Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. 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:īy 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.
Some critics and music writers have deemed "Wild World" to be condescending and misogynistic. In November 2008, the Tea for the Tillerman CD was re-issued in a deluxe version which included the original demo of "Wild World". "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". Released as a single in late 1970, it peaked at No. 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." Stevens later recalled to Mojo: "It was one of those chord sequences that's very common in Spanish music.
The song is in the form of the singer's words to his departing lover, inspired by the end of their romance. During that time, he wrote several songs about her, including "Wild World". Stevens developed a relationship with actress Patti D'Arbanville and the two were a pair throughout a period of roughly two years.