"Fever" is a song written by Eddie Cooley and Otis Blackwell, who used the pseudonym "John Davenport". It was originally recorded by the American R&B singer Little Willie John for his debut album, Fever (1956), and released as a single in April of the same year. The song topped the Billboard R&B Best Sellers in the US and peaked at number 24 on the Billboard pop chart.Little Willie John, "Fever" chart positions. Retrieved June 20, 2015 It was received positively by music critics and was included on several lists of the best songs when it was released.
It has been covered by several artists from diverse genres. Peggy Lee's 1958 rendition became the best-known version and her signature song. Lee's version contained rewritten lyrics and an altered music arrangement. It was a top-five hit in the UK and Australia in addition to making the top ten in the US and the Netherlands. "Fever" was nominated in three categories at the 1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
Notable versions of "Fever" were recorded by Elvis Presley, the Cramps, Madonna, Michael Bublé, Bette Midler, Amanda Lear, the McCoys, Leon Russell, La Lupe and Beyoncé.
Madonna released it as a single from her fifth album, Erotica (1992), in March 1993 through Warner Bros. It topped the Finnish Singles Chart and the Hot Dance Club Play chart in the US, in addition to charting in the top 50 in many other countries. Madonna filmed and released a music video directed by Stéphane Sednaoui and performed the song on several television shows as well as her 1993 The Girlie Show World Tour. "Fever" has featured in many films, plays and television shows.
Background and reception The idea for "Fever" was presented to Otis Blackwell by an old friend, Eddie Cooley, who had a hit song called "Priscilla" in 1956. Blackwell said: "Eddie Cooley was a friend of mine from New York and he called me up and said 'Man, I got an idea for a song called 'Fever', but I can't finish it.' I had to write it under another name because, at that time, I was still under contract to Joe Davis." John Davenport, the name he used, was the name of Blackwell's stepfather. Little Willie John reportedly disliked the song, but was persuaded to record it, on March 1, 1956, by King Records owner Syd Nathan and arranger and producer Henry Glover. It became the title track for his debut album, Fever, released in 1956. "Fever" is a soul and rhythm and blues minor key opus with an arrangement consisting of low saxophones played by Ray Felder and Rufus "Nose" Gore and guitar by Bill Jennings. The vocal style of Willie John is similar to moaning and he is backed by finger snaps. Bill Dahl from the website AllMusic noted a contrast between the song's "ominous" arrangement and the vocals along with the finger snapping which "marginally lightened the mood".
"Fever" was released as a single in April 1956 and became a double-sided hit along with the top-ten R&B song "Letter from My Darling". "Fever" was number one for three weeks on the Billboard R&B Best Sellers chart in the United States, peaking at the top on July 21, 1956. It also made the pop charts, peaking at number 24 on the Billboard Best Sellers in Stores. The single sold one million copies in the US. The song won the BMI Award for Best R&B song.
The song was included in Robert Christgau's "Basic Record Library" of 1950s and 1960s recordings, published in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981). He later described it as a very "fervid" song. Bill Dahl from the website AllMusic credited "Fever" for winning the "boisterous teen an across-the-board audience" for Willie John. The writer further opined that the singer's "sweaty case of love-rooted 'Fever' was seemingly grave, judging from his riveting intensity, yet he doesn't sound like he minds at all". New Musical Express magazine listed "Fever" as the 96th best song of the 1950s. In his The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made list published in 1989, critic Dave Marsh ranked "Fever" at the position of 109. The song was included on the greatest hits albums Fever: The Best of Little Willie John (1993) and The Very Best of Little Willie John (2001).
Charts +Chart (1956)PeakpositionUS Billboard The Top 10027US Best Sellers in Stores (Billboard)24US R&B Best Sellers in Stores (Billboard)1US Most Played R&B by Jockeys (Billboard)1US R&B Most Played in Juke Boxes (Billboard)1
Peggy Lee version
Background and composition In May 1958, Peggy Lee recorded a cover version of "Fever" in Hollywood, which featured significantly rewritten lyrics composed by Lee herself without credit. The song was not included on Lee's album, Things Are Swingin', when it was first released in 1959, but was listed as a bonus track on its 2004 reissue release. The uncopyrighted lyrics by Lee featured historical invocations (including the verses beginning "Romeo loved Juliet", and "Captain Smith and Pocahontas") and are now generally thought of as a standard part of the song, having been included in most subsequent covers of "Fever".
Lee's cover, arranged by the singer herself with arranger/conductor Jack Marshall, was described as being in "torchy lounge" mode, accompanied only by upright bass (played by Joe Mondragon) and a very limited drum set (played in part with fingers by Shelly Manne), while the finger snaps were provided either by the singer herself, by Howard Roberts, the guitarist for the date, who set aside his guitar for this number, or possibly even by the producer, Dave Cavanaugh. Lee's rendition was further described as "smooth, sultry". It is written in the key of A Minor in a medium swing tempo with 135 beats per minute. Lee's vocals span from the musical note of G3 to B4.
