The Rationals – One of Michigan’s All-Time Favorite Rock Bands: 1962-1970
When I was bassist for a local rock band, we all looked up to The Rationals – one of our all-time favorite Michigan rock bands.
The Rationals were vocalist Scott Morgan, Bill Figg on drums, Terry Trabandt on bass, and guitarist Steve Correll The Rationals cranked out a number of singles on the A-Square label, along with the labels Cameo, Cameo-Parkway, and Capitol, but no albums...yet. Just about every other popular Michigan band were getting albums recorded and released, like Bob Seger’s various bands, Amboy Dukes, Terry Knight & The Pack, Question Mark & The Mysterians, SRC, The Stooges, MC5, The Frost, Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, and others.
Our band performed two Rationals song in our own repertoire: Respect – which made the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #92 – and I Need You, which had a cool Morgan vocal, which was ruined when we performed it.
The Rationals began in 1962 in Ann Arbor with the coupling of Scott Morgan and Steve Correll. The two had their first gig standing out in front of Kline’s Department Store in Ann Arbor.
With more members joining and help from local deejays, they were landing more gigs: the usual stuff at parties, dances, receptions, etc. Obviously, they had to have a permanent name, so Steve Correll’s brother, Richard, suggested “Rationals”, based on a mathematical term. Why he chose that particular name is unknown, unless he was a math whiz.
After meeting Discount Records employee “Jeep” Holland, the band hired him as their manager. Jeep formed A-Square Records, booked their gigs, and got them recorded. In 1965, their first single was Gave My Love, which reached #1 in Detroit but failed to click elsewhere.
More gigs followed: more parties, and even some radio & TV appearances. A followup single, Respect, was released on A-Square, became a huge local hit, and picked up by Cameo-Parkway Records who released it nationally, reaching #92.
The Rationals’ final A-Square single was an old Chuck Jackson tune titled I need You, which was picked up and re-distributed by Capitol Records. Again, it was a smash locally, but failed miserably nationally.
After refusing to record radical material like the MC5, the Rationals' recording contract ended. Deejay Robin Seymour, who also hosted the local TV teen show Swingin’ Time, helped the boys finally get their first album recorded, the eponymous The Rationals in 1970. Even so, the band was falling apart with arguments and financial struggles. They played one last gig – the Embassy Hotel in Windsor, Ontario – and split up later in 1970.
