Feeling Good

Okay But His Christmas Album Though

Feeling Good by Michael Bublé

"Out of all the different versions of this song I think I like Michael's the best. He has such a powerful and soulful voice. It's so smooth like velvet."

Have you heard the cover by Muse? Apparently New Media Express called their version the best cover of all time, so I'd say it's worth checking out (x).

It was actually first written, according to Wikipedia, for a play called The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd. It was on Broadway in 1965. A character called "the Negro" sings the song after winning a game against "Cocky" and his master "Sir." They called it "a booming song of emancipation" (x).

Just to give the song some background.

Of course, this is a cover by a white dude, so I don't know how much that history really helps with our enjoyment of the piece that Bublé has put together.

Nina Simone covered this song first, back when the stage play was fresh off the UK tour in 1965. Her cover actually sounds pretty similar to Bublé's, but she keeps it completely a cappella for the intro. As a politically active African American woman living in the U.S. in the mid-1900s, Simone was able to take the lyrics and instill them with an incredible power.

When Bublé sings the song, you lose the history and, perhaps, some of the emotion.

That said, jazz itself was kind of commandeered from African-American communities, so there's that. Pentatonic scales in general were actually associated with the lands across the sea before US musical tradition adopted them. Melting pot, indeed.

Regardless, I agree that Michael Bublé does a great job with this song. This guy is one of the classiest acts out there, and his rendition of Feeling Good is no exception.

I agree that his voice is "soulful" and "smooth like velvet." Likewise, the band sounds like it's dropping the theme song for a fast-talking, streetwise gentleman. The speaking-singing style gives off the illusion of absolute ease while the beautifully supported vocals reveal true virtuosity.

Trying hard and hardly trying at the same time - full of contradictions, just like the concept of Bublé singing this song.

It's a great slow jam, and Bublé has one of the best voices out there for jazz right now. He's a modern-day Frank Sinatra, out there making music that I can listen to with my grandparents - I respect that.

Overview:

Genre:
big band / jazz

Favorite Lyrics:
Oh, freedom is real,
and I know how I feel.

Verdict:
so soothing