Singled Out: Diane King's Feelin' The Love

09-22-2025

Nashville-based Americana/country folk star Diane King just released her new album "Sky", and to celebrate we asked her to tell us about the song "Fellin' The Love". Here is the story:

Of all the songs on the SKY album, I think "Feelin' the Love" is the most unique. It's a song that you might hear and say, "Diane King wrote that?" It doesn't necessarily sound like one of my songs, but it is! That's the beauty of being a songwriter. It can take you in any direction. "Feelin' the Love" came to me a little differently than songs usually do. Typically, I get the title, the gist of the message, then the music (chords, rhythm, and melody) and then the lyrics. This time, it was all about the music. That's what came first. The guitar chord progressions and rhythm, the beat, and then the melody. Once I had the melody, I could clearly hear the harmonies. I also knew there would be stacked background vocals - lots and lots of 'em! I thought the music lent itself to something positive and fun, nothing serious, very vibey, and definitely an early '70s musical sound. For me, early '70s means Olivia Newton John and the sound created by her producer, John Farrar. Next, I had the title. As I hummed along, it fell out early in the first verse, "I'm walkin' around, my head in the clouds, feelin' the love." I think it's cool that the title placement is unconventional - the song title isn't in the chorus. And, of course to throw some songwriting craft in there, I turned it around and ended the song with the title, "Feelin' the Love." It took me a good while to get all the lyrics, as simple as they are, but that's how it goes sometimes. Soon enough, I had the whole song, but no one really knew what it sounded like in full fruition. That arrangement was in my head and wouldn't be heard until it was recorded!

The recording and production of it was an absolute blast! To explain what I was hearing in my mind to my co-producer, Stephan Oberhoff, I played some early Olivia Newton John recordings. Next, we listened to some Beatles tunes. By then, we had the vibe and idea and knew what we needed to do. The most fun of the recording was the vocals. Early on, I threw Stephan a curve ball when we got to the musical break, and I told him, "Stephan, I hear a speaking part, with an old-radio, kind-of-electronic sound effect on it." Stephan did not see that one coming! But he went right along with me. He jumped in and pulled it off EXACTLY how I was hearing it. We both loved it! Then, when we started on the background vocals. I just kept coming up with part after part. I would run into the vocal booth and record it. Then, I would record the harmonies to those parts. Then, we would stack the parts, record the same parts two or three times to play them on top of each other. Once that was done, we would listen back to it and come up with another vocal part. I would run back into the vocal booth, and we'd record some more. Stephan also sang some parts, so we would have another voice to give all these background vocals some diversity. When we finally had all the vocals arranged and recorded, we called in one of my besties, the amazing vocalist Crystal Miller. We asked her to double up on some of my harmonies. She has such a rich voice, and adding that third voice to mine and Stephan's gives the background vocals more texture, especially on the stacked recordings. I love how it turned out! And now, the rest of the world can hear it the way I was hearing it when I wrote it!

Funny Note: After wrapping up the recording sessions for the SKY project, I pulled together my live band to start rehearsing. I sent all of the newly recorded songs from the SKY project to them. The song they raved about and loved most was "Feelin' the Love."

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen and watch for yourself below and learn more here