FEELING GOOD – THE SONG
This month’s issue is inspired by a classic civil rights hymn that has also become an LGBT anthem. Here’s the Feeling Good story so far…
This month’s issue is inspired by a classic civil rights hymn that has also become an LGBT anthem.
Feeling Good is more than a simple pop song. It was written in 1964 as the world stood on the precipice of change both musically (the rise of The Beatles) and politically (the civil rights movement and subsequent liberation movements).
Musician Anthony Newley (then married to Joan Collins) and lyricist Leslie Bricusse (later to write the Victor/Victoria film/musical), penned Feeling Good, or Feelin’ Good as it’s sometimes known, for a long forgotten musical, The Roar Of The Greasepaint – The Smell Of The Crowd. It was sung by a character known pejoratively as “the Negro” who wins a game played by the main (ie, white) characters to celebrate his emancipation from oppression. (“It’s a new dawn/It’s a new day/It’s a new life for me/And I’m feeling good.”)
The musical successfully moved from England to Broadway and spawned two further hits – Who Can I Turn To? for Dusty Springfield and The Joker, later the theme for Australia’s Kath And Kim series, sung by Gina Riley. Due to the seismic cultural shift in mid-’60s consciousness and the show’s now dated stereotypes, The Roar Of The Greasepaint was never revived. Feeling Good, however, took on a whole new life of its own.
Singer, civil rights activist and rebel spirit, Nina Simone recorded a version in 1965 for her album, I Put A Spell On You, which was adopted by the civil rights movement at the time. Three decades later, Nina’s version had another life when it was used in a TV car commercial, belatedly making it a pop hit in 1994. It has also been used in a fabric softner ad!
A year before her death, Nina’s version was immortalised in 2002 on the legendary Verve Remixed series, then subsequently sampled countless times by hiphop artists such as Flo Rida, Jay-Z and Kanye West. For a US TV performance of Flo Rida’s How I Feel, Christina Aguilera stood in for Nina Simone.
Swedish EDM star Avicci also sampled Nina’s version for his song of the same name. It has been covered by jazz-lite crooner Michael Bublé (who also licensed his version for TV ad campaigns), naughty grrl band Pussycat Dolls, and urban singer/songwriter Lauryn Hill (for a tribute documentary about Nina Simone).
The song has also left an indelible mark on queer consciousness. It was sung by George Michael on a number of his tours, including 2014’s Symphonica, becoming his final single release before his death in 2016.
A recording by indie rock gods Muse was used in an episode of Queer As Folk in a scene depicting a gay couple blissfully walking down the street hand-in-hand. Gay actor/singer John Barrowman released a version in 2007 on his covers album Another Side, Adam Lambert crooned it on American Idol (releasing his version in 2009) and theatre queen Elaine Paige recorded a version, too – she made her first professional stage appearance in the original 1964 UK production of The Roar Of the Greasepaint as a chorus girl.
And yet it may be that the very first person to sing Feeling Good, Cy Grant, in the original musical it came from, who best demonstrates what a powerful, liberating and uplifting piece of pop music folklore it embodies. A World War II pilot who survived two years in a Nazi prison camp, Cy studied to be a lawyer after the war but, due to inherent racism, could not get a job. Instead, he tried acting, becoming one of the first black actors to appear on the British stage. Grant was also the first black person to appear regularly on British TV, recorded a number of albums of calypso and folk songs from his native British Guiana (now Guyana), wrote extensively on the subject of blackness and multiculturalism, was heavily involved in activism and was a proponent of fostering better race relations.
Whether sung by Nina Simone, George Michael or Cy Grant, Feeling Good remains a unifying anthem of liberation for oppressed minorities of all types. The magic in the music remains the same – the euphoria of emancipation encompassed in a simple threeminute song.
The euphoria of emancipation in a simple three-minute song.