The story behind puzzle No. 66
Louis Armstrong · What a Wonderful World · ABC · 1967
The head of Louis Armstrong's record label hated this slow ballad and barely promoted it in America. It went to number one in Britain and never went away.
Armstrong recorded What a Wonderful World on August 16, 1967, at United Recording in Las Vegas, for ABC Records. Bob Thiele, credited under the name George Douglas, wrote it with George David Weiss.
ABC's president, Larry Newton, wanted a swinging pop song and tried to stop the session when he heard the slow tempo. He was removed and locked out of the studio, and the record got little promotion in the United States.
In Britain it topped the pop chart in April 1968 and became the biggest-selling single of the year there. Armstrong became the oldest man to top the UK singles chart, a record that stood until 2009.
After it appeared in the 1987 film Good Morning, Vietnam, it was re-released and reached number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
Listen to the warmth and grain in Armstrong's voice, by then as famous as his trumpet.
The arrangement stays soft and simple, leaving all the room for him.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Go back 40 years to Potato Head Blues (puzzle No. 46) to hear the young trumpeter who changed jazz.
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