The 25 Best Louis Armstrong Songs, Ranked

These are the 25 best Louis Armstrong songs in our ranking, from the Hot Five records he made in Chicago in the 1920s to the ballads of his last years. “West End Blues” (1928) is No. 1, for the unaccompanied trumpet cadenza that opens it. “What a Wonderful World” (1967) is his most famous song today, and “Hello, Dolly!” was his biggest American hit, No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1964. Each entry gives the label, the year and what to listen for.

Armstrong (1901-1971) made his first records with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band in April 1923 and was still recording in 1970. Our order weighs what a record changed in jazz, how well his version holds up and how widely the song is known now, so the Hot Five and Hot Seven sides, which moved jazz from collective playing to the improvised solo, sit next to his pop hits. For his peers, see our guide to the greatest jazz trumpet players.

Our Ranking of the 25 Best Louis Armstrong Songs

1. “West End Blues” (OKeh, 1928)

Armstrong recorded King Oliver’s blues in Chicago on June 28, 1928, with the second Hot Five: Earl Hines (piano), Fred Robinson (trombone), Jimmy Strong (clarinet), Mancy Carr (banjo) and Zutty Singleton (drums). It opens with an unaccompanied trumpet cadenza, moves through a wordless vocal chorus sung against Strong’s low clarinet and a piano solo by Hines, and ends with Armstrong holding a high note for four bars. In Early Jazz (1968), Gunther Schuller presented it as proof that jazz could stand beside the most serious music. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1974.

2. “What a Wonderful World” (ABC, 1967)

Bob Thiele (credited as George Douglas) and George David Weiss wrote it for Armstrong, who recorded it in Las Vegas on August 16, 1967, with an arrangement by Artie Butler. ABC’s president, Larry Newton, wanted another “Hello, Dolly!” and refused to promote the slow ballad, so it sold poorly in the US, but it reached No. 1 in the UK in April 1968. After the film Good Morning, Vietnam used it, a 1988 reissue climbed to No. 32 on the Hot 100. There is no trumpet and no scat on the record; it rests entirely on his voice.

3. “Potato Head Blues” (OKeh, 1927)

Recorded in Chicago on May 10, 1927, by the Hot Seven: the Hot Five expanded with Pete Briggs on tuba and Baby Dodds on drums for a week of sessions. In the second half the band drops to short punctuating chords while Armstrong solos through the gaps. That stop-time chorus is one of his most famous solos and helped establish the technique in jazz. In Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979), the record is on the list of reasons life is worth living.

4. “Hello, Dolly!” (Kapp, 1964)

Armstrong cut Jerry Herman’s title song in December 1963 as a demo to promote the Broadway show; Kapp released it the next month. On May 9, 1964, it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, ending the Beatles’ run of 14 straight weeks at the top, and at 62 he became the oldest artist to top that chart up to then. It won him the Grammy for Best Vocal Performance, Male. More on his singing in our list of the greatest male jazz singers.

5. “Heebie Jeebies” (OKeh, 1926)

Recorded by the original Hot Five (Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Johnny St. Cyr) on February 26, 1926, Boyd Atkins’s song was Armstrong’s first real hit; he later estimated it sold 40,000 copies in its first few weeks. Its fame rests on a vocal chorus of nonsense syllables phrased like a trumpet solo. He did not invent scat (Don Redman scatted on a Fletcher Henderson record in 1924), but this record made it popular. Armstrong and St. Cyr both said he dropped the lyric sheet during the take, as the Louis Armstrong House Museum’s centennial exhibit recounts. Background in our guide to jazz in the 1920s.

6. “When the Saints Go Marching In” (Decca, 1938)

The Paramount Jubilee Singers first recorded the spiritual in 1923, but Armstrong’s version made it a jazz standard. He persuaded Decca to let him record it on May 13, 1938, with his big band, which included pianist Luis Russell, trombonist J.C. Higginbotham and bassist Pops Foster. He opens with a mock sermon as “Reverend Satchmo.” The Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2020; Ricky Riccardi’s registry essay covers the session.

7. “St. James Infirmary” (OKeh, 1928)

Armstrong recorded this folk-derived blues on December 12, 1928, with the Savoy Ballroom Five: the 1928 Hot Five plus Don Redman on alto saxophone and clarinet. Fess Williams had recorded the song in 1927 as “Gambler’s Blues,” but Armstrong’s slow, mournful version is the one that made it famous; the first pressing even credited Redman as composer. Later covers range from the White Stripes, on their 1999 debut album, to Hugh Laurie in 2011.

