[Dixielandjazz] What A Wonderful World

[Stephen Barbone]

Bill Haesler would be my ultimate authority on WAWW, but I think Louis
recorded it first August 16,1967 and then again on May 26,1970.
Interesting story about it in Bergreen's book. Paraphrased except where
quoted below for brevity.

Bob Thiele came to Louis with the song Louis loved it agreed to record
it with Thiele at ABC records. The recording added strings etc and so
Louis did not take his usual advance and recorded it for scale $250.

Company president Larry Newton hated it, hated Louis, hated the song,
hated Thiele. Joe Glaser then offered to buy it, but Newton said no and
released it with absolutely no promotion. It sold less than 1000 copies
as opposed to Hello Dolly which had sold millions.

However, bless the Brits. In England it quickly sold 600,000 copies and
topped the charts, and the popularity spread to the rest of the world.
except in the USA. ABC record honcho Newton then demanded that Louis
make a "Wonderful World" album for $500.

When he heard that, a livid Joe Glaser told Thiele: "You tell that fat
bastard to f*** himself and give us $25,000 for 8 more sides. "Newton
returned the compliment saying to Thiele that  "Glaser could go f***
himself, too."

Glazer won out.

When the album was released "Newton was showered with accolades for his
brilliant and innovative exploitation of Louis Armstrong." (quoted from
Bergreen, not sure "exploitation" was used correctly)

BUT the song never was popular in the USA until featured on the
soundtrack of the movie "Good Morning Vietnam more than 20 years later.
Thanks perhaps to Robin Williams and the dark humor of those who wrote
the script.

There are a couple of lessons in the story.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone