What a Feelin' is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Irene Cara. Released on November 2, 1983, this album is a continuation of the work that Cara began with producer Giorgio Moroder on the soundtrack to the 1983 film Flashdance. The dance-pop song she co-wrote with Moroder and Keith Forsey for the film, "Flashdance... What a Feeling", went to number one on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 and foreshadowed the style of this album, which was unlike her R&B-heavy debut. Although Cara was more accustomed to composing music, she relinquished most of those duties to Moroder here and shifted much of her songwriting focus to lyrics.
The title of the album clued in record buyers to the inclusion of the soundtrack hit from the spring of that year, but another four songs would make the Hot 100, the first of which, "Why Me?", had been released in October. "The Dream (Hold On to Your Dream)" from the D.C. Cab soundtrack became the second new single when that movie was released in December, four months earlier than planned. Since the song was not on the original pressings of What a Feelin, those copies were removed from store shelves so that the album could be re-released to include it. The other two Hot 100 entries were Cara's last top ten hit, "Breakdance", and the one track on the album for which she did write the music, "You Were Made for Me".
The album received mixed-to-positive reviews and was moderately successful, reaching number 77 on Billboards album chart. But while Cara was having hit records and receiving awards for "Flashdance... What a Feeling", she was also feeling ripped off by her record company, Network Records, and planning to sue. The lawsuit she filed resulted in a backlash that destroyed her reputation in the entertainment industry. It would be eight years before the courts would acknowledge the harm she suffered and she would begin receiving royalties for the recordings she had made since signing with the label.
Background
In March 1983, Casablanca Records released the first single from the soundtrack to the upcoming Paramount Pictures film Flashdance, the story of a young woman who works as a welder and nightclub performer and dreams of becoming a ballerina. The music for that song, "Flashdance... What a Feeling", was written by the composer of the score for the film, Giorgio Moroder, and Irene Cara, who performed the song, wrote the lyrics with Keith Forsey. Their collaboration spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and Moroder and Cara together completed two more projects in 1983 that were initially separate: Cara's next album, What a Feelin, and a song for the soundtrack of the film D.C. Cab titled "The Dream (Hold On to Your Dream)". Moroder also composed the score for that film and produced the soundtrack album. He wrote the music for the song, and Cara again sang and co-wrote the lyrics.
In a discussion of What a Feelin with Billboard just after its release, Cara said, "I usually write music; it's only working with Giorgio that I've become a lyricist. I had no choice since he's a composer." Of the nine new tracks on the original album, Moroder wrote the music for six, but one of her compositions, "You Were Made for Me", made the final cut as the sole ballad and album closer. She insisted, "It's still very much Giorgio's album." Many of the same people who Moroder selected to work on "Flashdance... What a Feeling" joined her on this new project. Forsey assisted her with lyrics on four of the tracks, and the guitarist on her number-one hit, Richie Zito, arranged all of the new material, played instruments on most of the songs, and even co-wrote (with Arthur Barrow) the music on one of the other songs not composed by Moroder, "Keep On". The album also reunited Cara with two of her "Flashdance..." background vocalists, Joe Esposito and Stephanie Spruill, on the first new single from the album, "Why Me?".