8. “Mack the Knife” (Columbia, 1955)

Columbia producer George Avakian had Armstrong record the song from Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, and the All Stars cut it in New York on September 28, 1955, using Marc Blitzstein’s English lyrics. Weill’s widow, Lotte Lenya, came to the session, and Armstrong added her name to the list of Mack’s women. It was the first vocal version on the US charts (No. 20 in 1956), three years before Bobby Darin’s No. 1; both recordings are in the National Recording Registry.

9. “La Vie en Rose” (Decca, 1950)

Édith Piaf’s signature song, with English lyrics by Mack David, had seven versions on the Billboard charts in 1950. Armstrong recorded it in New York on June 26, 1950, with Sy Oliver’s orchestra, backed with “C’est si bon.” It has become one of his best-known ballads: Pixar used it in WALL-E (2008), and it was certified silver in the UK in 2023.

10. “Stardust” (OKeh, 1931)

Hoagy Carmichael’s 1927 tune has been recorded more than 1,500 times, and Armstrong’s version from Chicago, November 4, 1931, is one of the boldest. He sings over a steady, almost hypnotic beat, flattening long stretches of the melody into repeated notes and rephrasing the rest, then takes a trumpet solo. Ricky Riccardi of the Louis Armstrong House Museum has called it his favorite Armstrong record. More standards in our list of the greatest jazz songs.

11. “We Have All the Time in the World” (United Artists, 1969)

John Barry and Hal David wrote it as a secondary theme for the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Barry chose Armstrong, then 68 and in poor health, because he could sing the title line with irony; the October 1969 session was his first professional date in over a year. The single missed the charts, but a 1994 reissue, after a Guinness commercial used it, reached No. 3 in the UK.

12. “Ain’t Misbehavin'” (OKeh, 1929)

Fats Waller and Harry Brooks wrote the music and Andy Razaf the words for the revue Hot Chocolates, which moved to Broadway in June 1929 with Armstrong in the show’s orchestra. He recorded the song in New York on July 19, 1929. Riccardi hears in the vocal a purely emotional approach that points toward soul singing.

13. “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue” (OKeh, 1927)

The Hot Five recorded this medium-tempo instrumental in Chicago on December 9, 1927. The label credited Armstrong, but Lil Hardin Armstrong registered the copyright, and the Library of Congress holds her lead sheet. Start with the original, then try his big-band remake for Decca in January 1938, where he climbs from high note to high note in the last two choruses.

14. “Hotter Than That” (OKeh, 1927)

Four days later, on December 13, 1927, the Hot Five added guitarist Lonnie Johnson for Lil Hardin Armstrong’s fast tune. The highlight is the scat chorus, which turns into a duet between Armstrong’s voice and Johnson’s guitar, full of rhythms that pull against the beat. Armstrong also plays a two-note riff that big bands would use for years, a detail the Oxford University Press playlist on his early years points out.

15. “Dream a Little Dream of Me” with Ella Fitzgerald (Decca, 1950)

Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt’s 1931 song, with lyrics by Gus Kahn, had seven versions on the market in summer 1950, when Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald recorded it in New York on August 25 with Sy Oliver’s orchestra. Riccardi rates it the best single performance the two made together. Cass Elliot’s 1968 recording with the Mamas and the Papas became the highest-charting version.

16. “Summertime” with Ella Fitzgerald (Verve, 1957)

George Gershwin wrote the aria in 1934 for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess, with words by DuBose Heyward. Armstrong and Fitzgerald recorded their Porgy and Bess album in Los Angeles in August and October 1957 with arranger Russell Garcia, and Verve released it in 1959. “Summertime” is the first duet on the set and one of only five tracks where Armstrong also plays trumpet. The album is in the Grammy Hall of Fame (2001).

17. “Cheek to Cheek” with Ella Fitzgerald (Verve, 1956)

Irving Berlin wrote it for Fred Astaire in Top Hat (1935). The duet is on Ella and Louis, recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood on August 16, 1956, with Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Buddy Rich. Producer Norman Granz chose eleven mostly slow or mid-tempo songs, though Armstrong had the final say on songs and keys. More on Fitzgerald in our list of the greatest female jazz singers.

