Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly-recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.
Armstrong was born and brought up in New Orleans, a culturally diverse town with a unique musical mix of creole, ragtime, marching bands, and blues. Although from an early age he was able to play music professionally, he didn't travel far from New Orleans until 1922, when he went to Chicago to join his mentor, King Oliver. Oliver's band played primitive jazz, a hotter style of ragtime, with looser rhythms and more improvisation, and Armstrong's role was mostly backing. Slow to promote himself, he was eventually persuaded by his wife Lil Hardin to leave Oliver, and In 1924 he went to New York to join the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. At the time, there were a few other artists using the rhythmic innovations of the New Orleans style, but none did it with the energy and brilliance of Armstrong, and he quickly became a sensation among New York musicians. Back in Chicago in 1925, he made his first recordings with his own group, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five, and these became not only popular hits but also models for the first generation of jazz musicians, trumpeters or otherwise.
Other hits followed through the twenties and thirties, as well as troubles: crooked managers, lip injuries, mob entanglements, failed big-band ventures. As jazz styles changed, though, musical purists never lost any respect for him -- although they were sometimes irritated by his hammy onstage persona. Around the late forties, with the help of a good manager, Armstrong's business affairs finally stablilized, and he began to be seen as an elder statesman of American popular entertainment, appearing in Hollywood films, touring Asia and Europe, and dislodging The Beatles from the number-one position with Hello Dolly". Today many people may know him as a singer (a good one), but as Miles Davis said: “You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him."
The 62-year-old Armstrong became the oldest act to top the US charts when "Hello Dolly" reached #1 in 1964. Four years later Satchmo also became the oldest artist to record a UK #1, when "What a Wonderful World" hit the top spot.
You're a Heavenly Thing
Louis Armstrong Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And put the moonlight right in your eyes
Like a june night
They took the fragrance out of the dew
And sprinkled roses all over you
Like a garden
Your embrace
Stars that shine light your face
To combine everything
On your lips they put the breath of spring
And then they finished called it a day
They took the model threw it away
Like an angel
The lyrics to You're a Heavenly Thing by Louis Armstrong are a love song dedicated to a lover who is likened to heaven itself. The lyrics speak of an almost inexplicable beauty which is carefully crafted by the universe. The moonlight is taken out of the skies and put in the lover's eyes, which suggests that they have an almost otherworldly aura. The fragrance of dew is taken to sprinkle roses all over the lover, which highlights their delicate beauty.
The lyrics also speak of the lover being like a garden, which could mean that they are filled with life and wonder, much like a garden in full bloom. The final verse speaks of a perfect union, where everything has been brought together to create a perfect being. The heavenliness of the lover is accentuated by the fact that the universe simply threw away the mold after they were created, signifying that they are one of a kind and irreplaceable. In essence, the song is a poetic tribute to an ethereal and perfect lover.
Line by Line Meaning
They took the moonlight out of the skies
The beauty of the moonlight is reflected in your eyes
And put the moonlight right in your eyes
They filled your eyes with the glow of the moon
Like a june night
Your beauty reflects the serenity of a beautiful June night
They took the fragrance out of the dew
The freshness of the morning dew is reflected in your presence
And sprinkled roses all over you
They adorned you with the grace and charm of beautiful roses
Like a garden
Your beauty reflects the vividness and richness of a garden
They made a clinging vine
You are like a gripping vine that engulfs people in your charm
Your embrace
The warmth and tenderness of your embrace is incomparable
Stars that shine light your face
The radiance of your face is as bright as the stars in the sky
To combine everything
They brought together all the beautiful things in the world to make you
On your lips they put the breath of spring
Your lips seem like a fresh and pleasant feast of spring
And then they finished called it a day
After creating you, they were content with their work
They took the model threw it away
They didn't need a model anymore since they had created the masterpiece that is you
Like an angel
You are like an angel, a symbol of beauty and goodness
Writer(s): Joe Young, Little Jack Little
Contributed by Noah W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Anonymous
on What A Wonderful World
What A Wonderful World - Casey Abrams - Lyrics
I see trees of green
Red roses too
I see them bloom
For me and you
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I see skies of blue
And clouds of white
The bright blessed day
The dark sacred night
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing how do you do
They're really singing
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They'll learn much more
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
Musical Interlude
The colors of the rainbow
So pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces
Of people going by
I see friends shaking hands
Singing how do you do
They're really singing
I love you
I hear babies cry
I watch them grow
They goin’ learn much more
Than I'll ever know
And I think to myself
What a wonderful world
I think to myself
What a wonderful world