What a Wonderful World
About this Album
Released by ABC Records in 1968, this album took its name from the single Louis Armstrong had recorded the previous year at a 2 a.m. session in Las Vegas, produced by Bob Thiele and arranged by Artie Butler.[1]
The album arrived as Armstrong, then in his mid-sixties, was easing away from the hard touring of the All Stars years and leaning into orchestral pop, a late-career pivot that traded improvisational fireworks for warmth and plainspoken sentiment.[2]
Though the title track initially struggled in the United States due to a lack of label support, it topped the UK charts for thirteen weeks in 1968, becoming the best-selling single of the year there and a defining late statement in Armstrong's catalog.[3]