The Good Rats

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Good Rats
Peppi Marchello singing with guitarist John Gatto
Background information
Origin	Long Island, New York
Genre(s)	Rock Progressive Rock Hard Rock
Years active	1969—Present
Label(s)	Kapp Records Warner Bros. Records Platinum Records Passport Records Radar Records Mondo Records Fireball Records Uncle Rat Music
Associated acts	Popzarocca
Members
Peppi Marchello Gene Marchello Stefan Marchello Mike Haupt Dan Smiraglia
Former members
Mickey Marchello John Gatto Lenny Kotke Joey Franco Bruce Kulick Schuyler Deale John Argento Michael LaVolpe

For the song by Dropkick Murphys, see Sing Loud, Sing Proud!.

The Good Rats are a rock band from Long Island, New York. Their music mixes elements of hard rock with jazz and pop. Although they have had some success both nationally and internationally, it's on their native Long Island that they have always been best known.

[edit] History

Formed in 1964, the original group consisted of 5 students from St. John's University...Ted Haenlein, Frank Stapleton, Eric Crane, Denny Ryan and Peppi Marchello. The group was originally called the U-Men and played most of their gigs in the Rockaways (Peyton Place & McNultys) & Long Island (The Attic, Tiger's Tail etc.). In 1966, Frank Stapleton's brother, John, arranged for the group to play at a club in Queens, New York (The John Doe Room) where a record company executive heard them and eventually signed the band, but suggested a name change was in order. Peppi wanted "Marchello" but was told by their booking agent Frank Cariola "I can't sell an Italian restaurant, I need a sellable name." Peppi told Frank to name the band whatever he wanted. Frank remembered Peppi had an album out on Kapp Records with a big white rat on the front cover. Frank Cariola said "I can sell 'The Good Rats'". The band continued to play top 40 covers while working on their own original music. During the latter part of the sixties, the composition of the band changed...by 1968, Eric, Frank and Ted (drafted and went to Viet Nam, but did rejoin the group from 1970-72) were gone, replaced by Peppi's brother, Mickey, and Crazy Artie (bass).

In 1969, the band released their first album, the self-titled The Good Rats. However, it was the lineup they put together in 1972, featuring the Marchello brothers with guitarist John “The Cat” Gatto, bass player Lenny Kotke and drummer Joe Franco that formed the band many fans referred to “the greatest unknown band in the world”. Peppi Marchello, the Rats were arguably the biggest fish in Long Island’s thriving club scene of the 1970s, a scene that included bands such as Phantom's Opera, Twisted Sister and Zebra

In 1974, the Good Rats released their best-known and most popular album, Tasty. It featured a blend of hard and progressive rock with subtle jazz influences, highlighted by Marchello’s powerful and raspy vocals. Various songs from this record, including Marchello’s nod to Mark Twain “Injun Joe”, “Papa Poppa”, a rock ode about cults, the autobiographical numbers “Back to My Music” and “The Songwriter”, and the jazzy title track, received airplay around the country on FM radio.

During the following years, the Rats performed at venues such as Madison Square Garden, The Philadelphia Spectrum, The Nassau Coliseum, The Hammersmith Odeon in England, and New York’s Central Park, as well as showcase rooms such as The Bottom Line in Manhattan, My Father’s Place in Roslyn, NY, Whiskey in Los Angeles and The Paradise Room in Boston. They headlined or opened for bands such as Rush, Kiss, Aerosmith, Journey, Ozzy Osbourne, The Grateful Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Meat Loaf and Styx. Their live shows were famous for the band’s stage antics, as Peppi would play air guitar on his baseball bat, throw rubber rats into the crowd, and beat the daylights out of a battered garbage can as he sang.

On a nationally syndicated radio interview, a member of the band Journey called them "the greatest rock band in the world."

Between 1976 and 1980, The Good Rats released a series of albums, including Ratcity in Blue, From Rats to Riches, Birth Comes to Us All, and Live At Last, all of which were well received by the band’s fan base, and received some airplay on FM radio, without actually putting the band over the top. In 1981, Gatto and Kotke left the band, and were replaced by future KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick and bass player Schuyler Deale, (who later played with Billy Joel and Michael Bolton), for the album Great American Music. Shortly thereafter, the band broke up.

Throughout the 1980s, Peppi Marchello continued to write and produce recordings with his son Gene. They toured locally for a while under the name "Popzarocca" until the song "Destiny" (later re-recorded as "Ashes to Ashes") became a minor hit for the band (now renamed "Marchello"), with the music video receiving minor airplay on MTV's "Headbanger's Ballroom". This band featured Gene on guitar and lead vocals and also included drummer John Miceli (Meatloaf, Rainbow, "We Will Rock You"). The band recorded two albums (only one which was released).

In the mid-1990s, Marchello and sons Gene Marchello and Stefan Marchello began playing out locally under “The Good Rats” name. They have released three new studio CDs to date with this lineup, Tasty Seconds (1996), Let's Have Another Beer (2000), and Play Dum (2002). Marchello also released a live recording of a 1979 appearance on a Rochester radio show, Rats, The Way You Like ’Em.

In the 2000s, the band continues to play in local venues throughout New York, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut, as well as playing annually in their own summer weekend outdoor festival aptly named "Ratstock". At one point, the "new" Good Rats (Peppi and his sons) performed as the opening act for a reunion performance by the "old" Good Rats.

They were inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame (www.limusichalloffame.org) in 2007.