"People Got to Be Free" is a song released in 1968 by The
Rascals. Written by group members Felix Cavaliere and Eddie
Brigati and featuring a lead vocal from Cavaliere, it is an
upbeat but impassioned plea for tolerance and freedom:
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. 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'". "People Got to Be Free" was RIAA-certified as a
gold record on August 23, 1968, and eventually sold over 4
million copies. It later was included on the group's March 1969
album
Freedom Suite.
The single's picture sleeve photo was previously featured in
the inner album cover of the Rascals'
Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hitscompilation. The
B-side, "My World", was a track from the group's
Once Upon a Dreamalbum.
While "People Got to Be Free" was perceived by some as
related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Robert F. Kennedy earlier that year, it was recorded before the
latter's death. In fact it was partly a reaction to an ugly
encounter wherein the long-haired group was threatened by a
group of rednecks 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out of date."
Since this song came out, the Rascals would only perform at
concerts that featured an African American act, however, if
those conditions were not met, the Rascals canceled several
shows in protest.
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.