Not so in Britain, where it demonstrated that you cannot keep a hot song down as it progressed steadily up the charts, reaching No.1 in the last week of April 1968 and stayed there for a month, selling well over half a million copies in the process. Louis, a man in the November of his years, was able to nail its sentiments perfectly when he recorded it in August 1967 The President of ABC-Paramount Records couldn’t have disagreed more, he virtually banned the company from putting any effort into promoting the song and in America it disappeared without trace. However, Louis was not the first singer to whom he offered ‘What A Wonderful World’, history has since revealed that Tony Bennett had first of all turned the song down flat. Producer Bob Thiele had demo of a song that he and George Weiss had written, first he took it to Armstrong’s manager Joe Glaser and then to Louis, who was performing in Washington DC. Sure, Pops, I like the ovation, but when I’m low, beat down, wonder if maybe I hadn’t have been better off staying home in New Orleans.” Well thank heavens didn’t stay in New Orleans and instead chose to spread the word that is jazz around the globe.
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