REO Speedwagon: Can't Fight This Feeling 'Live' Ecuador 1992 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit)

REO Speedwagon: Can't Fight This Feeling 'Live' Ecuador 1992 (My "Stereo Studio Sound" Re-Edit)

"Can't Fight This Feeling" is a power ballad performed by the American rock band REO Speedwagon. The song first appeared on the 1984 album Wheels Are Turnin'. The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and held the top spot for three consecutive weeks from March 9 to March 23, 1985. It was the group's second number-one hit on the U.S. charts (the first being 1980's "Keep on Loving You", also written by Kevin Cronin) and reached number sixteen in the UK. "Can't Fight This Feeling" has appeared on dozens of 'various artists' compilation albums, as well as several REO Speedwagon greatest hits albums.

Cronin said that he wrote the verses years before, and had made a demo of it when he left REO Speedwagon briefly in the mid-70s. Cronin finished writing the song in Hawaii while supposedly on a break from composing for the Wheels Are Turnin' album. According to REO Speedwagon drummer Alan Gratzer, the song is about a relationship Cronin had and it took Cronin several years to come up with all the lyrics.

According to Cronin, the inspiration for the song was the hurt he felt when he became attracted to a woman who was part of his friend group. Cronin states that this woman was “…of course, going out with my friend, so I kept it to myself. There was a group of us who would hang out together...and she was always there. Eventually she and I were becoming friends, but there was no hanky-panky going on. The more I got to know her, the more I liked her, but I couldn't say anything about it.”

Cronin said that he was only able to finish the song when he "couldn't fight the feeling anymore and made the move to kind of go for it." He said he "knew those verses were something special because of the depth (of feeling). I felt for them. I couldn't force it." Cronin said that when he did express his feelings to the woman, they ended up having a great relationship, and although it didn't last they remained friends.

Cronin described the theme of the song as being about "that moment in time where...it gets too painful to be where you are and you know you have to change...but change is hard...and you overcome that fear of change."

The other REO Speedwagon members referred to "Can't Fight This Feeling" as "that stupid ballad" until it became a charting hit.