Song of the Day – Day 5 – What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong

What a wonderful World was written in 1967 by George Douglas and George David Weiss. It was first recorded and released by Louis Armstrong after Tony Bennet turned it down (I bet he regrets that). Strangely it was a bit of a flop in the US only selling 1000 copies but it was an instant hit in the UK getting to the top of the charts. At the time of release Louis Armstrong was 66 years old and the oldest male to reach the top spot in the UK. A record that was later broken. As well as reaching number 1 in the UK, it also reached number 1 in Austria, Number 2 in Denmark, and Ireland. It re-charted in 1976 in Italy at number 11 and again in 14 countries in 1988, peaking at number 1 in Austria and Belgium.

Here are the lyrics:

I see trees of green,
red roses too.
I see them bloom,
for me and you.
And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue,
And clouds of white.
The bright blessed day,
The dark sacred night.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow,
So pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces,
Of people going by,
I see friends shaking hands.
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying,
“I love you”.

I hear babies cry,
I watch them grow,
They’ll learn much more,
Than I’ll ever know.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

Yes, I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.

Oh yeah.

What are your thoughts on this song? It is an all time favourite of mine. I just love the positive vibe and happiness that the song is aiming to spread. Songs nowadays are old too negative or aggressive or just about sex. This is a perfect remedy for that.

As always I would love to hear your views so let me know what you think 🙂