1964......#26 U.S. Billboard Hot 100, #1 UK Singles Chart, #12 Canada, #1 Australia, #2 New Zealand
Original video edited and AI remastered with HQ stereo sound.
Although the original Italian version by composer Umberto Bindi was not a hit, even in Italy, the song came to the attention of UK record producer George Martin, who commissioned an English version to be recorded by his protégée Cilla Black. The English lyrics were written by Carl Sigman whose son Michael Sigman would recall: "Inspired by Umberto Bindi's haunting melody, Carl evoked Gino Paoli's Italian title ('Il Mio Mondo' or 'My World'). But he created a wholly original English lyric."
Black cut the song "You're My World"-as Carl Sigman entitled his English language rendering of "Il Mio Mondo"-in a session at Abbey Road Studios with Johnny Pearson conducting his orchestra on 3 April 1964 and The Breakaways providing background vocals. Black has said that her road manager and future husband Bobby Willis also sang on the track. Judd Proctor was the lead guitarist on the session which also featured drummer Kenny Clare.
"You're My World" reached No. 1 in Britain on the chart dated 30 May 1964 and remained there for a total of four weeks, one week more than Black's preceding single "Anyone Who Had a Heart". Although Black returned to the UK Top Ten eight times, the song was her final No. 1 hit.
Black's "You're My World" was also No. 1 in Australia for two weeks that July when it also spent three weeks at No. 2 in New Zealand, while in South Africa the disc was the second biggest hit for the year 1964. A Top Twenty hit in Denmark and a Top Thirty hit in The Netherlands, the track also reached No. 12 in Canada, No. 2 in Ireland, No. 8 in Norway and No. 7 in Sweden.
"You're My World" was the first track by Black to be released in the US, where the singer was signed to Capitol Records. Peaking at No. 26 in August 1964, the song was Black's only Top 40 hit in the United States. She also reached number four on the Easy Listening chart.
An alternative take from the recording sessions which yielded the Cilla Black hit version of "You're My World" was later issued, with the opening notes being likened to be the sound of musicians tuning up. Both the 1964 versions, however, remain faithful to Bindi's strong vocal delivery and the instrumentation of his original recording in Italian.
Black remade the song in 1985 for her Surprisingly Cilla album and then again in 1993 for her Through the Years album; both tracks attempted to capture the original's orchestral quality via synthesizers. Over the Christmas season of 2008 Black came out of retirement for her professional swansong playing the Fairy Godmother in the Cinderella panto at the Liverpool Empire Theatre, each presentation of which would conclude with Black joined by her castmates in a performance of You're My World.
Reportedly when the hearse bearing Black's body arrived at St Mary's Church, Woolton for her 20 August 2015 funeral mass, "hundreds of fans broke into Cilla's 1964 hit 'You're My World'". The grave marker beneath the headstone on Black's burial plot in Allerton Cemetery is inscribed with the second and third stanzas of "You're My World": lyrics from Black's hits "Step Inside Love" and "Alfie" also appear on the marker. (The black marble headstone and marker were installed 18 April 2016 some eight months after Black's 1 August 2015 passing: following the December 2015 theft of its original bronze nameplate Black's grave remained unmarked until drier weather permitted the installation of the marble headstone and marker.)
On 16 January 2017 a bronze statue of Cilla Black was unveiled on Mathew Street in Liverpool being positioned outside the entrance of the Cavern Club where Black was discovered: Black is represented standing on an oversize depiction of a 45" single copy of "You're My World".