Songs Like Feeling Good by Nina Simone
By Dan Cohen · Published 2026-09-05
The famous thing about Feeling Good is the build: it starts almost unaccompanied and ends enormous. Our dynamic range column reads 8, which is that build, measured. Intensity 57, 120 BPM, layered, dynamic vocals, mild shifts — and three mood tags together: energetic, joyful, transcendent.
The only other record with all three tags
In the Hall of the Mountain King — Edvard Grieg, 1876. Intensity 59, dynamic range 8. Both pieces do the same structural thing: begin small, end overwhelming. One does it in four minutes of orchestra, the other in three minutes of voice.
Sharing energetic and joyful
- Alright — Kendrick Lamar. Intensity 56, dynamic range 8, 110 BPM — the closest match on both headline figures.
- Sledgehammer — Peter Gabriel. Intensity 58, dynamic range 7, 100 BPM.
- Sultans of Swing — Dire Straits. Intensity 58, dynamic range 6, 148 BPM.
- Are You That Somebody — Aaliyah. Intensity 55, dynamic range 7, 92 BPM.
- Come Down — Anderson .Paak. Intensity 55, dynamic range 6, 105 BPM.
The recording measured is Nina Simone’s 1965 version; the song was written for the 1964 musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd. Figures are our own measurements, read from the public API at build time. The genre and era spread is a consequence of measuring sound rather than style — it is not a claim that these artists resemble each other in any other way. No lyrics are reproduced.