"I Feel Fine" is a riff-driven rock song written primarily
by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and released in
1964 by the Beatles as the A-side of their eighth UK single.
The single reached the top of the UK charts on 12 December of
that year, displacing The Rolling Stones' "Little Red Rooster,"
and remained there for five weeks. It also reached the top of
the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1964. The B-side was "She's a
Woman".
"I Feel Fine" was the first of six number one songs in a row
on the American charts, a record at the time. The subsequent
singles were "Eight Days a Week", "Ticket to Ride", "Help!",
"Yesterday", and "We Can Work It Out". The record was equaled
by The Bee Gees in 1979 and surpassed by Whitney Houston in
1988.
Lennon wrote the guitar riff while in the studio recording
"Eight Days a Week". "I wrote 'I Feel Fine' around that riff
going on in the background," he recalled. "I told them I'd
write a song specially for the riff. So they said, 'Yes. You go
away and do that,' knowing that we'd almost finished the album
Beatles for Sale. Anyway, going into the studio one
morning, I said to Ringo, 'I've written this song but it's
lousy.' But we tried it, complete with riff, and it sounded
like an A side, so we decided to release it just like that."
George Harrison said that Lennon's riff was influenced by a
riff in "Watch Your Step", a 1961 release written and performed
by Bobby Parker and covered by The Beatles in concerts during
1961 and 1962.
Paul McCartney said the drums on "I Feel Fine" were inspired
by Ray Charles's "What'd I Say".
At the time of the song's recording the Beatles, having
mastered the studio basics, had begun to explore new sources of
inspiration in noises previously eliminated as mistakes
(electronic goofs, twisted tapes, talkback). "I Feel Fine"
marks the earliest example of the use of feedback as a
recording effect. Artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Kinks, and
The Who used feedback, but Lennon remained proud of the fact
that the Beatles were the first group to actually put it on
vinyl.
The intro to "I Feel Fine" starts with a single, percussive
(yet pure-sounding) note (a high "A" harmonic) played on
McCartney's Hofner bass guitar that sustains, perhaps beyond
any song previously recorded. It is then transformed and
distorted via feedback. According to McCartney, "John had a
semi-acoustic Gibson guitar. It had a pick-up on it so it could
be amplified... We were just about to walk away to listen to a
take when John leaned his guitar against the amp. I can still
see him doing it... it went, 'Nnnnnnwahhhhh!" And we went,
'What's that? Voodoo!' 'No, it's feedback.' Wow, it's a great
sound!' George Martin was there so we said, 'Can we have that
on the record?' 'Well, I suppose we could, we could edit it on
the front.' It was a found object, an accident caused by
leaning the guitar against the amp."
While sounding very much like an electric guitar, Lennon
played it on an acoustic (a Gibson model J-160E), employing the
guitar's onboard pickup and 1960s sound effect devices to make
the acoustic guitar sound more electronic. The intro riff
around a D major chord progresses to a C, then a G, where the G
major vocals begin. Just before the coda, Lennon's intro riff
(or ostinato), is repeated with a bright sound by George
Harrison on electric guitar (a Gretsch Tennessean), followed by
the more
electricsound of John on amped acoustic.
In the US, the song was released on their Capitol album
Beatles '65, and is presented in a duophonic mix
featuring a layer of reverb added by executive Dave Dexter,
Jr..
In the UK, the song was released on the LP format on
A Collection of Beatles Oldies. A true stereo version
can be found on the
Past Masters Vol 1and
Beatles 1CDs.
There is also another stereo version that sounds the same,
but with whispering at the very beginning which appears on the
original release of
1962–1966.