Opening Lyrics to Songs That I Love

#4: Ambrosia, How Much I Feel

I don’t know how this whole business started/
Of you thinkin’ that I have been untrue/
But if you think that we’d be better parted/
It’s gonna hurt me, but I’ll break away from you/

Ambrosia, How Much I Feel. YouTube

This will probably be my favorite segment on my blog in a very long time! Welcome to Opening Lyrics to Songs That I Love!

Ambrosia is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1970. Ambrosia had five Top 40 hit singles released between 1975 and 1980, including the Top 5 hits “How Much I Feel” and “Biggest Part of Me“, and Top 20 hits “You’re the Only Woman (You & I)” and “Holdin’ on to Yesterday“. Most of the original band members have been active with the group continuously since their 1989 reformation to the present day, with the notable exception of original guitarist and lead vocalist David Pack who left in 2000.

How Much I Feel” is a 1978 song by American rock band Ambrosia. The song, written by the band’s guitarist/vocalist David Pack, was released in the summer of 1978 as the lead single from their third albumLife Beyond L.A., peaking at position three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart[5] and number two for three weeks on the Cash Box Top 100.

I don’t know how anyone can hear David Pack’s crooning and not fall completely in love with this song. My favorite part (aside from the opening lyrics & the chorus) is the riff in the song where he says, “So you try to make amends/But you’re better off as friends” and he takes it up another octave and you can just hear the emotion in the pitch… Whew! It gets me every single time.

Ambrosia has a couple of other songs that I truly love as well, “Biggest Part of Me” and “You’re the Only Woman”, and I won’t deny the fact that those two pull just as much emotion from me, too, but something about them still doesn’t hold a candle to “How Much I Feel.”

For the next six Sundays, I’ll share with you my favorite opening lyrics to songs I truly love. Maybe you’ll enjoy it. Maybe you won’t. Perhaps you’ll share favorite opening lyrics to songs you love as well. Perhaps you won’t. Either way, we’re going to have a good damn time.

See you next week!

The Joke’s on Everyone

A collaboration with Victor Garcia, published in Collaborature

Artwork by Victor Garcia

We hadn’t realized how important life was until we were all doomed to accept unmitigated, exhausting change. The stroke of every clock sounded, and we ignored them–content to wade in our sullied waters until the next defeat. And now . . . we wallow in a sea of mesmerizing tears, unable to fetch the happiness we prayed for four years ago. How odd–the way life jokes around and pulls its highest card when we believe we’ve won at a game of spades.

Sorrow flows from hearts
Life’s unfailing trials spin us
Another hand’s dealt


Thank you to the indomitable Melissa Lemay for hosting our work in Collaborature, and to my homie and long-time artist friend, Victor Garcia, for his gifts.