That would be a good name for Mitzi’s new “massage” parlor.
Does the prospect of yet another Monday have you down in the dumps like a fresh load of dead possums? Well, The Nest has the antidote to your new week blues that will have you feeling like a million bucks! Yes, it’s time for us to once again unearth another down on its luck earworm out of that musical Prozac bottle we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy always feels like dropping the needle on another great pick-me-up song, while the Sponkies haven’t felt this good since Sparklepony quit putting sugar in their Kool Aid. Don’t worry about remembering the words to this gem…
From the beginning of the rock and roll era right on up until the mid 1980’s, it was very possible for a song that was 100% music and 0% singing to become a big radio hit. It helps that back in the day, the Billboard charts were more diverse than a the ensemble of a politically correct cartoon. The days when pop shared Top 40 radio airplay with genres like disco, rock, metal, country, punk, new wave, alternative, R&B, rap and even smooth jazz are long gone, but….
Wait….. smooth jazz!?!? On regular radio!?!?
Got a problem with that, beatnik?
Armed with nothing more than the obscure instrument called a flugelhorn, Chuck Mangione crafted an instrumental masterpiece that made it to #4 on the charts in 1978. If you reside in North America, you’ve almost certainly heard the tune before… you maybe just never knew what it was called. Or that it was it was ever a hit. Its title is “Feels So Good,” and never has a song been named more appropriately…
That’s the three and a half minute radio edit. The album version is almost ten minutes long… but I prefer the shorter version. I mean, you don’t want to feel TOO good now, do you?
But I love the long version! Lovelovelovelove it! I feel so good! So very good! Picking up good vibrations! Woohoo!
This is my absolute favorite instrumental of all time…. well, at least of instrumentals that were also pop hits. Apparently the song (and Chuck’s career) got a boost 20 years ago when Chuck playing the song for Mega-Lo store openings in the animated primetime series King of the Hill became a running gag on the show. I was unaware of this song’s second life since I gave King of the Hill, which was the brainchild of Beavis & Butthead creator Mike Judge, a very short leash and gave up on it once I realized it wasn’t as sophomorically funny as its predecessor. And besides, Hank Hill’s voice will always belong to the boys’ neighbor Mr. Anderson if you ask me…
It doesn’t get any funnier than these two fartknockers…
I’ll return next Monday with another song that almost feels this good…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
Talk about a “much played” song – I hear this STILL to this day just about everywhere – elevators, malls, stores, the airport……it’s just one of those songs that does make you feel good.
Pam
Yep! And before the days of the internet, I had no idea what it was called… but heard it a lot, usually on local TV ads.
Nice post by the way king of the hill was my favorite as a kid. Good old days!
It wasn’t a bad show, I think I just held the fact that it came from the same mind that created Beavis & Butthead against it. That is one of my favorite cartoons of all time…
You know what, in a way, it sure did come from the same mindset as Beavis & Butthead and to be honest Kind of the hill is a true classic.
it’s the muzak to chill and to smoke and to laugh at the crazyness of the world… a little bit the muzak charles bukowski would like when he tries to watch the world through the window, in his dirty underwear and plastered.
LOL!
This is what Kenny G wishes he could be… but he’s only good for grocery store muzak and putting people to sleep.
Gotta love that golden horn and that sound. 🎺
I get lightheaded just thinking about all that horn blowing… but the great music makes up for a lack of air.
One of the all time great instrumentals.
OMG OMG OMG I saw him in concert back when this came out. I took my parents. They thought it was really loud. I thought I was being the best kid in the world. He was so good. I still love this and I don’t care what anyone else thinks. The vinyl record is still in my unplayed for years box since I no longer have a working turntable. I’ll put it on my list. Thanks for the memory jolt. Feels so good.
LOL! Chuck Mangione too loud! Thanks for sharing that, as well as your love for this song. The DVA seems to be on a roll with picking songs people really like lately…
I remember this one. Yep. Still makes me feel so good too…think Mitzi might be hiring? 😛
Mitzi could always use some help with her “specials”…
I’d forgotten about this song, but it immediately came swooshing into my brain when I read this. What a hit it was back in the day. I liked it, but heard it maybe one too many times…
I was too young to remember its days of being a hit, so I just know it as a popular background music song. If it were played to death on the radio, it might wear on me a bit…. but I don’t know. it just makes me feel too good…
Ha ah, it sounds like the music to a cheesy 70s private eye show, presumably set in Hawaii or somewhere with a beach…
There are definitely sounds in this song that you wouldn’t her outside of 70’s music. Maybe this would be the theme song to a private detective who liked to drove his Ferrari in donuts around his own island…
Who’d ever do a crazy thing like that…
You’re so right! I’ve heard it so many times but had no idea what it was called or that it was actually a pop hit. (sigh) It makes me wish I could rewind and return to 1978 for a day. I was in third grade and feeling very grateful that I didn’t need to wear a bra just yet.
I might not have been out of diapers yet… but for me, that year would be 1983, and it was the first year I really started getting into music (I remember making my own countdown lists up while ignoring my third grade teacher). I’d definitely go back to the music of that era…
You were so young when you got into music! I didn’t pay any attention to it until middle school.
This is one of the few I recognize, probably because there are a million versions of it for elevators and waiting rooms … and worst of all, while you wait on the telephone! There is something very jarring about such a cheerful song while you are waiting to talk to any live human in customer disservice.
If I ever heard this song intersperse every 30 seconds or so with assurances that “my call is very important to them,” I think I might start to hate it. There is nothing that feels so good about being on hold…
Love this! One of the companies I use to work for had this playing while we had customers on hold. This was when Muzak began to sprout up all over the place.
None of the doctors offices I used to be on hold with ever played muzak this good. It’s the perfect feel good background tune, though!