"I Feel the Earth Move" is a song written and recorded by pop singer-songwriter Carole King on her album Tapestry, the song is one half of the double A-sided single, the flip side which was "It's Too Late". Together, both "I Feel the Earth Move" and "It's Too Late" became among the biggest mainstream pop hits for the year 1971.
A showcase for King's upbeat piano style, "I Feel the Earth Move" has lyrics with the same percussive feel:
- I feel the earth - move - under my feet
- I feel the sky tum-b-ling down - tum-b-ling down
- I feel my heart start to trem-b-ling -
- Whenever you're around
Jon Landau's review of the album Tapestry (1971) for Rolling Stone praised King's voice on this track, saying it negotiates turns from "raunchy" to "bluesy" to "harsh" to "soothing", with the last echoing the development of the song's melody into its chorus.
King's version of "I Feel the Earth Move" peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated June 19, 1971. It remained there for five consecutive weeks. It also peaked at #6 in the United Kingdom.
Given its upbeat nature, Ode Records selected "I Feel the Earth Move" as the A-side to Tapestry's first single. It achieved airplay, but then disc jockeys and listeners began to prefer the slower, lamenting B-side "It's Too Late". Both sides received airplay for a while, but eventually "It's Too Late" dominated. In fact, on the concurrent Cash Box singles chart, which still tracked the progress of both sides of a single separately, "It's Too Late" spent four weeks at number one while "I Feel the Earth Move" did not chart at all. Regardless, since Billboard had declared the record a double A-side and their chart gradually became seen by many as the "official" singles chart, it is generally listed in books and articles that both "I Feel the Earth Move" and "It's Too Late" reached #1.
Together with "It's Too Late", "I Feel the Earth Move" was named by the RIAA as number 213 of 365 Songs of the Century.
On Tuesday, March 18, 2008, King performed the song on The Colbert Report.
Read more about I Feel The Earth Move: Personnel, Martika Version, Other Versions, Usage
Famous quotes containing the words earth move, feel, earth and/or move:
“No imperfection in budded mountain,
Valleys breathe, heaven and earth move together,
daisies push inches of yellow air, vegetables tremble,
green atoms shimmer in grassy mandalas,
sheep speckle the mountainside, revolving their jaws with empty eyes,
horses dance in the warm rain,”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“The grizzly bear whose potent hug
Was feared by all, is now a rug.
Great Caesar’s bust is on the shelf,
And I don’t feel so well myself.”
—Arthur Guiterman (1891–1943)
“But now I am weary and my old heart, which thought itself turned away from all, has learned pain once again. I am no longer young enough to adjust. And anyhow, when a mother can no longer recognize her own son, her role on this earth is over.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Something hangs in back of me,
I can’t see it, can’t move it.
I know it’s black,
a hump on my back.
It’s heavy. You
can’t see it.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)