Feelings (Morris Albert song)



"Feelings" is a song with lyrics written by the Brazilian singer Morris Albert, set to the tune of "Pour Toi" separately composed by Louis “Loulou” Gasté in 1957. Albert recorded "Feelings" in 1974 as a single and later included it as the title track of his 1975 debut album. The song's lyrics, recognizable by their "whoa whoa whoa" chorus, concern the singer's inability to "forget my feelings of love". Albert's original recording of the song was very successful, performing well internationally. In mid-1975, "Feelings" peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United States.

Weekly charts
* Incomplete Canadian chart data for late 1975

Dispute over authorship
At the time of "Feelings"'s greatest commercial success, it was solely credited to Albert himself. In 1981, the French songwriter Loulou Gasté sued Morris Albert for copyright infringement, claiming that "Feelings" plagiarized the melody of his 1957 song "Pour Toi". Gasté won the lawsuit; they now share the credits of the song.

Recordings of the song have credited authorship variously to Albert alone, to Albert and Gasté (since the late 1980s), to Albert and Michel Jourdan (because of the French lyrics Dis-Lui), and to Albert and "Kaisermann". The last of these attributions is redundant, since the singer's real name is Mauricio Alberto Kaisermann.

Other versions
Over the next few years, "Feelings" was performed by many other vocalists. Among the most notable versions was one by Chicago soul singer Walter Jackson which reached number 93 on Billboard's pop chart in January 1977.

During a lecture at Chautauqua Institution, Julie Andrews stated that she considered this song too difficult to sing because it had no meaning behind it.

Punk rock band The Offspring covered the song for their fifth studio album Americana in 1998, with the lyrics altered to make it into a song about hatred.

Appearances in other media

 * "Feelings" was sung by Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) in the "Bionic Beauty" episode of The Bionic Woman (Season 1, 1976).
 * An episode of The Gong Show that aired in November 1976 featured seven contestants, each of whom sang "Feelings". At the end of the episode, after the winner had been announced, everyone on stage sang it an eighth time.
 * On The Carol Burnett Show in February 1977, Eunice (Carol Burnett) sings "Feelings" on The Gong Show and gets "gonged".
 * "Feelings" was included on the soundtrack of the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman.
 * On The Jeffersons in January 1983, Hugo (Irwin Keyes), serenades "Feelings" to Jenny Willis Jefferson (Berlinda Tolbert) from the street off key.
 * On The Jeffersons in March 1983, Florence (Marla Gibbs) sings "Feelings" while drunk.
 * A short version of the song was sung by actress Nancy McKeon in a 1984 episode of the sitcom The Facts of Life.
 * "Feelings" was sung by Michelle Pfeiffer in the 1989 film The Fabulous Baker Boys.
 * In the Family Matters episode "Cousin Urkel" (November 2, 1990), Urkel (Jaleel White) sings the chorus of the song in an attempt to serenade Laura Winslow, and plays the accordion to accompany himself. Urkel's rendition, off-key for comedic effect, is late at night (at Eddie's encouragement) and wakes up the entire neighborhood.
 * In a 1995 skit on the Canadian show The Red Green Show, "Feelings" is the answer to the question, "What is the most annoying song ever written?"
 * "Feelings" was included on the soundtrack of the 2005 film Breakfast on Pluto.
 * A version of the song appeared on an episode of The Muppet Show sung by Beaker in his "mee-mee" speaking.
 * A Pepsi commercial featuring MC Hammer uses the song as the epitome of "uncool." As Hammer is involved in an energetic rap, the announcer secretly swaps his Pepsi with a Coke; Hammer grimaces as he drinks and soon after uncontrollably breaks into "Feelings" to a stunned audience. When an audience member hands him a Pepsi, Hammer replies "Proper!" and reverts to normal.
 * In the premiere episode of The Jim Henson Hour in the "MuppeTelevision" segment, Kermit and a companion enter into the semi-robotic character, Digit, to repair him and work on an interior function for his feelings. When they do so, Digit starts singing the song.
 * In an episode of SMTV Live, it was implied that one of the presenters at that time, Declan Donnelly (one half of the duo Ant & Dec) looks like Morris Albert, after which he performed the song 'Feelings'.
 * The song is also used in Bally/Midway's pinball machine The Party Zone from 1991, along with Purple Haze from Jimi Hendrix.
 * The song is referenced in a Sunday comic strip in Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, where Calvin prepares to eat a green blob of his mother's cooking, before it comes to life and recites the famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, after which it pauses briefly and then begins to sing "Feelings".
 * The song was covered in the 2016 Broadway musical Disaster!. It was sung in the original cast recording by Seth Rudetsky, Adam Pascal, and Kerry Butler