I've Got a Feeling
"I've Got a Feeling" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. It was recorded on 30 January 1969 during the Beatles' rooftop concert.[3] It is a combination of two unfinished songs: Paul McCartney's "I've Got a Feeling" and John Lennon's "Everybody Had a Hard Year". The song features Billy Preston on electric piano.
"I've Got a Feeling" | |
---|---|
Song by the Beatles | |
from the album Let It Be | |
Released | 8 May 1970 |
Recorded | 30 January 1969 |
Genre | |
Length | 3:37 |
Label | Apple |
Songwriter(s) | Lennon–McCartney |
Producer(s) | Phil Spector |
A studio take of the song, recorded about a week earlier, was released on the Anthology 3 compilation in 1996.[4] The 2003 remix album Let It Be... Naked includes a version of the song that is a composite edit of the rooftop concert take used on Let It Be and a second attempt at the song from the same concert.[5]
Composition
Lennon's song was a litany where every line started with the word "everybody". The song had been recorded twice before by Lennon, prior to the Let It Be sessions. The first occurred in early December 1968 at Lennon's Kenwood estate on a portable cassette tape.[6] For this, the lyric was "Everyone had a hard year" instead of the later "Everybody".[6] Later in December 1968, with the lyric changed to "everybody," Lennon was filmed performing the song in the back garden of Kenwood. This footage was used in the Yoko Ono art film Rape: Film No. 6, which was broadcast on Austrian television on 31 March 1969.[7]
While McCartney's song was very optimistic, Lennon had actually endured a "hard year" — he divorced his first wife, Cynthia; his new partner Ono had a miscarriage; he was battling a heroin addiction; he was arrested for drug possession; he was estranged from his son Julian; and he had grown deeply unhappy in the Beatles.
Personnel
Personnel per Ian MacDonald[8]
The Beatles
- Paul McCartney – bass guitar, lead vocals
- John Lennon – rhythm guitar, co-lead vocals
- George Harrison – lead guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums
Additional musicians
References
- "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s". Pitchfork. Retrieved 23 February 2010.
- Unterberger, Richie. "The Beatles: Let It Be – Overview". AllMusic. RhythmOne. Archived from the original on 6 August 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2018.
- Lewisohn 1988, p. 169.
- Winn 2009, pp. 250–251.
- Winn 2009, p. 260.
- Winn 2009, pp. 230–231.
- Winn 2009, p. 235.
- MacDonald 2005, p. 332.
Sources
- Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
- MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-84413-828-3.
- Winn, John C. (2009). That Magic Feeling: The Beatles' Recorded Legacy, Volume Two, 1966–1970. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press. ISBN 978-0-307-45239-9.