"Wild World" is a song written and recorded by English singer-songwriter Cat Stevens. It first appeared on his fourth album, Tea for the Tillerman (1970). Released as a single in September 1970 by Island Records and A&M Records, "Wild World" saw significant commercial success, garnering attention for its themes of love and heartbreak, and has been covered numerous times since its release. Maxi Priest and Mr. Big had successful cover versions of the song, released in 1988 and 1993.

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. (December 2021)

Quick Facts Single by Cat Stevens, from the album Tea for the Tillerman ...

"Wild World"
A-side label of the US/Canada single
Single by Cat Stevens
from the album Tea for the Tillerman
B-side	"Miles from Nowhere" (USA and Canada) "Sad Lisa" (Germany)
Released	September 1970
Recorded	July 1970
Genre	Folk rock
Length	3:15
Label	Island (UK/Europe) A&M (US/Canada)
Songwriter(s)	Cat Stevens
Producer(s)	Paul Samwell-Smith
Cat Stevens singles chronology
"Father and Son" (1970) "Wild World" (1970) "Moonshadow" (1971)
Alternative cover
German cover
Official audio
"Wild World" on YouTube

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Stevens developed a relationship with actress Patti D'Arbanville and the two were a pair for roughly two years. During that time, he wrote several songs about her, including "Wild World".

The song is in the form of the singer's words to his departing lover, inspired by the end of their romance. Stevens later recalled to Mojo: "It was one of those chord sequences that's very common in Spanish music. I turned it around and came up with that theme—which is a recurring theme in my work—which is to do with leaving, the sadness of leaving, and the anticipation of what lies beyond."^[1]

Released as a single in late 1970, it peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.^[2] "Wild World" has been credited as the song that gave Stevens' next album, Tea for the Tillerman, "enough kick" to get it played on FM radio; and Island Records' Chris Blackwell called it "the best album we've ever released".^[3]

In November 2008, the Tea for the Tillerman CD was re-issued in a deluxe version which included the original demo of "Wild World".

Some critics and music writers have deemed "Wild World" to be condescending and misogynistic.^[4][5][6] In her 1971 essay "But Now I'm Gonna Move," critic Ellen Willis described a method of revealing male bias in lyrics in which the listener imagines the genders reversed:

By this test, a diatribe like 'Under My Thumb' is not nearly so sexist in its implications as, for example, Cat Stevens's gentle, sympathetic 'Wild World'; Jagger's fantasy of sweet revenge could easily be female—in fact, it has a female counterpart, Nancy Sinatra's 'Boots' — but it's hard to imagine a woman sadly warning her ex-lover that he's too innocent for the big bad world out there.^[7]

• Cat Stevens – classical guitar, acoustic guitar, keyboards, lead vocals
• Alun Davies – acoustic guitar, backing vocals
• Harvey Burns – drums, congas, tambourine
• John Ryan – double bass

The song has been covered by many artists, with many of the covers becoming hits of their own. Jimmy Cliff's version, released a few months after Stevens released the original version, reached No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart. Surprisingly, Stevens' version was not released as a single in the UK. Some of the subsequent covers have also been in the reggae style, such as Maxi Priest's version of the song. Recorded and released as a single in 1988, this version also did well on the charts, reaching No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100.

In 1987, Jonathan King accused Pet Shop Boys of plagiarising the melody of "Wild World" for their UK No. 1 single "It's a Sin". He made the claims in The Sun, for which he wrote a regular column during the 1980s. King also released his own cover version of "Wild World" as a single, using a similar musical arrangement to "It's a Sin", in an effort to demonstrate his claims. This single flopped, while Pet Shop Boys sued King, eventually winning out-of-court damages, which they donated to charity.^[21]

On 7 July 2007, the song was performed twice at the Live Earth concerts. James Blunt sang it at Wembley Stadium in London, England, while Stevens (by then known as Yusuf Islam) himself sang it in Hamburg, Germany.^[22][23]

In 2011, Taiwanese-American singer Joanna Wang released her own version on her album The Things We Do for Love. Wang's version was also featured in American web television series The Good Fight Season 1, 2017.^[24]