tell you the truth, they didn’t originally like the record because it had no drum on it,” admits Cavaliere. “We had just cut it, and he [Murray the K] came in the studio to say hello. After he heard the song, he said, ‘Man, this is a smash.’ So, when he later heard that Atlantic didn’t want to put it out, he went to see Jerry Wexler and said, ‘Are you crazy? This is a friggin’ No. 1 record.’ He was right, because it eventually became No. 1 for four straight weeks.”

Lyrically, "Groovin'" is the evocation of a person in love:

"Groovin" was inspired by Cavaliere's then-girlfriend, Adrienne Buccheri. He said of her, “I believe she was divinely sent for the purpose of inspiring my creativity.”

The single became an instant hit in May 1967, spending four weeks atop the Billboard pop singles chart, but not four consecutive weeks. The sequence was interrupted by Aretha Franklin's "Respect" which spent a week at No. 1 in the middle of "Groovin'"'s run. The song was RIAA-certified a gold record on June 13, 1967.

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Wikipedia