Comments on: LOUIS ARMSTRONG – “What A Wonderful World”

By: Lena

Lena — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:55:03 +0000

I want my baby back: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/2011/12/sophisticated-misery-englebert.html Thanks for reading, y’all!

By: Lena

Lena — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:15:52 +0000

Or maybe not: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/2011/12/caught-between-two-worlds-small-faces.html Thanks for reading, everyone!

By: Lena

Lena — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:52:33 +0000

Don’t do that, do this: http://musicsoundsbetterwithtwo.blogspot.com/2011/12/child-shall-lead-them-1910-fruitgum.html Merci to y’all!

By: wichita lineman

wichita lineman — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 07:47:35 +0000

Another “missing” double A side. Brian Matthew just played Cabaret, which was a soft’n'cosy trad version of title song from the 1967 musical. Quite pleasant, but hard to imagine it reaching no.1 on its own strengths.

By: crag

crag — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:04:17 +0000

DESERT ISLAND DISCS:

Louis Armstrong, Jazz trumpeter, Singer(1968)

Henry Hall, bandleader(1968)

Sir Alec Rose, sailor(1969)

Diane Rigg, actress(1970)

Ian Hendry, actor(1973)

Michael Bond, writer(1976)

Kiri Tikaniwa, opera singer(1980)

Mollie Harris, actress, writer(1983)

Marco Pierre White, chef(1991)

Will Carling, rugby player(1992)

Gavin Laird, trade unionist(1992)

Neil Simon, playwright(1995)

Simon Weston, Falklands War Veteran(1996)

John Cleese, actor, comedian(1997)

Nicole Kidman, actress(1998)

Willard White, opera singer(1999)

Ronald Harwood, playwright(2000)

Bishop John Sentamu, Bishop of Birmingham(2003)

Karin Bilimoria, Businessman(2004)

Ronald Searle, illustrator, writer(2005)

Nicholas Parsons, broadcaster(2007).

By: thefatgit

thefatgit — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:31:13 +0000

The connection may only be tenuously genre-specific, but here’s as good a place as any to say RIP Joe Morello. My Dad’s favourite drummer.

By: Waldo

Waldo — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:26:36 +0000

Louis’ wise old git act notwithstanding, this is a beautiful arrangement. But I agree with Tom. I’m glad when the record finishes. The “friends shaking hands” line would threaten anybody’s breakfast and by the time we get to crying babies the game is well and truly up. I can’t believe that Flushing Tennis Club would have named one of their show courts after Satchmo on the back of this. Actually what has Louis Armstrong got to do with tennis anyway? Arthur Ashe, I get and heartily applaud but come on!

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:06:12 +0000

Sentimentality is good, this is good. Mind you, I can’t extricate it in my mind from montages of war, torture, pollution and violence, or a half-remembered Spitting Image filk of it where the lyrics had become “and I think to myself, we’ve ruined the world”.

The “wide-eyed sincerity overload” of this is exactly what makes it work: in a world that is constantly finding new ways of going to sh**, the sheer guilelessness of this is eternally heartbreaking. And the fact that it hails from 1968′s summer of optimism, from an age that couldn’t possibly have imagined how bad things might still be able to get, is the cherry on the cake.

By: The Intl

The Intl — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:35:54 +0000

I never heard it before Good Morning Vietnam. How did I miss this? Oh wait, April 1968. Now I know: Hendrix, Cream, Airplane. The Hot Fives/Sevens sides ARE glorious in their early swinging grooves, though.

By: Mark G

Mark G — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 20:44:47 +0000

Has there ever been a song that’s turned around so much in ‘critical’ appraisal? Back then, it was all about Louis selling out, now it’s a reflection on his life and optimism for the future.

So, who was right? Who knows…

By: Jonathan Bogart

Jonathan Bogart — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:47:52 +0000

I used to think this song was sentimental slush and grimace every time it came on the radio. (It’s still awful hearing it used in adverts and brainless films.) But after spending a lot more time with the rest of Armstrong’s catalogue (and not just the crit-approved Hot Fives and Sevens, but the entirety of it), I can’t find it in my heart to dislike it. In fact, those wheezy gurgles at the end of each line I now hear like little oases of hope and joy, pockets in which I’d give anything to live forever.

By: Hal

Hal — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:58:01 +0000

“I never tried to prove nothing, just wanted to give a good show. My life has always been my music, it’s always come first, but the music ain’t worth nothing if you can’t lay it on the public. The main thing is to live for that audience, ’cause what you’re there for is to please the people.”

– Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong

By: Al Ewing

Al Ewing — Fri, 11 May 2007 00:01:12 +0000

Always remember: URE SONGS ARE BEAST and YOU ARE ELISH

By: Kaylee wintersgill

Kaylee wintersgill — Thu, 10 May 2007 19:51:34 +0000

ure songs are beast put some on a web site ……mmm please put what a wonderful world on if you make a site because its my favourite song you are elish and singing xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

By: Mary

Mary — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 06:46:19 +0000

I ‘m doing Louis Armstrong on my music assignment. So I need to know a few things…so I think it’s cool if you did some interesting info as well

PS: How many pieces did he perform and compose? And what were they?
PPS: My mum’s fav song is what a wonderful world

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:03:00 +0000

I wasn’t attempting a critique of ‘Walking On Thin Ice’ (I can’t really remember what it sounds like) but I take it straight out of contention as a Number One because it was only Number One on the dance chart, and in America anyway. On the basis we’re looking at here, it was a Number 35 (both times, in fact).

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 07:56:05 +0000

“Tell It Like It Is” made #49 in Britain in ’67.
Dr John has never had a British hit single.

By: Doctor Mod

Doctor Mod — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:14:20 +0000

As a child of the 60s reborn in the 80s–it’s a long story that needn’t be told–I, too, am quite fond cynicism and pretention.

Ergo, I have no problem accepting Yoko Ono’s #1 as a REAL #1.

I’d rather listen to a cynical and pretentious old woman (who can really do the mock sincerity thing while she’s at it) than a sentimental old codger any day.

I’d go raving mad if I had to listen “Wonderful World’ repeatedly, but just keep on dancing to “Thin Ice.”

By: blount

blount — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:27:45 +0000

the flaming lips covered ‘lady madonna’ too! i suspect!

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:15:06 +0000

More than most songs the mark for this one was reliant on my mood on the day I did the write up – I was in a bad one so a 4 it is. Without Armstrong’s sincerity (and the intriguing strangeness of his voice) it wd have been 2 or 1!

I like sincerity, but I like cynicism too – both can make for great or bad pop. It’s no coincidence surely that this track was covered by the Flaming Lips, who have spent a career using sincerity as an annoying bludgeon.

As a child of the 1980s I think sincerity allied to ‘pretension’ is my favourite thing of all.

By: pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør

pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:03:12 +0000

armstrong never heard morrison!! in a key sense he WAS unaware of suffering!!

By: Chris Brown

Chris Brown — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 20:53:05 +0000

Specialist charts don’t count. And neither do re-issues (if they did, Elvis would be the winner, because he topped the charts 70 years after he was born).
I have to admit I hadn’t thought of Ken Wolstenholme, although he’s sort of on the borderline between being a member of a chart act (which I would count) and just being somebody who appears on a record (which I wouldn’t); it’s sort of ambiguous because of the one-off nature of Englandneworder.

Brian’s comment up there reminds me that I heard James Morrison (he’s a bit like James Blunt, but not as bad) explain that his song of the same title was distantly inspired by this, but that he was trying to show the downside of life too. He appeared to think that Louis Armstrong was unaware of suffering, and that he was thus improving upon the original.

By: intothefireuk

intothefireuk — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:53:33 +0000

Can’t agree with the rating. This is surely one of the least pretentious & cynical recordings to reach number one. Louis is hopelessly sincere and that’s what lifts this record out of sclock-dom.

ITF

By: blount

blount — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:45:45 +0000

btw any chance ‘tell it like it is’ or ‘gris-gris gumbo ya ya’ topped the britcharts in 68? wondering how many new orleans connex might pop up yet (‘what a wonderful world’ > ‘lady madonna’ ie. 6 > 5).

By: blount

blount — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 17:38:26 +0000

yeah a ‘walking on thin ice’ reissue topped billboard’s always bizarre dance chart; obv recorded well before she was 70 though. armstrong famously knocked beatles off the top in 64 w/ ‘hello dolly’, hit #7 on the adult contemporary (who knew ac existed in 68 – surely this is a retcon rename of another format right?) w/ ‘mame’ – did ‘what a wonderful world’ appear in a musical? strange intersection between ‘jazz – w/ strings!’ and mancini goo – never the tension of the former or the ridiculousness of the latter, probably would’ve benefited from one or the other. i’m trying to think of what contemporary might’ve bettered armstrong w/ this – judy garland maybe? nearly anyone else would’ve made it unlistenable, either of his high society costars try it and you’ve got the smuggest record ever made maybe.