I've Got a Feeling

The lyric takes in the motifs of love, relationship and self reflection. It is not the first time the Beatles reached for the rain motif, and 'Please Please Me' and 'I'm a Loser' did, 7 years before. There is anaphora in the writing. Have you noticed the title turns on the word get, 10 songs use it, the first of them 7 years before this one? For anyone keeping count, the line "Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah" turns up in one other Beatles song, 'Glass Onion'.

'I've Got a Feeling' is a blues rock and hard rock song, gospel influences showing through (Preston's electric piano), played at roughly 84 BPM in the key of A major. The harmony takes in a diminished chord, heard on eight Beatles records in all, and the performance shows a descending bass (diminished chords over A pedal). Then, it has a defining riff. Listen for call and response (Paul and John alternate, then overlap). The song is through-composed, meaning nothing in it repeats, like eight others of theirs, such as 'A Day in the Life' and 'You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)'. Fun fact, the harmony moves D/A → G → D → A → D/A → A, the same shape 'Rock and Roll Music' takes as A7 → D7 → A7 → E7 → A7 → E7. As a matter of detail, 'Glass Onion' plays Adim7 → A♭dim7 → Gdim7 → F♯dim7 and this song plays Edim/A → D♯dim/A → Ddim/A → C♯dim/A, the same progression in different keys.

Captured live from the Apple rooftop in two complete takes. Engineers wrapped the microphones in stockings to shield them from the winter wind. It is one of only eleven Beatles records cut at Apple Studios. McCartney brought the Hofner 500/1, his bass, most at home in their 1964 songs. This was one of two songs recorded that day, the 191st and 192nd of their career.

McCartney and Lennon wrote it, the two of them share the lead, as they do on 'Words of Love' and 'We Can Work It Out'. It was cut with a visiting musician, Billy Preston. Fun fact, Billy Preston on electric piano turns up on this one. McCartney brought his own unfinished 'I've Got a Feeling', which became the first half. Lennon brought 'Everybody Had a Hard Year', an unfinished song of his own that became the second half.

No single, no B-side. It arrived with Let It Be on May 8, 1970. The Beatles have 5 songs played on the Apple roof on 30 January 1969, and they are 'Don't Let Me Down', 'Get Back', 'Dig a Pony', 'One After 909' and this one. This song was the 9th of the 12 records they released in 1970, and the 211th in the order they were recorded.