I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free

This article is about the song by Billy Taylor. For the album, see I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free (album).
Not to be confused with I Wish I Knew, jazz standard by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren.

"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free"
Single by Nina Simone
from the album Silk & Soul
Released1967
GenreGospel, jazz
Length3:06
LabelRCA
Songwriter(s)Billy Taylor

"I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" is a jazz piece written by American musician Billy Taylor, originally recorded as an instrumental and later released as a song with lyrics by Dick Dallas. Taylor's original version ("I Wish I Knew") was recorded on November 12, 1963, and released on his Right Here, Right Now! album (Capitol ST-2039) the following year. His 1967 live version, from the album of the same name, was later used as the theme music for the Film... review programme series on BBC Television.[1]

Taylor said: "I wrote this song, perhaps my best-known composition, for my daughter Kim."[2]

  1. ^ Gunn, Alison (November 28, 2016). "The Life of a Song: 'I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free'". Financial Times. London. Retrieved June 9, 2021.
  2. ^ "Billy Taylor Discography". Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2018.