| "What a Wonderful World" | ||||
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| Single by Louis Armstrong | ||||
| from the album What a Wonderful World | ||||
| Released | October 1968 | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | 1967 | |||
| Genre | Traditional pop music | |||
| Length | 2:21 | |||
| Label | ABC Records (US) HMV Records (UK) |
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| Writer(s) | Bob Thiele George David Weiss |
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| Louis Armstrong singles chronology | ||||
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"What a Wonderful World" is a song written by Bob Thiele (as George Douglas) and George David Weiss. It was first recorded by Louis Armstrong and released as a single in 1968. Thiele and Weiss were both prominent in the music world (Thiele as a producer and Weiss as a composer/performer). Armstrong's recording was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The publishing for this song is controlled by Memory Lane Music Group, Carlin Music Corp., and Bug Music, Inc..
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Intended as an antidote for the increasingly racially and politically charged climate of everyday life in the United States, the song also has a hopeful, optimistic tone with regard to the future, with reference to babies being born into the world and having much to look forward to. The song was initially offered to Tony Bennett, who turned it down.[1] Thereafter, it was offered to Louis Armstrong. The song was not initially a hit in the United States, where it sold fewer than 1,000 copies because the head of ABC Records did not like the song and so did not promote it, but was a major success in the United Kingdom, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart. In the US, the song hit #116 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Chart. It was also the biggest-selling single of 1968 in the UK where it was among the last pop singles issued by HMV Records before becoming an exclusive classical music label.[2] The song made Louis Armstrong the oldest male to top the chart, at sixty-six years and ten months old. Armstrong's record was broken in 2009 when a cover version of "Islands in the Stream" recorded for Comic Relief — which included 68-year-old Tom Jones — reached number one.
ABC Records' European distributor EMI forced ABC to issue a What A Wonderful World album in 1968 (catalogue number ABCS-650) which did not chart in the US due to ABC's non-promotion of it,[3] but did chart in the UK where it was issued by Stateside Records with catalogue number SSL 10247 and peaked on the British chart at #37.
The song gradually became something of a standard and reached a new level of popularity. In 1988, Louis Armstrong's 1968 recording was featured in the film Good Morning, Vietnam and was re-released as a single, hitting #32 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1988. The single charted at number one for the fortnight ending June 27, 1988 on the Australian chart.
"What a Wonderful World" was used ironically in 1978 radio broadcast of the last episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (first series). The song was later used for the closing titles of the corresponding television episode, and in the first teaser for the Hitchhiker's film, lasting only one stanza before the Earth explodes.
A part of the song was used in The Runner (Davandeh), an Iranian movie. It was included in the soundtrack for the film Good Morning, Vietnam in 1987. It was sung by Willie Nelson for the 1996 film Michael.
The Louis Armstrong version was also used during a sequence in Michael Moore's film Bowling for Columbine, where it accompanies scenes of violence in a montage about United States intervention in international affairs, as well as having the Joey Ramone cover playing over the ending credits. It has also been used ironically as the theme music to the BBC series A Life of Grime. The Louis Armstrong version was used also in the 2004 Japanese film, Swing Girls, during a scene where the main characters are chased by a wild boar. A Israel Kamakawiwoʻole medley with "Over the Rainbow" was featured in the films Finding Forrester, Meet Joe Black, 50 First Dates and the documentary Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten. Actor Hrithik Roshan recorded the song in his voice to be featured in the 2010 Indian movie Guzaarish.
In December 2011, following the final episode of the nature documentary Frozen Planet, BBC aired an adverstisement that consisted of a spoken-word rendition of the song performed by David Attenborough using nature images to illustrate the lyrics.[4]
| Preceded by "Congratulations" by Cliff Richard |
UK number one single Louis Armstrong version 24 April 1968 (for 4 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Young Girl" by Gary Puckett & The Union Gap |
| Preceded by "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis |
UK Singles Chart number-one single (Katie Melua & Eva Cassidy version) December 16, 2007 - December 22, 2007 |
Succeeded by "When You Believe" by Leon Jackson |
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