"Wild World" is a song written and recorded by Cat Stevens. It first appeared in his 1970 album, Tea for the Tillerman. It was the most popular single on that album. The song is in the form of the singer's words to his departing lover, inspired by Stevens' relationship with Patti D'Arbanville. Released as a single in 1971, it just missed becoming Stevens' first top ten hit in the U.S., peaking at number eleven on the Billboard Pop Singles chart.

The song has been covered by many artists, with many of the covers becoming hits of their own. As of 2006, perhaps the most famous cover of the song is the 1993 release by Mr. Big (The Billboard Hot 100 #27, Mainstream Rock Tracks #33, Top 40 Mainstream #12). Jimmy Cliff's version, released a few months before Stevens' released his version, reached number eight 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, indicating that they may be covers of Cliff's version, as opposed to direct covers of Cat Stevens' original arrangement. An example of this would be Maxi Priest's version of the song. Recorded and released as a single in 1988, this version also did well on the charts, reaching number five on the UK Singles Chart and number twenty five on the US Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart.

In 2006, "Littlest Things," the 3rd single released by Lily Allen from Alright, Still, her debut album, was noted as having similarities with Wild World in its introduction.

On 7 July 2007, the song was performed twice at the Live Earth concerts; James Blunt sang it at the Wembley in London, while Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) himself sang it in Hamburg.

Notable covers

• Barry Ryan
• Jimmy Cliff
• The cast of Skins
• Matt Nathanson
• Maxi Priest
• Mr. Big
• UB40
• Beth Orton
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
• SNFU
• Tesla
• Skye Sweetnam
• Jose Feliciano
• James Blunt as a part of Live Earth