BY DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY
credit: Getty Images
After a long week of political upheaval and deceit, we could all use a break with something genuine and heartfelt.
So today is the perfect day for the dulcet tones of Louis Armstrong. His hopeful ballad “What A Wonderful World” is our reason to smile.
The incomparable jazz trumpeter and singer recorded his most well-known song 58 years ago this weekend. After performing at the Tropicana in Las Vegas, he headed to a local studio for an overnight recording session. But the beloved song was not an instant hit.
Though the song reached No. 1 on the U.K. charts, it didn’t break through in the U.S. because the president of ABC Records didn’t like it. He pushed for Armstrong to record an upbeat pop song, like his hit “Hello Dolly.” So the executive refused to promote the slower, more contemplative “What A Wonderful World.”
Thankfully, the song got a second life when it was included on the soundtrack for the film “Good Morning, Vietnam” in 1987. It was released as a single and discovered by a new audience. In 1999, Armstrong’s recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and included on the Rolling Stone “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.
Born in New Orleans at the turn of the century, Armstrong was a jazz pioneer and a colorful and charismatic entertainer, as is evident from this 1968 BBC performance.
Bob Thiele and George Weiss co-wrote “What A Wonderful World” specifically for Armstrong. They were inspired by his desire and ability to bring people of different races together. Armstrong was considered one of the first crossover entertainers.
“[I]n the mid-1960s, during the deepening national traumas of the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, racial strife, and turmoil everywhere, my co-writer George David Weiss and I had an idea to write a ‘different’ song specifically for Louis Armstrong,” Thiele said.
The song has been covered by just about everyone, from Willie Nelson to Joey Ramone to Barbra Streisand. But I think Armstrong’s original is the gold standard.
And a reminder that it is still a wonderful world.
NYA Thanks Dan Rather and Team Steady!