"Feelings" is a 1974 song with lyrics written by Brazilian singer Morris Albert, set to the tune of "Pour Toi," separately composed by Louis “Loulou” Gasté in 1957. Albert recorded "Feelings" 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. "Feelings" peaked at #6 on the pop charts and #2 on the Adult Contemporary charts in America.
Over the next few years "Feelings" was performed by many other vocalists including Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Bassey, Nina Simone, Salena Jones, Angelica Maria, Petula Clark, José José, Caetano Veloso, Engelbert Humperdinck, Muslim Magomayev, Glen Campbell, The O'Jays, Sarah Vaughan, Walter Jackson, Sergey Penkin, Julio Iglesias, Dobie Gray and Johnny Mathis. It was also recorded by numerous easy listening bandleaders and ensembles such as Percy Faith, Ferrante & Teicher, Franck Pourcel, 101 Strings and Herb Ohta whose ukulele rendition was recorded with André Popp's orchestra for A&M Records.
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.
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.
José José recorded the song in Spanish entitled "Sentimientos"; it was included in his album Tan Cerca...Tan Lejos of 1975.
Andy Williams released a version in 1975 on his album, The Other Side of Me.
Lindsay Wagner performed the song on the American television science fiction action series The Bionic Woman episode "Bionic Beauty" in 1975.
Israeli-born French pop star Mike Brant recorded a French version of the song entitled "Dis-lui" in 1975.
In 1976, Dutch comedian Andre van Duin recorded the song in his own language as the roadblock-themed "File" (meaning 'traffic-jam'). Although its parent album And're Andre was meant to include serious songs only, "File" can be considered a compromise.
Japanese vocal group Hi-Fi Set released a Japanese-language version of the same title in late 1976 and it became their breakthrough hit the next year.
Also in 1976, Italian singer Ornella Vanoni released an Italian-language version of the song, called Fili.
The 1977 live album A Man and a Woman by Isaac Hayes and Dionne Warwick features the song in a medley version.
Monty Alexander Trio recorded a live instrumental version at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival.
The O'Jays released a version on their 1977 Travelin' at the Speed of Thought album.
A cover of the song appears on the Sesame Street 1977 album, Let Your Feelings Show, sung by "Marry Banilow and the Muppettones". The song is first sung as normal (substituting 'girl' with 'boy' as it's sung by a girl), then is redone in a style similar to Spike Jones with a bunch of sound effects and soundbytes in the background.
The Dutch DJ Theo Vaness made in his album Back to Music in 1978 a disco version of "Feelings".
Perry Como included the song in his 1978 album, Where You're Concerned.
Roger Whittaker recorded a version on his 1978 album Imagine.
Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez also recorded the song when she was a young girl. The song was only released in 1997 and included in her album Through the Years/A Traves de los Años. The released version is a remixed version of the original that was recorded in the 1970s.
The American punk rock band The Offspring recorded a version of "Feelings" for their 1998 album Americana, substituting the original lyrics about love with ones about hate.
Greek singer Sakis Rouvas released a Greek-language version entitled "Pes Tis" in 2003, while also covering "Feelings" and Brant's "Dis Lui" French version. The Greek version of the song won two MAD Video Music Awards for "Sexiest Appearance in a Video" awarded to Sakis Rouvas, and one awarded to Gens for "Best Direction".
Todd Solondz sang the song in a short film he made while studying film at NYU called Feelings.
In 2011, the song was parodied by The Fringemunks to recap Fringe episode 3.14, "6B."
In 2013, a bilingual English / French version of the song was released by the French international R&B musical trio Vigon Bamy Jay.
Avant garde saxophonist Albert Ayler quoted the theme of "Pour Toi" in his song "Children", which was published in 1964.
Enzo Stuarti released a version partly in English, mostly in Italian.
Al Martino recorded the song.
Universal Exposition of Seville: Rocío Jurado singing the song.
"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 aired in November 1976 featured the gag that every contestant sang "Feelings".
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), misunderstands when Louise, George, Tom and Helen plan a surprise party for Florence just to let her know how much they appreciate her friendship. However, when Florence walks in on the planning stages Tom makes an excuse and tells her she's invited but only to serve the meal. This prompts Florence to drown her sorrows in a $500 bottle of wine George just bought. Then she 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. In the episode, McKeon's character, Jo, and Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) go to a piano bar where Mrs. Garrett ends up going on a date with the piano man, resulting in Jo taking over for him. She sings a chorus of the song and gets the enthusiastic guests to sing along with her.
"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.
One sketch on the Canadian show The Red Green Show is "The Possum Lodge Word Game" (a parody of Password). In one episode, from 1995, Dalton Humphrey (Bob Bainborough) has to guess the word "feelings" to win a prize of an entire case of Quebec Nordiques hockey uniforms. Red (Steve Smith) successfully gets Dalton to say the word when he asks him, "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. The crowd was unruly that night, and they booed Beaker halfway through. Animal, who was on drums for the song, told the crowd to pipe down.
The B-side of the original single of "Feelings" was "This World Today is a Mess", written by Donna Hightower and Danny Daniel. Albert's version copies her style and although his version of the song did not meet much commercial interest, Hightower's own recording has sold millions of copies, primarily in the Spanish-speaking world.
MC Hammer sings it in a Pepsi commercial after he drinks a glass of cola not knowing it was replaced with Coke.
Misty Oldland cited it during a live-performance in Japan as an indication to her own song "Got a Feeling".
Willie Colón cited it during a French festival-performance as an example of a non-English-speaking artist singing in English.
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.
