DECCA RECORDS UK 1975-MORRIS ALBERT-FEELINGS
In 1975 I was Marketing Manager for Decca Records UK and basically I was running the popular music division under MD and record man extraordinaire Ken East. My responsibilities included A&R and Marketing.
One day our International Manager Marcel Stellman came to me and said “I think you should hear this record which is getting massive success in Latin America”. Marcel played me a record by a Brazilian artist Morris Albert. The English translation of the song title was FEELINGS. I loved it.
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Marcel said there was an English language version about to be produced and he thought we should negotiate to get the rights for the UK and those countries we had our own companies or distribution deals with. I immediately agreed and Marcel set out to obtain those rights for us.
Marcel succeeded, probably because he was earlier than most to see the record’s world wide potential.
We released Feelings and had immediate success in the UK selling 250,000 copies and capitalised on that success with a Morris Albert album release of the title FEELINGS.
The record went on to be a hit for us in many major countries and was an important part of the revival of DECCA RECORDS in 1975 from a struggling company to once again become a “major”.
In mid-1975, "Feelings" peaked at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 2 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United States.[3] In 1986, French songwriter Louis Gasté successfully sued Albert for plagiarism on the grounds that the tune was taken from Gasté's 1957 song "Pour Toi"; Gasté is now credited as the song's co-author.
Australia (Kent Music Report)[4] | 5 |
Canada RPM Adult Contemporary[5] | 3 |
Canada RPM Top Singles[6] | > 18* |
New Zealand (Listener)[7] | 4 |
South Africa (Springbok)[8] | 5 |
UK [9] | 4 |
6 | |
U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 2 |
U.S. Cash Box Top 100[11] | 10 |
In 1982 I had moved on to be MD of CBS RECORDS AUSTRALIA. One of our major stars was Julio Iglesias. When Julio toured Australia and played before predominantly female audiences, many of whom charged the stage wanting to just touch their idol, the standout song of his shows was FEELINGS, which of course stirred fond memories in me of the songs beginnings and move to International success.
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