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[Hello Goodbye]

I Feel Fine

The Beatles entered EMI Studio 2 on 18 October 1964 at 2:30 PM.  They finished up on Eight Days A Week and then recorded Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! and Mr. Moonlight.  They then began preparing to record their newly-written song I Feel Fine.  Geoff Emerick, in Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles, relates what happened next:

As the band began rehearsing their next song in the studio with George Martin, I used the opportunity to sit in the control room and relax for a few minutes.  I was making small talk with Norman (Smith, 1st engineer at this session) about something or other when all of a sudden I heard this loud, buzzing sound issue forth from the speakers.

"'What the bloody hell was that?" I asked him, alarmed.  My first thought was that a cable had gone bad, or that a piece of equipment had failed.  Norman chuckled.  "Have a look," he said to me.  I pressed my nose up against the control room glass and was astonished to see John Lennon kneeling before his amplifier, guitar in hand.  We knew that if you brought a guitar too close to an amplifier, it would squeal, but John was using it in a controlled way for the first time.


The night before, when The Beatles were recording Eight Days A Week, John had leaned his Gibson J-160E acoustic guitar against his amplifier.  Just at that moment, Paul happened to pluck a low A on his Hofner 500/1 bass guitar.  These two fellows have recreated what happened as a result...

I Feel Fine Feedback and Riff

John and Paul were experimenting further with this feedback sound they accidentally discovered the previous evening.  They asked George Martin if it could be used as an intro to I Feel Fine and he agreed.

The Beatles did several takes of the song, each time using the feedback as an intro...

The Beatles - I Feel Fine [Take 1]

The Beatles - I Feel Fine [Take 2]

[Hello Goodbye]

The Beatles - I Feel Fine [Take 5]

The Beatles - I Feel Fine [Take 6]

The Beatles - I Feel Fine [Take 9]

John Lennon - Lead Vocals, Lead/Rhythm Guitar (1964 Gibson J160E)
Paul McCartney - Bass Guitar (1963 Hofner 500/1), harmony vocals
George Harrison - Lead Guitar (1963 Gretsch 6199 Tennessean), harmony vocals
Ringo Starr - Drums (1964 Ludwig Super Classic Black Oyster Pearl)

[oldbrownshoe]

I was looking around the 40/50 mark for 'I Feel Fine' in the Beatles Monthly Poll of 1983 and couldn't find it anywhere until I looked further up the list and there it was at No. 8, amazingly polling just one vote less than 'Yesterday'.

A fantastic single, especially so when paired with the equally good 'She's A Woman' (at a lowly No. 95 but the one Beatles song that Brian Epstein picked on 'Desert Island Discs').

In Britain it replaced the wonderful 'Little Red Rooster' at No. 1, a song so brilliant, and so alien to the drab Rolling Stones of the last 42 years, that the 'Forty Licks' compilation DIDN'T include it. Jolly well done abkco!

[blmeanie]

Great song.  Great energy.  Simple yet innovative.

[Klang]

So coincidental to see the term 'desert island' here, as I would cite this as my #1 desert island Fab single. It always lifts me. Perfect in every way: instrumental arrangement, vocals, simple but effective lyrics. Couldn't be better.

 

[Normandie]

This is one of my all-time favorite Beatles tunes. Jim, you summed it up perfectly, IMO. To me, this song is as close to perfection as it gets.

[Bobber]

I Feel Fine has always been a huge favourite of mine. Innovative, powerful and great harmonies. The Beatles at their best.

[oldbrownshoe]

Brian seems to have been on 'Desert Island Discs' on the Monday after the release of 'I Feel Fine' so, in picking 'She's A Woman', he was probably hoping to get a few more sales!
Oh, and he also picked 'All My Loving' by the George Martin Orchestra.

Amazingly he had only just turned 30 the previous September.

[Dcazz]

Great song!

[tkitna]

Love the song.  Doubt it cracks my top 10, but its a good one regardless.  Ringo's greatest moment drumming for the Beatles is this song.  I've said it a thousand times before, but i'll say it again,,,,I've never heard any drummer play it right.  NONE.  Great song. 

[Klang]

And a kicking bass line. Then there's the guitars. I think it's their instrumental masterpiece. Oh yea, they sing well too...

 

[Hello Goodbye]

And a kicking bass line.

