I Feel Fine
"I Feel Fine" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by the Beatles | ||||
B-side | "She's a Woman" | |||
Released | 23 November 1964 | |||
Recorded | 18 October 1964 | |||
Studio | EMI, London[1] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:25 | |||
Label |
| |||
Songwriter(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
The Beatles US singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Beatles UK singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Promotional film | ||||
"I Feel Fine" on YouTube |
"I Feel Fine" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles that was released in November 1964 as the A-side of their eighth single. It was written by John Lennon[4] and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. The recording includes one of the earliest uses of guitar feedback in popular music.
The single topped charts in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden. In the UK, it was the fifth-highest-selling single of the 1960s.[5]
Origin
Lennon wrote the song's guitar riff while the Beatles were in the studio recording "Eight Days a Week" in October 1964, and kept playing it between takes.[6] He later recalled: "I told them I'd write a song specially for the riff. So they said, 'Yes. You go away and do that', knowing that we'd almost finished the album Beatles for Sale. Anyway, going into the studio one morning, I said to Ringo, 'I've written this song but it's lousy'. But we tried it, complete with riff, and it sounded like an A-side, so we decided to release it just like that."[7]
Both Lennon and George Harrison said that the riff was influenced by a riff in "Watch Your Step", a 1961 song written and performed by Bobby Parker[7] and covered by the Beatles in concerts during 1961 and 1962.[8] Paul McCartney said the drums on "I Feel Fine" were inspired by Ray Charles's 1959 single "What'd I Say".[4]
At the time of the song's recording, the Beatles, having mastered the studio basics, had begun to explore new sources of inspiration in noises previously eliminated as mistakes (such as electronic goofs, twisted tapes, and talkback). "I Feel Fine" marks one of the earliest examples of the use of feedback as a recording effect in popular music. Artists such as the Kinks and the Who had already used feedback live, but Lennon remained proud of the fact that the Beatles were perhaps the first group to deliberately put it on vinyl.
Structure
"I Feel Fine" is written in
Audio feedback
"I Feel Fine" starts with a single, percussive
Later, Lennon was very proud of this sonic experimentation. In one of his last interviews, he said: "I defy anybody to find a record – unless it's some old blues record in 1922 – that uses feedback that way."[10]
Release and commercial performance
Backed by "
"I Feel Fine" reached the top of the UK charts on 12 December, displacing the Rolling Stones' "Little Red Rooster", and remained there for five weeks. In Canada, the song also reached number one.[12]
The song topped the US
By 2012, "I Feel Fine" had sold 1.41 million copies in the UK.[15] As of December 2018, it was the 53rd-best-selling single of all time there – one of six Beatles songs included on the top sales rankings published by the UK's Official Charts Company.[16]
Promotional film
On 23 November 1965, the Beatles filmed two promotional clips for the song for inclusion in
Other releases
In the United States, "I Feel Fine" was released on the
In the United Kingdom, the song was released in the
A radio show outtake in mono is included on the On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2 compilation released in 2013.
Personnel
- John Lennon – double tracked lead vocal, lead/rhythm guitar
- Paul McCartney – harmony vocal, bass guitar
- George Harrison – harmony vocal, lead guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums
- Personnel per Ian MacDonald[20]
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
Certifications and sales
|
Notes
- 1" Liner Notes by Mark Lewisohn
- ISBN 978-1-60473-156-9.
- ISBN 978-0-8057-9453-3.
Both "I Feel Fine" and "She's a Woman" are heavily rhythm and blues influenced pop-rock songs.
- ^ a b c Miles 1997, p. 172.
- ^ "Ken Dodd 'third best-selling artist of 1960s'". BBC News. 1 June 2010. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- ^ a b MacDonald 2005, pp. 133, 136.
- ^ a b The Beatles 2000, p. 160.
- ^ Shaheen J. Dibai, "Bobby Parker: The Real Fifth Beatle?", One Note Ahead, 29 March 2007 Archived 8 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2 November 2013
- ^ a b Babiuk 2002, p. 146–147.
- ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
- ^ Schaffner 1978, p. 39.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 May 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2017.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Top 100 Singles". Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2016.
- ^ Wallgren 1982, pp. 38–45.
- ^ Sedghi, Ami (4 November 2012). "UK's million-selling singles: the full list". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 February 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
- ^ Myers, Justin (14 December 2018). "The best-selling singles of all time on the Official UK Chart". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 28 September 2018. Retrieved 26 January 2019.
- ^ Winn 2008, p. 377.
- ^ Rowe, Matt (18 September 2015). "The Beatles 1 to Be Reissued with New Audio Remixes ... and Videos". The Morton Report. Archived from the original on 29 December 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
- ^ Winn 2008, p. 279.
- ^ MacDonald 2005, p. 136.
- ^ "The Beatles – I Feel Fine" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
- ^ "The Beatles – I Feel Fine" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
- ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 5603." RPM. Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – I Feel Fine". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
- ^ "Sisältää hitin: Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1960: Artistit SAR - SEM". Sisältää hitin. 12 August 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
- ^ "The Beatles – I Feel Fine" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
- ^ "Lever hit parades: 24-Dec-1964". Flavour of New Zealand. Archived from the original on 24 January 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
- ^ "The Beatles – I Feel Fine". VG-lista.
- ^ Kimberley, C (2000). Zimbabwe: Singles Chart Book. p. 10.
- ISBN 9163021404.
- ISBN 919727125X.
- ^ "Beatles: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
- ^ "The Beatles Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard.
- ^ Hoffmann, Frank (1983). The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950-1981. Metuchen, NJ & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. pp. 32–34.
- GfK Entertainment Charts. Archivedfrom the original on 3 April 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
- ^ "Cash Box Year-End Charts: Top 100 Pop Singles, December 25, 1965". Archived from the original on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
- ^ Hutchins, Chris (26 December 1964). "Beatles Scoring High in U.K. on Single, Album; New Film Set". Billboard. p. 8. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
- ^ "American single certifications – The Beatles – I Feel Fine". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 14 May 2016.
References
- Babiuk, Andy (2002). Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments, from Stage to Studio (Revised ed.). San Francisco: Backbeat Books. ISBN 0-87930-731-5.
- ISBN 0-8118-2684-8.
- "Beatles For Sale". Beatles Interview Database. Archived from the original on 3 July 2012. Retrieved 8 November 2009.
- ISBN 1-84413-828-3.
- ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- "RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database – The Beatles Gold Singles". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 20 July 2009.
- ISBN 0-07-055087-5.
- Wallgren, Mark (1982). The Beatles on Record. New York: ISBN 0-671-45682-2.
- Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book Of Top 40 Country Hits: 1944–2006, Second edition. Record Research. p. 341.}
- Winn, John C. (2008). Way Beyond Compare: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, 1957–1965. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-307-45157-6.
Further reading
- ISBN 1-59240-179-1.
- Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, ed. (1993). The Beatles – Complete Scores. Milwaukee: ISBN 0-7935-1832-6.