For the day after Christmas, when everybody should still be in relatively good merriment, todays’ classic song of the day is “Wonderful World.” It was a hit for three very different artists: Sam Cooke, Herman’s Hermits, and Art Garfunkel.
Lou Adler and Herb Alpert wrote “Wonderful World” in 1958 or so, but pretty much shelved it as a trifle. Sam Cooke heard the song, however, and really liked it. He fiddled with the lyrics a little, enough to give himself co-writing credit (using his wife’s maiden name, Barbara Campbell), and recorded it for Keen Records in March of 1959.
The song sat unreleased for a bit and Mr. Cooke signed with a new record label, RCA Victor. After Cooke had switched to RCA, Keen went searching for unreleased Sam Cooke tracks to exploit and stumbled over “Wonderful World.” Keen released “Wonderful World” as a single in April of 1960 and it promptly went to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Sides chart.
A few years later, during the British Invasion, British group Herman’s Hermits, led by lead singer Peter Noone, decided to record a cover of “Wonderful World.” Their version, released as a single in May of 1965, charted even higher than the original, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Fast forward another dozen years to January of 1978 and Art Garfunkel got together with his former partner Paul Simon and their mutual pal James Taylor to record their own version of “Wonderful World.” Artie’s decidedly soft-rock single (with wonderful harmonies, natch) went to #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, #15 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #1 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
You don’t have to know much about history or biology to know that “Wonderful World” is simply a wonderful song. Which version is your favorite?