Reception and accolades A writer of the website NPR deemed "Fever" Lee's "most memorable tune" and considered it to be "slinky and inimitable". He went on to note that it displayed characteristics which were most remembered about the singer – "her playful delivery, charisma and sexuality". John Bush from the website AllMusic opined that the singer excelled in sounding "sizzling" in the song. John Fordham, writing for The Guardian, felt that the "heated" atmosphere heard on Lee's version of "Fever", "has an underlying suggestion that the person raising the temperature for her right now doesn't have to be the one doing it next week".
Lee's version peaked at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and spent a total of 12 weeks on that chart. It was her only top 10 hit on the Hot 100. It reached a peak of number five on the UK Singles Chart, where it first appeared on August 15, 1958. A reissue of the single charted again in 1992, appearing at number 75 and staying for only one week. Elsewhere in Europe, Lee's "Fever" peaked at number eight on January 3, 1959, on the Dutch Singles Chart in Netherlands for five consecutive weeks before falling off the chart. The song also peaked at number two on the Australian Singles Chart compiled by Kent Music Report, and emerged as the twentieth-best-selling single of 1958 in that country.
"Fever" was nominated in the categories for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Vocal Performance at the 1st Annual Grammy Awards held in 1959. The track became Lee's signature song and her best-known work, in addition to becoming her most successful hit. It was ranked at number 100 in the book and the accompanying list 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery.
Charts
Weekly charts Chart (1958)PeakpositionAustralia (Kent Music Report) 2Canada (CHUM Chart) 11US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard) 5 Chart (1992)Position
Year-end charts Chart (1958)PositionAustralia (Kent Music Report) 20US Billboard Hot 100 76
Certifications
Madonna version
Background and composition In 1992, American singer and songwriter Madonna recorded a cover version of "Fever" for her fifth studio album, Erotica (1992). It was released as a single on March 22, 1993, in Europe and Australia by Maverick, Sire and Warner Bros. Madonna served as a producer for the song along with Shep Pettibone. She was in the studio putting down tracks for the album and had just recorded a song called "Goodbye to Innocence". She was going through the final stages of production on the song and suddenly started singing the lyrics to "Fever" over "Goodbye to Innocence". Madonna liked the way it sounded so much that she recorded it. In September 2008, Madonna's version was used in television promos for the fifth season of Desperate Housewives.
According to author Rikky Rooksby, Madonna changed the composition of the original version by adding drum rhythms, accompanied by a beatbox sound like snare drums. Removing the chord progression of the original, Madonna introduces original lyrics into the song. Instrumentation of the track includes strings, marimba and finger-pops at various intervals throughout. Rooksby noticed that Madonna sang with a distant and disembodied voice, and relegated it to the dance music accompanying the lyrics.
Chart performance In the United States, "Fever" was not released as a commercial single. It was released promotionally and became a dance hit, becoming Madonna's 15th song to hit number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. It topped the chart for the issue dated May 15, 1993, in its seventh week of ascending. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at its peak position of number six on the UK Singles Chart on the issue dated April 3, 1993, and had sold 86,077 copies by August 2008. It peaked at number one on the Finnish Singles Chart on April 15, 1993. In Ireland it entered the top ten of the Irish Singles Chart, peaking at the position of six and charting for four weeks. Elsewhere, it peaked at numbers 12 in Italy, 17 in Israel and New Zealand, 22 on the Ultratop chart of the Flanders region in Belgium, 31 in France and 51 in Australia.
Critical reception The Baltimore Sun J. D. Considine praised the song as a "sassy, house-style remake" of the original version. He noted that when Madonna and the team of producers that worked on the album "push beyond the expected... [it] really heats up, providing a sound that is body-conscious in the best sense of the term", exemplifying his statements with "Fever". A writer from Billboard called the song a "house-inflected rendition" and noted it was single-worthy. In August 2018, the magazine named it as the singer's 66th greatest single; "while most versions of this classic smolder, Madonna gets distant and detached, delivering an icy club banger that sounds less like a torch song from yesteryear and more like a soundtrack for anonymous encounters that would make Ms. Lee blush". Hunter Hauk from the Dallas Observer deemed it "subtly soulful and custom made for Madonna's pre-vocal-lesson voice". David Browne of Entertainment Weekly criticized Madonna's voice as "souless", "You and Shep sure do a bang-up job – pun intended – transforming 'Fever,' that old Peggy Lee hit, into a techno drone, but listen to the parched sound emitted from your throat on such tracks. It's cold, deadened, remote." Jude Rogers from The Guardian called it an "unnecessary trance-era update of pop's most achingly simple song about sex"; nonetheless, she placed the song at number 72 on her ranking of Madonna's singles, in honor of her 60th birthday.