Louis Armstrong What A Wonderful World

And there’s jazz… How could we live without jazz? How could we live without blessing our ears with the sound of Louis Armstrong’s jazz music?

The world would have never been the same without blues and jazz! It’s all in that simple, irresistible rhythm! Thank you for another amazing week, for your great comments! Hoping your weekend will be the most wonderful yet, I wish you feel the beauty of every little thing, of every single day and sing along with Louis Armstrong “What A Wonderful World”! (and what a wonderful musician!) Enjoy this week’s Friday Break! (more info and a video from Good Morning Vietnam after the jump!)

Back in the sixties, they really made some stunning music! Louis Armstrong released “What a Wonderful World” in 1962. And ever since, it’s been dazzling on and on every generation with an ear for music and a soul for happiness. Even if it was composed as a somewhat political message, anti racial and pro peace, Louis Armstrong’s “What a wonderful world” reached not only a musical but also a social/ideological standard worldwide.

Preaching about the blessings of nature, the beauty of a rainbow and the richness of seeing children growing up and learning “more than I’ll ever know”, the song was originally written by Bob Thiele (an ABC records producer) and sung by Armstrong for only $250 (but he made sure his orchestra got paid). Though this is not proper jazz, it has the Armstrong legendary sound to it, making it irreplaceably a reference for Big Louie’s repertoire.

The political message within obstructed the proper, deserved promotion of this beautiful tune. The very boss of ABC Records disliked the tune and refused to push it until it hit big time success in the UK (where it was the biggest-selling single in 1968). The irony of it comes in time, when contradicting the original peaceful preaching of this song, it was mostly used as soundtrack for extremely violent scenes in the movies. Starting with Good Morning Vietnam, where it was first featured, What a Wonderful World made the soundtrack for We’ll Meet Again, Bowling for Columbine, even the animation Madagascar and so many others, everywhere using the violent scene cliché. But still, “I think to myself, what a wonderful world! Ooooh, yeah!”