Louis Armstrong: What A Wonderful World

Often a great performing artist’s career is largely defined by one very famous song. One might name Frank Sinatra and “New York, New York,” Ray Charles and “Georgia,” Tony Bennett and “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” in this regard.

Clearly the legendary jazz great Louis Armstrong and his classic recording of “What A Wonderful World” also fills this bill.

And, as is the case with the three examples listed above, the definitive interpreter of “What A Wonderful World” did not write the standard.

The timeless classic, “What a Wonderful World,” was co-written by two stalwarts of the mid-century American music scene, Bob Thiel and George David Weiss.

Thiel was one of the most important players and successful record producers in the music industry for nearly six decades, having worked with jazz luminaries Lester Young, Erroll Garner, Coleman Hawkins, B.B. King, Quincy Jones and of course, Louis Armstrong, to name just a few.

George David Weiss, likewise, was an important fixture in the music business from the 40s through the 60s. A Julliard-trained multi-instrumentalist, Weiss played reeds and violin in dance bands around New York before serving in the military during WWII. After the war, Weiss became a successful and in-demand popular song and show-tune composer. Weiss notably worked with big stars such as Sammy Davis, Jr., Tom Jones, Mel Tormé, Elvis Presley, Dinah Washington, the Stylistics, and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Bob Thiel and George David Weiss, together and separately, wrote many many songs for the recording stars they worked with. However, Louis Armstrong’s recording in 1960 of their composition “What A Wonderful World,” was clearly the high water mark of their songwriting careers. Indeed, few songs in all the history of American music have left such an indelible mark on the hearts of the American people.

Louis Armstrong was born on Aug. 4, 1901 in one of the poorest sections of New Orleans and raised by his mother Maryann. His neighborhood was so tough it was known as “The Battlefield” by locals.

Armstrong quit school in the firth grade and was pressed into work to help support his mother and sister. Sometimes he sang on street corners for pennies.

An early job working for the Jewish Karnofsky family allowed Armstrong to make enough money to purchase his first cornet. The Karnofskys were kind to the budding musician and supported his desire to play music as a profession. In later years Armstrong praised the Karnofsky’s for their care and for nurturing him.

When Armstrong was 11 years old, juvenile court sent him to the Jones Home for Colored Waifs for firing a pistol on New Year’s Eve. While there, he had his first formal music lessons and played in the home’s brass band. After about 18 months he was released. From then on, he largely supported himself as a musician, playing with pick-up bands and in small clubs with his mentor Joe “King” Oliver. Oliver was one of a handful of noted musicians in New Orleans–along with Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet and others–who were creating a distinctive and widely popular new band music out of blues and ragtime. Soon, sheet music publishers and record companies would make jazz [and Louis Armstrong] a household name.

Smithsonian Institution

Although the Broadway musical title song “Hello, Dolly!” garnered Armstrong a Billboard number one hit in 1964 (knocking the Beatles out of the top spot with “I Want to Hold Your Hand“), a gold-selling record and a Grammy award for the best male vocal performance, it is “What A Wonderful World” which has become synonymous with his name and voice. A number one hit in the UK in 1968, it took until 1989 and its dramatic inclusion in the motion picture Good Morning Vietnam for “What A Wonderful World” to gain national prominence and truly become a “standard.”

Louis Armstrong died of a heart ailment in 1971 at the age of 69. A year later, he was honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

What A Wonderful World Lyrics

(Words and Music by Bob Thiel and George David Weiss)

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
Ooh, yes

The New Louis Armstrong Center: A Tribute To The Jazz Icon