Byrds – I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better

I can hear Needles and Pins by The Searchers slightly in this song and that just makes it better. Gene Clark of the Byrds wrote this song and also sang it. The song was the B side to All I Really Want to Do and it was released in 1965 and as a B side managed to peak at #103 on the Billboard charts.

Tom Petty did a great cover of this song on his Full Moon Fever album released in 1989. Tom was heavily influenced by the Byrds.

Gene Clark talked about the song:

“There was a girlfriend I had known at the time, when we were playing at Ciro’s. It was a weird time in my life because everything was changing so fast and I knew we were becoming popular. This girl was a funny girl, she was kind of a strange little girl and she started bothering me a lot. And I just wrote the song, ‘I’m gonna feel a whole lot better when you’re gone,’ and that’s all it was, but I wrote the whole song within a few minutes.”

 

I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better

The reason why oh, I can’t say I have to let you go, baby and right away
After what you did I can’t stay now
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone

Baby for a long time (baby for a long time) you had me believe (you had me believe)
That your love was all mine (that your love was all mine) and that’s the way it would be
But I didn’t know (but I didn’t know) that you were putting me on
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone, when you’re gone

Now I gotta say (I gotta say) that it’s not like before (that it’s not like before)
And I’m not gonna play your games any more (and I’m not gonna play)
After what you did (after what you did)I can’t stay on
And I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone
Oh, when you’re gone, oh when you gone,oh when you gone

Unknown's avatar

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

13 thoughts on “Byrds – I’ll Feel a Whole Lot Better”

  1. Great song- and I agree Tom Petty did a great cover of it- a band that no doubt influenced him. The Byrds deserve more attention than they tend to get- maybe its due to the constant line-up changes. ?? They also should have had more hits in the 60’s

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      1. It takes a scorecard to know who was with the group on what album. A shame they couldn’t have a consistent line- up even if the band was going to last as long /short as The Beatles

        Liked by 1 person

  5. I wonder if she was stalking him? Or maybe he didn’t want to be tied down to one girl when he was being surrounded by groupies? It’s a good song, don’t think I ever heard it before today.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Have always loved this song.

    The first thing I heard from Tom Petty was “American Girl.” And I think I heard McGuinn’s version first.

    As for keeping track of which Byrds line up did what, they went through so many changes. Losing Gene Clark, kicking out Crosby, the interim before Sweetheart, trying to make sense with Clarence White. All McGuinn, but look at the growth.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to badfinger20 Cancel reply