More Than a Feeling
by Boston
- 108
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 38
- Danceability
- 0
- Acousticness
From 1968 to 1975, Tom Scholz worked in his basement on six songs, five of which ended up on Boston's debut album. That was before the band had a record contract. "More Than a Feeling" took him five years to finish. He took the name Marianne from his cousin, though the song was not based on any specific event in his life. As a child of eight or nine, he said, he had been "secretly in love" with the much older cousin. He has also said the lyrics came from his feelings after a school love affair ended. He credited "Walk Away Renée" by The Left Banke as the main inspiration.
The drum parts were first developed by Jim Masdea, but Sib Hashian played drums on the official release. Scholz has said he is fond of the James Gang. The signature riff resembles one Joe Walsh composed for "Tend My Garden".
Epic Records released it in August 1976 as the lead single from Boston, with "Smokin'" on the B-side. It entered the US Billboard Hot 100 on September 18 and peaked at number 5.
More Than a Feeling runs at 108 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in moderato territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.22 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 556 ms. It is in G major, Camelot 9B, which shares its notes with E minor and mixes cleanly with C major and D major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.