18. “Tight Like This” (OKeh, 1928)

Armstrong cut it as the last title of his final 1928 session in Chicago, on December 12, with the Savoy Ballroom Five and Earl Hines. The band trades spoken jokes about whether “it” is tight like that, the slow tune has hints of a Spanish tinge, and Armstrong’s solo tells a story, taking its time and building to a big climax.

19. “Blueberry Hill” (Decca, 1949)

Glenn Miller had the biggest hit in 1940, but Armstrong’s 1949 Decca version with Gordon Jenkins’s orchestra reached No. 29 on Billboard and inspired Fats Domino’s 1956 rock and roll recording, the version the song is best remembered for.

20. “A Kiss to Build a Dream On” (Decca, 1951)

Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby first wrote it as “Moonlight on the Meadow” for the Marx Brothers’ A Night at the Opera (1935), where it went unused; Oscar Hammerstein II later rewrote the lyric. Armstrong recorded it in 1951 and appears as himself in that year’s MGM film The Strip, where the song recurs. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song and lost to “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening.”

21. “Georgia on My Mind” (OKeh, 1931)

Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote it in 1930, and Armstrong recorded it in Chicago on November 5, 1931, issued with “Lazy River” on the other side. The vocal is the center of the record: he jumps up for “sweet and clear,” drops straight back down, and bends notes the way his trumpet would. Ray Charles’s 1960 version is the one Georgia made its official state song in 1979.

22. “When You’re Smiling” (OKeh, 1929)

Seger Ellis had a popular 1928 recording of Larry Shay, Mark Fisher and Joe Goodwin’s song. Armstrong’s 1929 version sets him in front of a sweet saxophone section modeled, as Thomas Brothers notes, on Guy Lombardo’s dance band. He remade it for Decca in December 1956 for Satchmo: A Musical Autobiography, playing the melody an octave up in the final chorus.

23. “I’ve Got the World on a String” (Victor, 1933)

Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler wrote it for the first Cotton Club Parade, which opened in October 1932, and Cab Calloway had a hit with it that year. Armstrong recorded it for Victor in 1933, with “Sittin’ in the Dark” on the other side. Frank Sinatra’s 1953 Capitol recording with Nelson Riddle later reached No. 14 on Billboard.

24. “Jeepers Creepers” (Decca, 1939)

Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer wrote it for the 1938 Warner Bros. film Going Places, in which Armstrong sings it to a racehorse named Jeepers Creepers. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and his Decca single was one of three popular versions in 1939, with Larry Clinton’s and Al Donahue’s.

25. “Cabaret” (Columbia, 1966)

John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote the title song for the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret, and Armstrong released it on Columbia the same year. He leaves out the verse about the singer’s friend Elsie. The song later shared a single with “What a Wonderful World,” so the UK chart lists both titles for that 1968 No. 1.

Where to Start Listening

Three sets cover most of this list. The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (Columbia/Legacy, four CDs, 2000) holds the 1920s sides, which also appear on our list of the best jazz albums of all time. Ella and Louis (Verve, 1956) is the easiest way into his later singing. The What a Wonderful World album (ABC, 1968) shows the late ballad style around the title song. For the man in his own words, see our collection of Louis Armstrong quotes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Louis Armstrong’s most famous song?

“What a Wonderful World,” recorded in 1967. It topped the UK chart in 1968 but only reached the US Hot 100 in 1988, after the film Good Morning, Vietnam, and by 2014 it had sold more than two million downloads in the US. His biggest hit in his lifetime was “Hello, Dolly!”, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1964 and won him a Grammy.

What are Louis Armstrong’s best songs from the 1920s?

“West End Blues” (1928), “Potato Head Blues” (1927), “Heebie Jeebies” (1926), “Hotter Than That” (1927) and “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue” (1927). All come from the Hot Five and Hot Seven sessions he recorded for OKeh in Chicago between 1925 and 1928, which the Library of Congress named to the National Recording Registry in its first year, 2002.

Did Louis Armstrong write his own songs?

Some of them. He is credited with Hot Five tunes such as “Yes! I’m in the Barrel” and “Potato Head Blues.” His best-known songs were written by others: “What a Wonderful World” by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss, “Hello, Dolly!” by Jerry Herman, “Mack the Knife” by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, and “West End Blues” by King Oliver.