Search and Nearness is the seventh studio album by rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band The Rascals

The Rascals

The Rascals were an American blue-eyed soul group initially active during the years 1965–72. The band released numerous top ten singles in North America during the mid- and late-1960s, including the U.S. #1 hits "Good Lovin'" , "Groovin'" , and "People Got to Be Free"...

, released in 1971. It was the last album featuring Eddie Brigati

Eddie Brigati

Eddie Brigati is an American singer and songwriter.Most memorably, Brigati shared vocals, and played tambourine, in the pop group The Young Rascals from 1965 to 1970...

 and Gene Cornish

Gene Cornish

Gene Cornish is an American guitarist and harmonica player. He is an original member of the popular 1960s blue-eyed soul band the Rascals. From 1965–70, the band recorded eight albums and had thirteen singles that reached Billboard's Top 40 chart...

 as well as the group's last album released on Atlantic Records.

History

Although Eddie Brigati had left The Rascals in the autumn of 1970, the tracks were recorded from October 1969 to October 1970. Since the album was released several months after his departure, he is not listed as a regular group member, but is mentioned as lead vocalist on three tracks (none of them composed by Cavaliere) and most likely provided background vocals on most, if not all, of the remaining tracks. Brigati is also recognized in the acknowledgements for the group’s 5-year tenure with Atlantic Records.

"Search and Nearness" was the group's lowest charted album, spending one week on Billboard at #198. The two singles in conjunction with the LP, "Glory Glory" and "Right On", were released several months before the album. "Glory Glory" reached #58 and #42 on Billboard and Cashbox (respectively) in the summer of 1970. At the end of that same year, "Right On" (the group's last single on Atlantic) "bubbled under" Billboard at #119 in December 1970.

Reception

Writing for Allmusic, critic Thom Jurek wrote the album; "is perhaps a bittersweet memory for the band's members, and indeed certainly is for their die-hard fans. Its pluses included some of the best (if under-recognized) songs Felix Cavaliere had ever written... There are some really uneven moments here, but there are some stellar ones as well, and no serious fan of the Rascals should be without at least half the cuts here. In fact, in many ways, this is a stronger effort than See had been..."

Inner cover photo

The photo shows Dino Danelli, Gene Cornish, and Felix Cavaliere sitting on a rooftop. There is an empty space with a pair of unoccupied shoes between Danelli and Cornish. Cornish’s right arm is sticking out as if he has his arm around one’s shoulder. In the background, Eddie Brigati is standing in one of the neighboring apartment windows. However, this was an insert photo condensed to fit in the window; Brigati himself is not in the photo, having left the group before the photo shoot (with Cornish's departure shortly thereafter).

Side One

1. “Right On” – 3:46 - Lead vocals: Felix
2. “I Believe” – 3:55 - Lead vocals: Felix
3. “Thank You Baby” – 3:09 - Lead vocals: Felix
4. “You Don’t Know” (Gene Cornish) – 4:10 - Lead vocals: Eddie
5. “Nama” (Dino Danelli) – 5:31 - Instrumental

Side Two

1. "Almost Home" – 3:49 - Lead vocals: Felix
2. "The Letter" (Wayne Carson Thompson) – 4:07 - Lead vocals: Eddie
3. "Ready For Love" – 4:07 - Lead vocals: Felix
4. "Fortunes" (Dino Danelli) – 3:10 - Lead vocals: Eddie
5. "Glory Glory" – 3:30 - Lead vocals: Felix

The Rascals

• Felix Cavaliere
  Felix Cavaliere
  Felix Cavaliere is an American songwriter, singer, music producer, and musician.Although he was a member of Joey Dee and His Starlighters best known for their hit "Peppermint Twist", he is best known for his association with The Young Rascals during the 1960s. The other members of The Rascals...
  
   – vocals, keyboards
• Eddie Brigati
  Eddie Brigati
  Eddie Brigati is an American singer and songwriter.Most memorably, Brigati shared vocals, and played tambourine, in the pop group The Young Rascals from 1965 to 1970...
  
   - vocals
• Gene Cornish
  Gene Cornish
  Gene Cornish is an American guitarist and harmonica player. He is an original member of the popular 1960s blue-eyed soul band the Rascals. From 1965–70, the band recorded eight albums and had thirteen singles that reached Billboard's Top 40 chart...
  
   – guitar
• Dino Danelli
  Dino Danelli
  Dino Danelli is best known as an original member and the drummer in the rock group, The Rascals. He has been called "one of the great unappreciated rock drummers in history."...
  
   – drums

Additional musicians

• H. Cowart – bass on “Almost Home”, “Ready For Love” , “Glory Glory” and “Thank You Baby”
• Ron Blanco – bass on “You Don’t Know”
• Chuck Rainey
  Chuck Rainey
  Chuck Rainey, is an American bass guitar session musician, known for playing with many well-known American musicians and acts, including Donald Byrd, Steely Dan, Quincy Jones, and Aretha Franklin.-Biography:Rainey's youthful pursuits included violin, piano and trumpet...
  
   – bass on “Right On”, “I Believe”, “Nama”, “The Letter” and “Fortunes”
• Joe Newman – trumpet
• Joe Farrell – saxophone
• Seldon Powell
  Seldon Powell
  Seldon Powell was an American soul jazz, swing and R&B tenor saxophonist and flautist born in Lawrenceville, Virginia, probably best remembered for his early work with musicians like Tab Smith , Lucky Millinder 1949-51), Neal Hefti or Louis Bellson...
  
   – saxophone
• The Sweet Inspirations – background vocals on “Glory Glory”
• Cissy Houston
  Cissy Houston
  Emily "Cissy" Houston is a Grammy Award–winning American soul and gospel singer. She led a very successful career as a backup singer for such artists as Elvis Presley, Mahalia Jackson, Wishbone Ash and Aretha Franklin, and is now primarily a solo artist...
  
   & Tosha Thomas – background vocals on “I Believe”

Production

• Jack Adams, James Douglass, Ron Albert, Chuck Kirkpatrick, and Don Casale – recording engineers

Artwork and photos

• Wolfgang Hutter
  Wolfgang Hutter
  Wolfgang Hutter is a painter, draughtsman, printmaker and stage designer. Hutter's imagery is characterised by an artificial paradise of gardens and fantastical fairytale-like scenes....
  
  – front album cover ("Ballspielendes Madchen") and back album cover ("Mittag")
• Marilyn Kroplick – inner album cover photo
• Maji Emerson – apartment window insert photo of Eddie Brigati