Don’t know much about History
Don’t know much Biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

American singer-songwriter Sam Cooke‘s hit “Wonderful World” was released on RCA Records in April 1960 when he was 29 years old. During his eight-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Pop Singles chart, including the hits “You Send Me,” “A Change Is Gonna Come,” “Cupid,” “Wonderful World,” “Chain Gang,” “Twistin’ the Night Away,”, “Bring It On Home to Me,” and “Good Times.”

The song was written by the songwriting team of Lou Adler and Herb Albert. Cooke revised the lyrics for a more school-oriented theme. The writing credit for the song has the pseudonym of “Barbara Campbell.”

Sam Cooke is considered one of the most influential soul artists of all time, with his style and music contributing the the music of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Billy Preston, and popularizing the work of Otis Redding and James Brown. He was also a central part of the civil rights movement, using his influence and popularity with the White and Black populations to fight for the cause.

Sam Cooke was shot and killed in 1964. He was 33 years old. The shooting occurred at a motel in South Central Los Angeles. The details surround the shooting are controversial, with different versions of what happened being recorded. The shooter, the hotel manager, said that  she shot him in self-defense and no charges were filed. Singer Etta James viewed Cooke’s body before his funeral and wrote that Cooke was so badly beaten that his head was nearly separated from his shoulders, his hands were broken and crushed, and his nose mangled — in other words, not self defense. Cooke’s close friend Muhammad Ali said: “If Cooke had been Frank Sinatra, the Beatles or Ricky Nelson, the FBI would be investigating”

There is no known film of Sam Cooke singing “Wonderful World.”

Herman’s Hermits had an uptempo version that reached number one in Canada and number four in the U.S. They recorded their version as a tribute to Sam Cooke after his death. Jimmy Page, later founder of Led Zeppelin, played guitar on the track and was paid £12.

Otis Redding recorded a version of the song on his 1965 album “Otis Blue.”  Art Garfunkel recorded the song at a slow tempo in 1978, with Paul Simon and James Taylor. Don McLean recorded a version of the song in 1986. Michael Bolton recorded a cover in 1999.

Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World” is not to be confused with “What a Wonderful World” written by Bob Thiele (as “George Douglas”) and George David Weiss, and recorded by Louis Armstrong.

Lou Adler went on to produce Carole King’s album “Tapestry” which won the 1972 Album of the Year Grammy Award and had sales of over 25 million copies. Previously he produced six top-five hits for The Mamas & the Papas and was a producer for the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Monterey Pop featured the first U.S. appearances of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Who, Ravi Shankar, and the first large-scale performance of Janis Joplin and the introduction of Otis Redding to a large American audience. The festival served as the template for future outdoor music festivals, including Woodstock two years later. Adler was an executive producer of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which became the longest-running theatrical film ever.

Herb Albert recorded himself with overdubs as the self-declared Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in 1962. The number-one album in 1966 was his album “Whipped Cream & Other Delights,” outselling The Beatles (“Rubber Soul,” “Yesterday and Today,” and “Revolver”), The Rolling Stones, The Mamas & the Papas (“If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears “), and Frank Sinatra (“Strangers in the Night”). Two other Tijuana Brass albums were the number 3 and 5 best selling albums that year also.  After a 34 year period of no albums, his comeback album “Steppin’ Out” in 2013, with songs co-written and co-produced with fusion jazz pianist Jeff Lorber, won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. In total Alpert has received eight Grammy awards, plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Wonderful World by Sam Cooke – with lyrics. April, 1960.  2 minutes 6 seconds

Wonderful World by Sam Cooke – with lyrics. 
With a pastiche of black & white film clips from the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, including brief images of President John Kennedy, President Franklin Roosevelt, President Dwight Eisenhower, Albert Einstein, Robert Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, Queen Elizabeth and a young Prince Charles, Richard Nixon, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ronald Reagan.

Don’t know much about History
Don’t know much Biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Don’t know much about Geography
Don’t know much Trigonometry
Don’t know much about Algebra
Don’t know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be

Now, I don’t claim to be an A student
But I’m trying to be
For maybe by being an A student, baby
I can win your love for me

Don’t know much about History
Don’t know much Biology
Don’t know much about a science book
Don’t know much about the French I took

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be

Wonderful World by Herman’s Hermits. Live in concert. Date unknown.  1 minute 58 seconds

Art Garfunkel, Paul Simon, and James Taylor.  1978.