"Can You Feel It" is a 1986 house record released by Mr. Fingers. It is one of the first deep house records. Its seminal impact on deep house has been compared to that of Derrick May's "Strings of Life" on Detroit techno.
"Can You Feel It" was originally released as an instrumental on Mr. Fingers' Washing Machine EP in 1986 on Trax Records. It became popular in both the Chicago club scene & the early UK House club scene which was taking off in London & The Midlands. The track was often mixed with Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The song later appeared on the 1988 Fingers Inc. album Another Side.
Remixes
In 1987, Rhythm Control released a track called "My House," which contained spoken word vocals from Chuck Roberts discussing the feeling and meaning of house music. In 1988, the speech from the a cappella version of "My House" was later used in a remix of "Can You Feel It" and overlaid over Heard's original instrumental. This speech version of the track was a bootleg and was dismissed by Heard, who has always been vocal in his disapproval of sampling the work of other artists without their permission. Regardless, this quickly became the most well-known version of "Can You Feel It". Both the instrumental and vocal versions have appeared on numerous house music compilations. A rarer alternate mix was also made with soul vocals from Fingers Inc. vocalist Robert Owens.
Impact and legacy
Mixmag ranked the song number 19 in its 100 Greatest Dance Singles of All Time in 1996, adding:
"The blueprint for every dreamy deep house instrumental that followed, the magic Mr Fingers comes from the slow, somnambulant pace, the simple emotive synth chords and the shiver of joy every time you hear the hi-hats rush shimmeringly over the top. No 1988 house session really seemed complete without the British version that layered Martin Luther King over Larry Heard's instruments at the end of the night."
Slant ranked the song at number 51 in its list ofthe 100 Greatest Dance Songs in 2006. The Guardian featured the song as part of its A history of modern music: Dance in 2011. Time Out`s 2015 list of The 20 Best House Tracks Ever included "Can You Feel It" as #5, adding:
"To those who regard electronic music as being devoid of emotion, we give you this staggering 1986 masterpiece from the saintly Larry Heard. The ultimate break-of-dawn anthem, the combination of butt-shaking low-end acid bass and bleary eyed synths make this more vivid than an acid flashback."
