What a Wonderful World, isn’t it?

A few days ago, I made a list of songs whose themes interested me: True Colors, Don't Stop Believing, Imagine, Summer of 69 and What a Wonderful World. Some of them revolve around world peace, while others are related to the United States, its American Dream or simply its way of life. I ended up choosing What a Wonderful World, sang by Louis Armstrong.

What have always struck me the most about this song, even before I knew what the lyrics were about, is its melody. I listened to What a Wonderful World for the first time when I was around three or four years old and I remember that moment clearly - I was in the back seat of my parents' jeep, in the middle of the traffic in the street where we used to live. It seems to me that you do not need to be a specialist in the field of music (or another type of art) to understand the beauty it conveys and to feel touched by it, in this case thanks to the musical arrangement. Actually, I have found many versions of What a Wonderful World, recorded by other artists and by Armstrong himself, with different rhythms and instruments, but my favorite is still this one.

Apart from its melody and original arrangement, the lyrics are also meaningful to me. I learned and analyzed them for the first time when I was in middle school, as an exercise in English class. At the time, even though I was not aware that it addressed specific issues, I already felt that both the song and its lyrics were about peace and building a better world for our children, not leaving them our current problems, such as wars, unnecessary political misunderstandings or environmental concerns. As a matter of fact, when read literally, “I see friends shaking hands, saying How do you do, they’re really saying I love you” looks like an anti-war message. It could be, but it is also much more than that.

Louis Armstrong was given this song to sing when he was already 65 years old. Up until then, Negro rights activists accused him of being too neutral in the Civil Rights Movement. However, What a Wonderful World had the objective of discouraging political and racial friction, suggesting that people take a look at their surroundings and seizing the opportunity for peace they would be able to establish. Although the lyrics do not have difficult vocabulary words and its immediate meaning is simple, there are other hidden connotations. For instance, mentioning colors (“I see skies of blue, and clouds of white, / The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night”; “The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky, / Are also on the faces of people going by”) is not only about describing and picturing the diverse world landscapes; it is also about referring that people from all backgrounds, origins and cultural histories should share the same rights and status in society and that all people should get along with each other fraternally.

Despite its weak popularity in the United States, What a Wonderful World was a number one hit in the United Kingdom after it was released in 1968. This probably happened because, due to the development and influence of the British Cultural Studies since the 1950s, people in the UK were more socially prepared to comprehend racial and cultural issues, already discussed during the previous years. It eventually became a hit in the US as well, but only when it was included in Good Morning, Vietnam movie soundtrack, in 1987. Meanwhile, a lot of remixes and versions of the song by other musicians were released, such as the one by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (recorded in the early 1990s and apparently rediscovered a couple of years ago), which is a medley of What a Wonderful World and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

In short, What a Wonderful World has been given numerous purposes and meanings over the years. Originally, it was meant to give expression to racial issues. Later, it was included in a cinematic Vietnam War context. These days, maybe it could be used as a musical theme for a humanitarian campaign set in Europe, for example, concerning Syrian refugees. Only time will tell new ways of reinventing this song.