Morris Albert - Feelings

Does anyone know the history on this song. It seems to be very hard to get a proper copy of the original. Most sites are showing a new and "unimproved" version; almost like a guy imitating the original. Any help would be great.

 

Rhino Party Killers

https://www.amazon.com/70s-Party-Classics-Killers/dp/B0000063EG

 

I may have purchased the 45 back in the day when it was popular, but I kinda hope I didn't.

 

Appropriate

 

It's definitely a song that got overplayed when it was populate. Not having heard it for 30+ years, I could appreciate it again (at least a little bit) when I recently played a compilation it was on. It was definitely a Rhino comp though not the Party Killers one.

 

I generally reject the cliched hater opinion that "70s AM soft rock" sucked, some of it is my favorite music of all time. (Some of the other tracks on that "Party Killers" lp I find genuinely interesting and appealing.) But "Feelings" is truly dire, in its lyrics and composition almost sounds like one of those "songpoems" atrocities that somehow mysteriously hit top 10.

Terrible unimaginative literal lyrics, composition, arrangements, lugubrious melody, a true embarassment. I have, thankfully, only heard it once unbidden this century, on a local station that normally knows better.

 

Perhaps Have a Nice Day, volume 17?

 

I read something about the record having something to do with Brasil a couple of weeks ago. I like a lot of Brazilian music, but I have always disliked the song. I tried to find what I read (unsuccessfully) but did find the kind of history the original poster might be looking for.

Perhaps the original is so hard to find because in 1987, Albert lost a plagiarism suit, with a jury finding that this borrowed heavily from a French song from 1956 called "Pour Toi" ("For You") by Loulou Gasté. As a result of the lawsuit, Gasté's name was added to the composer credit, which previously went solely to Albert.

From People Magazine:

Funny, It Doesn't Sound Brazilian, but That's the Roots of Morris Albert and 'Feelings'
By Robert Windeler - Updated February 09, 1976

They’ve got an awful lot of music in Brazil, and filtering north along with it over the years have been such stars as Gilberto, Jobim, Mendes and Purim. The latest arrival is Morris Albert, 24, but unlike some of those predecessors, his Tin Pan Alger story was not exactly a cliff-hanger. Morris grew up in a quarter-million-dollar beach house on the proper edge of Rio, and family cruzeiros helped finance his first record, Feelings. It promptly became one of the huge hits of the winter and put Albert up for three Grammys this month—for best new artist, pop male vocalist and songwriter of the year.

Feelings, a baleful tune of lost love which has the lilt of a morning-after Carnival samba arranged by Ray Conniff, is such a catchy natural that 168 other singers (including Johnny Mathis, Bobby Vinton, Andy Williams and the Lettermen) have “covered” Morris’s original version. Which only means that, aside from his own gold record, Albert is now collecting writer royalties on sales of eight million in more than 20 countries.

If fans think it’s funny but Albert doesn’t sound Brazilian, well, his dad was an Israeli-born construction tycoon, his mom, a Brazilian educated in France. Morris, born Mauricio Alberto Kaiserman, was sent to the local Anglo-American school and, after the usual bourgeois piano lesson bit,founded his own rock band at 14, the Thunders, “strictly imitating the Beatles and American groups, with nothing original or Brazilian.” But it wasn’t until a trip to New York to visit his older brother Norton, a stock broker, that Albert perfected his English enough to start composing in the language. Feelings came after he returned home, and his Wall Street sibling decided that his best career investment was to become Morris’s road manager.

Now Albert has left the family estate in Rio and has come to L.A. with his five months’ pregnant lady, Sylvia, whom he met vacationing in the South of France. (Morris refers to her as “my wife,” though his Brazilian Catholic first spouse won’t give him a divorce.) “My music is universal,” explains Albert, “but it’s more American than anything.” Though he was raised in Portuguese, French and Spanish, the Brazilian star already speaks the language of Hollywood. “Music and words just come into my head,” he says, “and the words are already in English. I have no more thoughts in Portuguese.”

 

Such a great concept for a compilation.

Rhino in those early days was an eclectic, fun and interesting label!


("Billy, Don't be a Hero" is right where it belongs on this collection)

 

Hey. Thank you so much everyone for posting. A really interesting story. I know that a lot of people put it down as a terribly schmaltzy song; but here in Canada it rode the charts for a very long time. Somebody (probably a dj inLos Angeles) put together an intro for the song; boy loses girl and all that jazz. I'd love to get a copy of that intro. Any thoughts?










hey

 

Well, if you're really gonna make it a "party killer", you need the cover by no less than the First Lady of Phillipines culture, Imelda Marcos:

 

Hey, Dilly Dipper, the best! I'm still laughing.

 

I can tolerate Feelings, partly because I haven't heard it a bazillion times like most people apparently have.

That's funny! I had no idea such a thing existed. There are four total stinkers on there, but Feelings isn't one of them (the four are nos. 4, 7, 8, 12). However, the only one I like even a little above lukewarm is Afternoon Delight.

 

In the early 70´s there was a brief fad for Brazilian pop artists to write and record in English. There were a lot of local hits and Feelings was one of them, strangely bigger internationally than at home.

 

Party Killers is a great name for a compilation and Feelings is the perfect song to include.
.......and that album cover is great too.

 

I remember an episode of The Gong Show where every act sang it.

 

I liked 'Feelings ' back in the day. It was good for some close grinding on the dance floor where your partner could 'feel' your feelings.

 

What a killer set of songs too.............

Track Listings
Disc: 1
1. Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree - Dawn
2. The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace
3. Billy, Don't Be A Hero - Bo Donaldson & The Heywoods
4. (You're) Having My Baby - Paul Anka
5. Playground In My Mind - Clint Holmes
6. Feelings - Morris Albert
7. Sometimes When We Touch - Dan Hill
8. The Candy Man - Sammy Davis, Jr.
9. Afternoon Delight - Starland Vocal Band
10. Torn Between Two Lovers - Mary MacGregor
11. Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes
12. Muskrat Love - Captain & Tennille