Related Content

• Guide to the Songs and Instruments Featured on The Beatles' 'Let It Be' Album
• Song Facts: The Beatles — "Get Back"
• Guide to the Songs and Instruments Featured on The Beatles' 'Rubber Soul' Album
• Song Facts: The Beatles — "Nowhere Man"
• Video: Paul McCartney Breaks Out Five Beatles Songs He's Never Played Live Before

The powerful and bluesy "I've Got A Feeling," which John Lennon jokingly called "I've Got A Fever," is a true Lennon/McCartney composition. It blends — via alternation and superimposition — two incomplete songs, one by Paul McCartney, one by Lennon.

Both happened to have been written around the same period and based on the same two-chord motif built around a first-position A chord (with the high A note fingered with the pinky). It is the last true collaboration by Lennon and McCartney.

McCartney's share of the song, called "I've Got A Feeling" from the get-go, includes a verse, chorus and bridge and was inspired by his relationship with his soon-to-be-wife, Linda Eastman. Lennon provides alternate verses inspired by his personal upheavals of 1968.

"I've Got A Feeling" is one of three "live" songs to be included on Let It Be, having been performed as part of the January 30, 1969, rooftop concert. It features McCartney on vocals and his 1963 Hofner 500/1 (adorned with the rectangular "Bassman" sticker from his Fender Bassman amp), Lennon on vocals and his Epiphone Casino, George Harrison on backing vocals and his rosewood Fender Telecaster, Ringo Starr on Ludwig Hollywood Maple drums and Billy Preston on Hohner electric piano.

The gritty, hard-edged song, which McCartney still performs live today (See below), benefits from McCartney's screaming vocals, creative, octave-infused bass line (especially during Lennon's portion of the song) and Harrison's tasteful bends and double stops during McCartney's raucous bridge.

Although the version featured on Let It Be is the result of a single live take, Phil Spector edited together three mixes to come up with the final product.

Damian Fanelli is the online managing editor at Guitar World Follow him on Twitter.

Related