Saturday, June 4, 2011

REO Speedwagon - "I Can't Fight This Feeling" (1984)

I was on an Air France flight watching the first episode of GLEE (Season I) when I heard this song and remembered it. It went so well with the GLEE storyline and it's a ballad that many can easily identify with, so I had to share it here on the Daily Throwback.


"Can't Fight This Feeling" (often mistitled "Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore" is a number-one power ballad from REO Speedwagon about a man falling in love with a girl with whom he has been friends for a long time.


The song first appeared on REO Speedwagon's 1984 album Wheels Are Turnin'. It was the group's second number-one hit on the U.S. charts (the first being 1981's "Keep on Loving You", also written by Kevin Cronin) and reached number sixteen in the UK.


"Can't Fight This Feeling" has appeared on dozens of 'various artists' compilation albums, as well as several REO Speedwagon greatest hits albums. It has also been featured on soundtracks of movies such as "Not Another Teen Movie", "Waiting...", and, most recently, "Kickin' It Old Skool" and "Sex Drive". The song was also heard on the South Park episode "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy", the Fringe episode "Power Hungry" as well as in the Showtime hit series Queer as Folk.


REO Speedwagon performed the song at the 1985 Live Aid concert and it was sung at the end of "Horton Hears a Who!". The song's popularity had a resurgence following a cover version by Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson) and the Glee Cast from the popular TV show "GLEE". It was referred to again recently in The CW show Supernatural (in the second season episode #5, "Simon Said", Jo Harvelle turns this song on for Dean Winchester in Harvelle's Roadhouse, later he sings it in the car claiming the song had stuck in his head). It was also featured prominently in advertising for the film Horton Hears a Who!, and sung by the major characters near the end of the movie as the titular character celebrates his vindication and his charges' salvation. It was also used in a Valentine's Day 2008-2009 commercial for Hallmark Cards. It was again featured in an early episode of King of the Hill when Dale marries Nancy.


Two different music videos exist for the song. One is a basic video, appearing almost homemade, featuring the band in the studio. It begins with Kevin Cronin playing the piano, attempting to find the key in which he can best sing the song (starting off in G major, he later decides he can sing it better in A). After Cronin exchanges some laughs with his bandmates, the song officially begins; the video essentially consists of the band members lip-synching to the original track of the song. It then concludes with Cronin uttering the line, "That warmed the cockles of my cockles!" The other version of the video is much more "professional," and makes various references to the life-cycle. Both videos have been shown at various times on VH1 Classic.

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