What a Wonderful World

Product Information

His vocals were cut live with an orchestra, but the session didn’t go smoothly: two takes were aborted after loud whistles from passing freight trains were picked up by the studio microphones. Though it flopped in Armstrong’s home country, in other places around the world, especially in Europe, “What A Wonderful World” was hugely successful; it reached No. The song (as credited under the alternate title, "(What A) Wonderful World") was included on later versions of Garfunkel's solo album, Watermark.

Wonderful World (Sam Cooke song) - Wikipedia Wonderful World (Sam Cooke song) - Wikipedia

Hopgood interprets this beloved ballad, written by Thiele and Weiss and made famous by Louis Armstrong. Particularly in the United Kingdom, where a copy of the song, produced by Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge and with vocals sung by Barbadian Tony Jackson, a backing singer for Paul Young, appeared in "Bath", a well-remembered, Roger Lyons-directed 1985 advertisement for Levi's 501 jeans. The illustrations, which beautifully and literally realize the well-known lyrics in a fun, retro style, set a happy tone. In his 2005 book, What A Wonderful World: A Lifetime Of Recordings, Thiele said that the song was intended as a reassuring antidote to the mounting problems facing America in the late 60s; a time defined by what he described as “the deepening national traumas of the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, racial strife, and turmoil everywhere.Despite Newton’s protests, Armstrong secretly began recording the song in Las Vegas immediately after a show there in September 1967. This one gets a lower rating only because it's based on an existing song and it's kinda hard to distance yourself from Louis Armstrong's voice as you read it. Early readers can look at the words and how they align with the drawings to understand what it is about.

What a Wonderful World (Jean Karl Books (Hardcover))

Cooke wanted to steer the song toward the subject of schooling, revised the song and decided to cut it at a recording session on March 2, 1959, five days after completing his Billie Holiday tribute album, Tribute to the Lady. Luke also easily caught on to the repetition of the line "What a wonderful world" and especially enjoyed the page filled with hearts for the lyric "I love you.My only complaint is that it misses the feel of the song - the melancholy in the joy, and the fleeting nature of it all.