Working With the Lyrics of a Song That Has No Official Sheet Music
The song everyone calls "A Wonderful World" is officially titled "What a Wonderful World" by George David Weiss and Bob Thiele. The melody sits in G major at roughly 63 BPM, though most pop performances drift that number up or down depending on how much space the vocalist wants between phrases. If you are trying to reproduce the lyrics verbatim from memory, you will find yourself stumbling over a few lines that do not follow the predictable rhyme scheme most people assume they do. Here is the full text, stanza by stanza, as Armstrong recorded it. It is shorter than most people remember. I see friends shaking hands, saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying, "I love you."
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 black night,
I see stars shine in the dark, but mostly
I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
I see lovers walking, saying, "How do you do?"
They're really saying, "I love you."
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
People routinely mishear the bridge. The line about lovers shaking hands repeats the first stanza almost exactly, and then the song drops to the final refrain. There is no second verse about seasons changing or rain falling. You will find dozens of cover versions that invent extra lyrics to pad the runtime. They are wrong. I ran into this when a band I was arranging for wanted to record the song for a wedding. They had been learning it from a YouTube video that added two full verses after the repeat. When I pulled the original 1967 single and compared it frame by frame, the version they were using had nearly doubled the lyric count. We spent about twenty minutes cutting the borrowed material and went back to the Weiss/Thiele structure. That saved us from looking foolish when the couple asked for the "real" words.
How to Use These Lyrics Practically
Most people who want the lyrics are either learning to sing the song, preparing a transcription, or clearing the material for a public performance. The song entered public domain in certain jurisdictions depending on the country, but in the United States it remains under copyright through the standard term. Do not assume it is free to use just because it is old. The composition copyright is held by the estate, and the master recording from 1967 is a separate rights issue entirely. If you need the lyrics for rehearsal, the text above is sufficient. If you need to publish them, distribute them, or embed them in an app, you will need a license from the publisher. The publishing rights are typically managed through major music rights organizations like ASCAP or SESAC. The exact publisher can vary by territory, so checking your local PRO is the safe move. I once tried to pull a lyric sheet from a third-party website for a transcription project and found three different versions of the same line. One had "bright blessed day," another had "bright, blessed day," and a third reworded it to "the bright sun shining." The punctuation differences are minor, but the word substitutions are not. When accuracy matters, the original album liner notes or the sheet music from a licensed publisher is the only reliable source.
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Common Pitfalls When Working With This Track
Beginners often treat the vocal line as if it were syllabic and even. It is not. Armstrong's delivery is heavily rubato, especially on the word "wonderful," which stretches across multiple beats depending on the take. The time signature is 4/4 but the phrasing crosses barlines in ways that make counting it feel off if you lock into a rigid grid. Another issue is the hand-clapping breakdown in the middle. It is not notated in most lyric sheets. If you are building a performance arrangement and someone asks where the claps go, they are layered under the second and third iterations of the "I see skies of blue" section. They are an instrumentation choice, not a vocal change, so you will not find them written into the text. If you are transcribing this for a karaoke track, do not rely on a single source for the lyrics. Cross-reference at least two legitimate publications and check them against the original recording. I have spent more time than I care to admit correcting lyrics sheets that swapped "red roses" for "roses red" without noting the change. It seems small until someone sings it and the melody does not fit.
Where to Find Official Sources
Licensed sheet music is available through major publishers and sheet music retailers. The standard edition is published by Redwood Music. For public performance licenses, contact your local performance rights organization. For mechanical licenses to reproduce the lyrics in print or digital form, Harry Fox Agency or the Mechanical Licensing Collective handles that in the United States. I do not host lyric files or distribute sheet music directly. The text I provided above is for reference and educational purposes within fair use limits. If you need a printable official version, go through a licensed publisher. It is faster than hunting down bootlegs and it keeps you out of legal trouble, which is something I learned the hard way years ago when a venue asked for proof of licensing and I did not have it handy.