I feel fine - The Beatles - Bass Cover

[Hello Goodbye]

Love the song.  Doubt it cracks my top 10, but its a good one regardless.  Ringo's greatest moment drumming for the Beatles is this song.  I've said it a thousand times before, but i'll say it again,,,,I've never heard any drummer play it right.  NONE.  Great song.

Live at the Circus Krone-Bau!

The Beatles - I Feel Fine (Live At Circus Krone-Bau)

[Kaleidoscope_Eyes]

Nice introduction, HG. It's funny how greatness comes out of the unplanned (funny too, how this is true for real life as well).

I like this song. Great feel to it and very beat-y

[Mr Mustard]

It's sublime isn't it? So lyrically simple and direct yet so musically artful and clever. Beatles at their purest.

Such an achingly cool record. It distils everything that was great about them into less than two and a half minutes and even now can trigger that shiver of pleasure whenever I encounter it unexpectedly (for example: it came over the PA System when I was at a funfair once many years ago and the whole place just seemed to tingle). I don't think they ever surpassed "I Feel Fine" in terms of overall "feel", if you know what I mean - it can still give me goosebumps. Vocals are great, guitars are fabulous, drumming is absolutely brilliant - the whole thing crystallises into perfection - yes, perfection - it's flawless. Even the slyly engineered feedback (craftily passed off as a "mistake" around the time of release) fits seamlessly. Once again they demonstrated with panache the comfortable margin by which they outstripped their contemporaries. 

My favourite Beatles single.

[tkitna]

And a kicking bass line.

If I thought there was weak spot in the song it would be the bass line.  I'm no bass player so I'm not sure what Paul's actually playing, but when I listen to the song it just sounds like he's plodding along with a note on every 1, 2, 3, and 4.  The song doesn't call for anything more then that, but I'm spoiled.  Lol

[Klang]

For the most part I can hear that. He's mostly just thumping along but then there are these little hooks thrown in that interplay with the other instruments in a really cool way. Hard to explain, but it's a strong feature of the song for me. Just a great arrangement all around.

 

[oldbrownshoe]

I'm not too sure about the 'comfortable margin by which they outstripped their contemporaries' line.

I think at various times in the 60s, Dylan, The Stones, Jimi, Aretha, The Kinks et al were perfectly capable of keeping up or even emulating The Beatles.

However, comparing 'I Feel Fine' to the pop chart of 2014 makes me want to weep or laugh out loud depending on my mood.....normally it's laugh out loud.

[tkitna]

I'm not too sure about the 'comfortable margin by which they outstripped their contemporaries' line.

I think at various times in the 60s, Dylan, The Stones, Jimi, Aretha, The Kinks et al were perfectly capable of keeping up or even emulating The Beatles.

I don't want to derail the thread and get into another p*ssing match, but I cant agree with the names being dropped here.  Dylan wrote masterpieces of popular music early on and showed the Beatles how a story can be told through song, but musically, I don't feel he was blowing people away after 65'.  Hell, his followers almost fainted just because he picked up an electric guitar.  I look at old Bob as a folk singer and writer and not much of in innovator after the early 60's.  There's a reason people said the Stones did everything the Beatles did,,,,only 6 months later.  Love the band but don't see anything there that tops the Beatles.  Jimi blew the scene away when he came along, but truly was a one trick pony.  If you dig distortion, long guitar solo's, sloppy music, and songs that sound the same, he's your man.  For me, a little Jimi goes a long way.  Aretha sang other peoples music.  Great voice, but what did she contribute music wise?  Now for the Kinks.  One of my favorite bands ever.  I would put their 5 album run of 'Face to Face' through 'Lola Versus Powerman' against anybody,,,,,,except the Beatles.  The thing about the Kinks is that they'll have a song that dazzles and amazes you and then the next one comes on and you wonder how in the hell this garage band ever got a record deal to start with.  Great stuff, but nothing that I would put against the Beatles high notes.  Whats the Kinks greatest song,,,Waterloo Sunset maybe.  Is that their crowning achievement?  The Beatles have a lot of Waterloo Sunsets. 

Sorry, rant over.

[blmeanie]

Love the song.  Doubt it cracks my top 10, but its a good one regardless.  Ringo's greatest moment drumming for the Beatles is this song.  I've said it a thousand times before, but i'll say it again,,,,I've never heard any drummer play it right.  NONE.  Great song.

Curious, what makes it Ringo's greatest moment?  I'm no drummer, just want to understand.  Can you play it right?