I Feel a Song Coming On is a popular song with music by Jimmy McHugh and lyrics by Dorothy Fields and George Oppenheimer, composed in 1935 for the film Every Night at Eight. The song emerged from the peak of the celebrated McHugh-Fields partnership, a ten-year collaboration that began in 1927 and produced enduring standards such as "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," "On the Sunny Side of the Street," and "Don't Blame Me." For the same film, the pair also wrote "I'm in the Mood for Love," which became one of their biggest hits. I Feel a Song Coming On was first recorded by Will Osborne and His Orchestra and performed on screen by Alice Faye, Frances Langford, and Patsy Kelly. The melody has a lighthearted, effervescent quality that captures the playful lyrical conceit of feeling spontaneously moved to sing, supported by a straightforward swing-era harmonic language. McHugh's career arc carried him from early Cotton Club successes and Duke Ellington revues through a long stretch of Hollywood songwriting, and this tune represents his confident command of the film musical idiom. While not as ubiquitous as the top-tier McHugh-Fields classics, the composition holds a steady place in the jazz and vocal repertoire as an appealing swing-era number that lends itself to both intimate vocal readings and uptempo instrumental interpretations.
