What do Flo Rida, Michael Buble, The Pussycat Dolls, and Avicii
have in common? They have all done covers or sampled from the song “Feeling
Good”.
Maybe this isn’t an interesting fact to you. But hold on: they
aren’t the only ones who have used their musical talents to re-introduce this
song to the media. Quite literally, dozens of artists
from all different genres have attempted to put their own twist on the age old
song.
How old you ask? 1960’s old. That means that this song (or
parts of it) has been milling about in our music, movies, and even TV commercials for nearly 50 years. Having
heard this familiar tune in so many places and performed by some of my
favourite artists, I couldn’t help but wonder where exactly it originated from.
 |
| From broadwayworld.com |
It turns out the song was actually performed on stage for
the first time by a character called “the Negro” in the 1964 British musical The Roar of the Greasepaint –
The Smell of the Crowd. In the UK, the man who played “the Negro”
was Cy Grant. The musical was performed again in 1965 on Broadway with a
different actor, Gilbert Price. You can find each of their versions here and here,
respectively. Both are great renditions, but neither of these performances are
what really made this song so enduring. What exactly made this song such a catch then?
Written and composed by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse (fun fact: these guys also created some of
the music for the 1971 production of Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), the song was made popular shortly after
the Broadway production when Nina Simone released her cover of it (the video at the top of this post). Since then, artists have kept coming back to the track and have continued to change it in subtle, or in some cases not so subtle, ways in order to make it their own.
A situation such as this brings up interesting questions
about authorship. I suppose we could say that Leslie Bricusse and Anthony
Newley have authorship of this song because they are its creators. However, whoever is using this song today is likely to only know of the Nina Simone cover. Additionally, when we talk about artists that get
songwriters to write their songs for them, we would still say that the 'author' of the song is really the artist performing it. This is where things get interesting for "Feeling Good". With so many performers, it’s hard to say who real authorship belongs to.
For me, this is what makes the song so compelling. Aside
from beautiful lyrics and a great melody, the song has history. The absence of a real 'author' makes it so that many do not recognize where the song comes from, but people continue to
interpret it for themselves and use its parts in so many ways across all different genres. Whether its the challenging vocals, its meaning, or its versatility that keeps bringing people back to the song, I'm glad that it has managed to stay fresh and new even after 50 years so that someone like me, who has never even heard of Newley or Bricusse
or even The Roar of the Greasepaint – The
Smell of the Crowd, can still enjoy this classic so many years after its
time.
If you're interested in hearing more of this song, I’ve linked a couple of my favourite versions below!
This is such an interesting blog post! I really like your use of links to help give a better background to what you're talking about. And I had no idea the song had such an extensive history or was covered by so many people.
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