This was perhaps The Rascals only real attempt at a psychedelic freakout record and it worked really well. This is one of the first 45’s I ever bought as a kid and it still sounds remarkably fresh,“It’s Wonderful” I think was The Rascals trying to do a “Good Vibrations” type production number. The song goes through all kinds of weird changes bit somehow holds The Rascals blue-eyed soul sound in the core of the track,what is really neat is the vocal fadeout ‚very much like psychedelic Beach Boys!Oddly the group tacked on a salvation army band type thing at the end of the song similar to Syd Barrett’s “Jugband Blues”,which probably explains why it wasn’t a real big hit.
“Of Course” on the flipside is a swinging Tamla/Motown number that is also quite good,it actually turned up as an album track on their “Freedom Suite” LP. What’s kinda funny to me is I watched one of those 60’s nostalgia shows on TV the other day and the made it sound like everybody was listening to the Grateful Dead and Country Joe and the Fish in 1967,I don’t remember it that way myself as I remember listening to the likes of The Young Rascals,Tommy James and the Shondells and Paul Revere and the Raiders,but then again I was only 7 years old.