Feelings

1975

Morris Albert

Another One Hit Wonder from '75 best remembered for it's chorus...you know the one I'm talking about...'Whoa Whoa Whoa, Feeeeeeeeeeling'...yep, that one.

'Feelings' was penned by Louis Gaste and Morris Albert, the latter who also lent his vocal talents to it, making it an international smash hit. It was about a guys inability to forget his former love, and the fact that she preyed on his mind and emotions constantly, set to a slow, s-l-o-o-o-w-w rhythm and melody that oozed from speakers for the entirety of the Summer of 1975. This was most definitely not a song to listen too right after you broke up with your girlfriend (And as such, you would inevitably hear it with-in minutes of doing so).

Feelings oozed onto the Billboard Hot 100 on June 21^st, 1975, barely making it onto the chart at #98. It didn't make it to the Top 20 until September 20^th, clocking in at #20, and took another month to crack the Top 10, at #7. It'd notch up a single place a week later, on October 25^th, to peak at #6, staying there for single week, and would hang around the charts seemingly forever. It didn't drop off of the charts until January 26^th, 1976, 32 weeks after it's debut. That's a chart run of just more than six months, exceeding the half year mark by three days. Not too shabby for a song that, today, has become a parody of the most insipid and banal qualities of the worst of '70s 'Soft Rock'. Hey, somebody must've liked it back in '75!

Feelings grabbed it's little share of controversy, too, in the form of a copyright dispute. There's a reason that Louis 'LouLou' Gaste shares authorship with Morris Albert. In 1981 Louis Gaste sued Morris Albert, claiming that he stole the melody of one of Gaste's songs...a 1957 tune named 'Por Toi'... when he penned 'Feelings', and apparently the French courts agreed...and now the two of them share authorship in the credits of the song.

It's a little sad that this song, as noted above, has almost become a parody of itself, but it did embrace a lot of things that Rock fans really really hated about some 'Soft Rock' songs (They hated the term 'Soft Rock” just as much, insisting, with a good bit of merit, that there were no elements of Rock in a majority of them).

Then one of the true legends of music, the legendary singer Julie Andrews gave it what could have well been it's death knell at a lecture she was giving at the Chautauqua Institution, in New York State, when she said she didn't sing it, and that it was too hard to sing because it had no true meaning. Along the way, it's also appeared on more than a few “Worst Songs Ever' lists over the decades.

It's still soldiered on over the last 39 years, though, and it'll still pop up on both Oldies Station and Adult Contemporary AKA Easy Listening playlists now and again.

Hey...someone liked it...it hung around the charts for six months!

So Enjoy! Feelings by Morris Albert!