''Feats Don't Fail Me Now'' is the fourth studio album by the American rock band

Little Feat Little Feat is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California formed by lead vocalist and guitarist Lowell George, bassist Roy Estrada (both formerly of the Mothers of Invention), keyboardist Bill Payne, and drummer Richie Hayward in ...

, released in 1974, on the

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

label. The cover was designed by

Neon Park Neon Park (born Martin Muller, December 28, 1940 – September 1, 1993) was an American artist, comics artist and illustrator, best known for the images that have strongly defined covers for nearly every Little Feat album except for the band's ...

. According to

Richie Hayward Richard Hayward (February 6, 1946 – August 12, 2010) was an American drummer best known as a founding member and drummer in the band Little Feat. He performed with several bands and worked as a session player. Hayward also joined with fri ...

, "Wait Till the Shit Hits the Fan" dates back to their

debut Debut or début (the first public appearance of a person or thing) may refer to: * Debut (society), the formal introduction of young upper-class women to society * Debut novel, an author's first published novel Film and television * ''The Debu ...

but the band had had trouble recording it on the previous two albums, due to its irregular

meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

. It was scrapped until the sessions for this album when it was recorded live in the studio as "The Fan"; the original version appeared on the 2000 boxed set ''Hotcakes & Outtakes: 30 Years Of Little Feat''. In 2000 the album was voted number 718 in

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British music writer. He founded and was the editor-in-chief of ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. Along with the ten-volume encyclopedia, Larkin also wrote the book ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'', and edited th ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...

''.

Track listing

All lead vocals by Lowell George, except where indicated.

Charts

Personnel

Little Feat

Paul Barrere Paul Barrere (July 3, 1948 – October 26, 2019) was an American musician most prominent as a member of the band Little Feat, which he joined in 1972 some three years after the band was created by Lowell George. Career Barrere recorded and perf ...

– backing vocals, guitar, lead vocals on "Skin It Back" *

Sam Clayton Sam Clayton (born September 16, 1946) is an American singer and percussionist, primarily focusing on drums, conga and djembe, throughout his musical career. He is best known as a supporting vocalist and percussionist with the American rock band ...

– backing vocals, percussion *

Lowell George Lowell Thomas George (April 13, 1945 – June 29, 1979) was an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He was the primary guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the rock band Little Feat. Before forming Little ...

– vocals, guitar *

Kenny Gradney Kenny Gradney (born February 25, 1950, in Baton Rouge) is an American bassist and songwriter, best known as a member of the band Little Feat. Biography He joined after their second album, replacing founding bassist Roy Estrada in 1972. Gradney ...

– bass *

– backing vocals, drums *

Bill Payne William H. Payne (born March 12, 1949, in Waco, Texas) is an American pianist who, with Lowell George, co-founded the American rock band Little Feat. He is considered by many other rock pianists, including Elton John, to be one of the finest A ...

– backing vocals, keyboards, lead vocals on "Oh Atlanta"

Additional

*Gordon DeWitty –

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

("Spanish Moon") * Fred White – drums ("Spanish Moon") *

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist. She is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana (music), Americana genre ...

– backing vocals *

Bonnie Raitt Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In 1971, Raitt released her Bonnie Raitt (album), self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed Americana (mu ...

– backing vocals * Fran Tate – backing vocals *

Tower of Power Tower of Power is an American R&B and funk based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968. The band has had a number of lead vocalists, the best-known being Lenny Williams, who fronted ...

– horns

Notes

External links

''Feats Don't Fail Me Now'' album review
at ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' * – provided by

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...

* – provided by

{{Authority control 1974 albums Little Feat albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Van Dyke Parks Albums produced by Lowell George Albums with cover art by Neon Park Albums recorded at Sunset Sound Recorders