Wonderful World (Sam Cooke song)

Lou Adler and Herb Alpert composed the song with the theme that neither knowledge nor education can dictate feelings, but that love "could make the world a wonderful place". Adler did not take the song very seriously but Cooke appeared to be taken with it. "He’d say, ‘What about that song, you know?’ And then he'd start on it again," recalled Adler. Cooke wanted to steer the song toward the subject of schooling, revised the song and decided to cut it at a recording session on March 2, 1959, five days after completing his Billie Holiday tribute album, Tribute to the Lady. The writing credit for the song was put under Cooke's wife's maiden name, Barbara Campbell. Campbell was also listed on the record labels for two other Cooke hits: "Only Sixteen" and "Everybody Loves to Cha Cha Cha". The session's main goal was to record three songs Cooke had composed. There was no arranger or orchestra and the personnel consisted of Cooke, guitarist Cliff White, bassist Adolphus Alsbrook, teenage drummer Ronnie Selico and a quartet of singers that Cooke biographer Peter Guralnick believes may have been the Pilgrim Travelers – J.W. Alexander, Lou Rawls, and George McCurn (nicknamed Oopie). There is no known footage of Cooke performing the song, even though, in 1986, ABKCO president Allen Klein offered a $10,000 reward for anyone obtaining such footage. ==Release and reception==

Cooke signed to RCA Victor in 1960 but his first two singles on the major label – "Teenage Sonata" and "You Understand Me" – failed to register on the charts. Meanwhile, John Siamas, co-founder of Keen Records, discovered the "demo" recording of "Wonderful World" among unreleased Cooke recordings. Keen released "Wonderful World" in competition with RCA's issue of "You Understand Me" in the same week. "Wonderful World" quickly became Cooke's best-performing single since his first hit "You Send Me", reaching number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the magazine's Hot R&B Sides chart. Billboard reviewed the single upon its release, giving it four stars and writing, "Moderate rocker gets a smooth belt from Sam Cooke in his usual, salable style." In 2004, the song was placed 373rd in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2014. ==Later versions==

• Herman's Hermits had a major hit in the mid-1960s with an uptempo version of the song (omitting one verse) which reached number one in Canada, Cash Box described it as having "an infectious, rhythmic blues-tinged warm-hearted style". • In 1978, Art Garfunkel recorded the song at a slow tempo, with Paul Simon and James Taylor alternating as lead and backing vocalists. This reached number 17 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 15 on the Cash Box Top 100. The Garfunkel version also became a number-one US Adult Contemporary hit for five weeks. The song (as credited under the alternate title, "(What A) Wonderful World") was included on later versions of Garfunkel's solo album, Watermark. It was added in place of another song ("Fingerpaint") to capitalize on the single's success. • The Delltones released a contemporary version of ("Wonderful World") on their 40th anniversary compilation album ("The Big Four O") in 1998. ==In popular culture==

The song is used in the 1978 film Animal House in the well-known lunchroom scene where Bluto (John Belushi) gathers food in preparation for a food fight. The song was also included in the 1983 film Breathless. The original Sam Cooke version of the song comprised the title soundtrack of the 2005 film Hitch. After a Greg Chapman cover of the song was featured prominently in the 1985 film Witness in a scene where Harrison Ford dances with Kelly McGillis, "Wonderful World" gained further exposure. Particularly in the United Kingdom, where a copy of the song, produced by Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge and with vocals sung by Barbadian Tony Jackson, a backing singer for Paul Young, appeared in "Bath", a well-remembered, Roger Lyons-directed 1985 advertisement for Levi's 501 jeans. As a result, the Sam Cooke version of the song became a hit in the UK, reaching No. 2 and selling a certified 250,000 copies. In a 2005 poll by the UK's Channel Four the song was voted the 19th-greatest song ever to feature in a commercial. The song is featured in the official soundtrack of Mafia III, published on October 7, 2016. ==Charts==

Weekly charts Sam Cooke version Herman's Hermits version Johnny Nash version Simon and Garfunkel with James Taylor version ==Certifications==