Feelin Good - Nina Simone/Muse

This woman needs no introduction. Her legend and notoriety are right up there with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.

The song starts off with Nina singing the first verse, swinging it only as Nina can. She takes a pause after every line, letting the emptiness emphasis the song just as much as her voice does. She throws in a little bit of scat, just to give some variety to it. Then, enter the horns, drums, and a piano backing her up with a descending arpeggio in Unison for the second verse. As the second verse nears the end, the song crescendos slightly up, giving power to the next verse. After she finishes it, the band goes off on its own for a couple of measures, then we go into the third verse.

But the band lets up during this, allowing the piano to have its own solo for a verse. As the fourth verse starts, its the same as when the second verse started, but with the piano going back to an arpeggio style from the second verse as well. And as it ends, it crescendos slightly, but then Nina springs into a beautiful scat solo, ending with an even louder crescendo on 'I'm feeling good,' holding the note as the song fades out.

A song that is only 2:57, but has become a very recognizable piece, covered by, in this case most notably Nina Simone, but also bands such as Muse, and singer Bobby Darin. I say covered, because it was actually originally written for a musical 'The Roar of Greasepaint- The Smell of the Crowd' by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse in 1965.

Here is my favorite rendition of it.

This one is done by a band called Muse. They are in my top three favorite bands, (Muse, Coheed and Cambria, Foo Fighters) and have done a great job covering this...in the sense that it is very different. While the beginning of this song swings, Matt Bellamy decides to to use the piano during the intro as opposed to using just his voice. Then the drums and bass come in, pounding you into the realization that while this may be a cover, it is not the Nina Simone version.

The third verse, Matt does something I had never heard of and started singing into a Megaphone. The effect made his voice flat and very distorted, but had an interesting effect in the sense that it was new and enjoyable to hear some variety in the piece. Then during the fourth verse he goes back as the other two verses were, and proceeds to end it with scat, as Nina did, but instead of letting it fades out, has the outro just as same as the intro.


It was interesting to see how these two pieces of the same name have such a vastly different interpretation of the source material, and I believe this shows the great diversity of music.