I Feel Fine
| "I Feel Fine" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
I Feel Fine is the name of a song written by John Lennon (although credited to Lennon-McCartney) and released in 1964 by The Beatles as the A side of their seventh UK single. The song reached the top of the charts on December 12th of that year, displacing The Rolling Stones' "Little Red Rooster," and remained there for five weeks.
John's most optimistic song to date, "I Feel Fine" burgeoned from its distinctive guitar riff, written by Lennon while in the studio recording "Eight Days A Week." "I actually wrote 'I Feel Fine' around the riff which is going on in the background," John recalled. "I told them that I'd write a song specially for this riff so they said, 'Yes. You go away and do that,' knowing that we'd almost finished [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." Lennon's riff would seem to bear a striking resemblance to one found in "Watch Your Step", a 1961 release written and performed by Bobby Parker and covered by The Beatles in concerts during 1961 and 1962 (with the two songs also sharing a remarkably similar Latin-style drum pattern). The Beatles would continue to feature guitar riffs in their songs, most notably in numbers like "Day Tripper" and "Paperback Writer."
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 (electronic goofs, twisted tapes, talkback). "I Feel Fine" marks the earliest example of the use of feedback as a recording effect—artists such as Jimi Hendrix and The Who used feedback, but John remained proud of the fact that the Beatles were the first group to actually put it on vinyl. This subtle shift in their approach to recording became a lasting element of the group's later career, making itself widely apparent on albums like Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
References
- Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song, Harper, New York: 1994, ISBN 006095065X
