"Feelings" is a song by the Brazilian singer Morris Albert, who also wrote the lyrics. Albert released "Feelings" in 1974 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. In mid-1975, "Feelings" peaked at number 6 on the BillboardHot 100 and number 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United States. In 1986, French songwriter Louis Gasté successfully sued Albert for plagiarism on the grounds that the tune was taken from Gasté's 1957 song "Pour Toi"; Gasté is now credited as the song's co-author.
At the time of "Feelings"'s greatest commercial success, it was solely credited to Albert himself. In 1986, 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, upheld on appeal in 1988; they now share the credits of the song. Recordings of the song have credited authorship variously to Albert alone, to Albert and Gasté, to Albert and Michel Jourdan, and to Albert and "Kaisermann". The last of these attributions is redundant, since the singer's real name is Mauricio Alberto Kaisermann.
Other versions
Over the next few years, "Feelings" was performed by many other vocalists. Among the most notable versions was one by Shirley Bassey in 1976 for her album Love, life and feelings and Chicago soul singer Walter Jackson which reached number 93 on Billboards pop chart in January 1977. 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. Punk rock bandThe Offspring covered the song for their fifth studio albumAmericana in 1998, with the lyrics altered to make it into a song about hatred. The Gong Show had an episode in which every contestant sang this song.
