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| - %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 is a song written and recorded by pop singer-songwriter Carole King on her album Tapestry, the song is one half of the double A-sided single, the flip side which was %22It's Too Late%22. Together, both %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 and %22It's Too Late%22 became among the biggest mainstream pop hits for the year 1971.A showcase for King's upbeat piano style, %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 has lyrics with the same percussive feel:I feel the earth - move - under my feetI feel the sky tum-b-ling down - tum-b-ling downI feel my heart start to trem-b-ling -Whenever you're aroundJon Landau's review of the album Tapestry (1971) for Rolling Stone praised King's voice on this track, saying it negotiates turns from %22raunchy%22 to %22bluesy%22 to %22harsh%22 to %22soothing%22, with the last echoing the development of the song's melody into its chorus. Landau describes the melody of the refrain as %22a pretty pop line.%22 40 years later, Rolling Stone stated the King's %22warm, earnest singing%22 brought %22earthy joy%22 to the song. Music journalist Harvey Kubernik wrote that %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 was %22probably the most sexually aggressive song on the Tapestry album%22 and a %22brave%22 opening to an album whose mood is mostly %22mellow confessionality.%22 Allmusic critic Stewart Mason describes the song as %22the ultimate in hippie-chick eroticism%22 and writes that it %22sounds like the unleashing of an entire generation of soft-spoken college girls' collective libidos.%22Author James Perone praised the way the lyrics and music work together. Aa a prime example, he notes the syncopated rhythm to the melody on which King sings %22tumbling down.%22 This rhythm, putting the accent at the end of the word %22tumbling%22 rather than at the beginning, produces a %22musical equivalent of a tumble.%22 Perone also notes that the fast tempo allows the listener to feel the singer's excitement over being near her lover, and that the lyrics also express sexual tension even though that tension is left implicit. Perone attributes some of the song's success to producer Lou Adler's decision to highlight King's piano playing in the mix, giving it a different feel from the guitar-based singer-songwriter approach King took in her prior album. Mason also attributes the song's success to the %22piano-led groove%22 and to King's vocal delivery.King's version of %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated June 19, 1971. It remained there for five consecutive weeks. It also peaked at #6 in the United Kingdom.Given its upbeat nature, Ode Records selected %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 as the A-side to Tapestry's first single. It achieved airplay, but then disc jockeys and listeners began to prefer the slower, lamenting B-side %22It's Too Late%22. Both sides received airplay for a while, but eventually %22It's Too Late%22 dominated. In fact, on the concurrent Cash Box singles chart, which still tracked the progress of both sides of a single separately, %22It's Too Late%22 spent four weeks at number one while %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 did not chart at all. Regardless, since Billboard had declared the record a double A-side and their chart gradually became seen by many as the %22official%22 singles chart, it is generally listed in books and articles that both %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 and %22It's Too Late%22 reached #1.Together with %22It's Too Late%22, %22I Feel the Earth Move%22 was named by the RIAA as number 213 of 365 Songs of the Century.On Tuesday, March 18, 2008, King performed the song on The Colbert Report.
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