- Wild World
Infobox Single
Name = Wild World
Cover size =
Border =
Caption =
Artist =Cat Stevens
Album =Tea for the Tillerman
B-side ="Miles from Nowhere " (US) "Sad Lisa" (Germany)
Released =February, 1971
Format =7" 45 rpm
Recorded =
Genre =Folk rock , Pop
Length =3:15
Label =A&M
Island
Writer =Cat Stevens
Producer =Paul Samwell-Smith
Audio sample? =
Certification =
Last single ="Lady d'Arbanville " (1970)
This single ="Wild World" (1971)
Next single ="Moon Shadow" (1971)
Misc ="Wild World" is a song written and recorded by
Cat Stevens . It first appeared in his 1970 album, "Tea for the Tillerman ". It was the most popular single on that album. The song is in the form of the singer's words to his departing lover, inspired by Stevens' relationship withPatti D'Arbanville . Released as a single in 1971, it just missed becoming Stevens' first top ten hit in theU.S. , peaking at number eleven on theBillboard Pop Singles chart.The song has been covered by many artists, with many of the covers becoming hits of their own. As of 2006, perhaps the most famous cover of the song is the 1993 release by Mr. Big (The Billboard Hot 100 #27, Mainstream Rock Tracks #33, Top 40 Mainstream #12).
Jimmy Cliff 's version, released a few months before Stevens' released his version, reached number eight on theUK Singles Chart . Surprisingly, Stevens' version was not released as a single in theUK . Some of the subsequent covers have also been in thereggae style, indicating that they may be covers of Cliff's version, as opposed to direct covers of Cat Stevens' original arrangement. An example of this would beMaxi Priest 's version of the song. Recorded and released as a single in 1988, this version also did well on the charts, reaching number five on theUK Singles Chart and number twenty five on theUS Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart.In 2006, "
Littlest Things ," the 3rd single released byLily Allen from "Alright, Still ", her debut album, was noted as having similarities with Wild World in its introduction.On 7 July 2007, the song was performed twice at the
Live Earth concerts;James Blunt sang it at the Wembley in London, while Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) himself sang it in Hamburg.Notable covers
*
Barry Ryan
*Jimmy Cliff
*The cast of "Skins"
*Matt Nathanson
*Maxi Priest
*Mr. Big
*UB40
*Beth Orton
*Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
*SNFU
*Tesla
*Skye Sweetnam
*Jose Feliciano
*James Blunt as a part ofLive Earth
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