The Rationals has been played on NTS over 40 times, featured on 25 episodes and was first played on 7 December 2015.

The Rationals were a garage band from Ann Arbor that first emerged in 1964, with Scott Morgan on lead vocals and guitar, Steve Correll on lead guitar, Terry Trabandt on bass, and Bill Figg on drums. They had several local hits but ultimately failed to break into widespread fame. The closest they ever got to fame was with their 1966 single, Respect, which charted at 92 on the Billboard charts. Later on they experimented with psychedelia and soul but they still failed to make it big outside of Michigan. They began recording their first self-titled LP in 1969, but it was too little too late for the band. They were left with no manager or infrastructure and the band wasn't getting along, and so in 1970 the band broke up. Scott Morgan later went on to be in Sonic's Rendezvous Band. In 1995, John Sinclair released a live recording of a 1968 Rationals benefit concert entitled Temptation 'bout to Get Me. Sinclair also named his book Guitar Army after the Rationals song of the same name.