If I had guessed, I would have guessed that this was not one of the Beatles top hit songs … and boy would I have been wrong!!!  I was searching tonight for a Beatles song that I hadn’t yet played here, and this was one of several that popped up … the only one I remembered by its title, so I dug deeper.

According to SongFacts …

The first note of this song marked the first time feedback was used on a major release. It was created when John Lennon leaned his electric guitar against an amplifier and Paul McCartney played a note on his bass, creating a strangely appealing feedback loop. The band thought it sounded great, but in this pre-Hendrix era, feedback was considered a technical malfunction and not an artistic enhancement. Fortunately, their producer George Martin was always open to new ideas and agreed to insert it at the beginning of the song. “He’d let us experiment like nutty professors,” McCartney said of Martin.

An early Beatles track, “I Feel Fine” lyrically is a simple love song about a guy who is crazy about his girl. It’s not Shakespeare, but it’s effective.

John Lennon wrote the majority of this song, which borrows from the “Watch Your Step” by the American blues musician Bobby Parker.

Bobby Parker, apparently, took umbrage …

“I’ve been in litigation for close to 55 years about some of this material that was stolen from me. They had ‘Watch Your Step’ on John Lennon’s Jukebox and then that went out all over the country on PBS Television and people heard about it. John Lennon said how he had ‘borrowed’ that guitar part for HIS record, and pretty soon everybody knew about ‘Watch Your Step.’ I go over to England now and that’s all they wanna hear, they don’t even care about the new stuff I’m doin’. I’m out there playin’ with Buddy Guy and Robert Gray, and they just wanna hear ‘Watch Your Step’ from John Lennon’s Jukebox!”

At any rate, the song charted in the top #3 in most of Europe, reaching #1 in Canada, the U.S., UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden … well, you get the picture.  And now for the song …

I Feel Fine

The Beatles

Baby’s good to me, you know
She’s happy as can be, you know
She said so
I’m in love with her and I feel fine

Baby says she’s mine, you know
She tells me all the time, you know
She said so
I’m in love with her and I feel fine

I’m so glad that she’s my little girl
She’s so glad, she’s telling all the world

That her baby buys her things, you know
He buys her diamond rings, you know
She said so
She’s in love with me and I feel fine, mmm

Baby says she’s mine, you know
She tells me all the time, you know
She said so
I’m in love with her and I feel fine

I’m so glad that she’s my little girl
She’s so glad, she’s telling all the world

That her baby buys her things, you know
He buys her diamond rings, you know
She said so
She’s in love with me and I feel fine
She’s in love with me and I feel fine

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Paul Mccartney / John Lennon

I Feel Fine lyrics © Sony/atv Tunes Llc, Mpl Communications Inc