"Some Kind of Wonderful" (one of two well-known soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 songs with that title) is a song written by John Ellison

John Ellison

John Ellison is an American/Canadian musician, best known for writing the song "Some Kind of Wonderful". He was born in Landgraff, a small, poverty-stricken coal mining village near Welch, West Virginia, on August 11, 1941, and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada, receiving his...

. It was first recorded in 1967 by the American group Soul Brothers Six

Soul Brothers Six

Soul Brothers Six were an American rhythm and blues band formed in Rochester, New York during the mid-1960s. They are best remembered for their song "Some Kind of Wonderful", which was later a big hit for Grand Funk Railroad.-History:...

, peaking at number ninety-one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. It is not related to the other song by the same name

Some Kind of Wonderful

Some Kind of Wonderful is a 1987 romance film starring Eric Stoltz, Lea Thompson, and Mary Stuart Masterson. It was one of the many successful teen dramas written by John Hughes in the 1980s, although this one was directed by Howard Deutch. During filming, Deutch met Thompson and two years later...

 written by Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin

Gerry Goffin is an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 with former songwriting partner and first wife, Carole King. he has co-written six Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers.-Career:Goffin enlisted with the Marine Corps Reserve after graduating from...

 and Carole King

Carole King

Carole King is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. King and her former husband Gerry Goffin wrote more than two dozen chart hits for numerous artists during the 1960s, many of which have become standards. As a singer, King had an album, Tapestry, top the U.S...

 (and recorded by artists including The Drifters

The Drifters

The Drifters are a long-lived American doo-wop and R&B/soul vocal group with a peak in popularity from 1953 to 1963, though several splinter Drifters continue to perform today. They were originally formed to serve as Clyde McPhatter's backing group in 1953...

 and Marvin Gaye

Marvin Gaye

Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....

).

In 1974, Grand Funk Railroad

Grand Funk Railroad

Grand Funk Railroad is an American rock band that was highly popular during the 1970s. Grand Funk Railroad toured constantly to packed arenas worldwide. A popular take on the band during its heyday was that, although the critics hated them, audiences loved them...

 recorded the song for the group's album All the Girls in the World Beware!!!

All the Girls in the World Beware!!!

All the Girls in the World Beware!!! is the ninth studio album by American hard rock band Grand Funk Railroad. The album was released by Capitol Records in December 1974, it was the group's second album released that year...

. Their version featured a quiet, simple melody and devotional lyric at the start, subsequently ramping up to a semi-gospel

Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....

 full band approach. Reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 on 22 February 1975, it ranked #74 on Billboard's Hot 100 year-end chart (Casey Kasem

Casey Kasem

Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...

 erred in placing it at #6) for 1975 and is one of the band's best-known songs. Their version of the song appeared in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...

on the fictitious radio station K-DST.

The Fantastic Johnny C also recorded a version of the song. Buddy Guy

Buddy Guy

George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...

 released a version of the song on his 1993 album Feels Like Rain. Later, Huey Lewis and the News

Huey Lewis and the News

Huey Lewis and the News is an American rock band based in San Francisco, California. They had a run of hit singles during the 1980s and early 1990s, eventually scoring a total of 19 top-ten singles across the Billboard Hot 100, Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts...

 charted with their own version, including it on their 1994 covers album Four Chords & Several Years Ago

Four Chords & Several Years Ago

Four Chords & Several Years Ago is the seventh album by American rock band Huey Lewis and the News, released in 1994 . The title is a play on the first sentence in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address .It is a collection of 1960s rhythm & blues covers influential to the members of the group during...

. The song was also covered by English rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band Toploader

Toploader

Toploader are an English band from Eastbourne who formed in 1997, with over two million album sales to their name and a string of top 20 hits both home and abroad. Their debut album, Onka's Big Moka, sold over 1 million units and remained in the Top 5 of the UK album chart for over six months...

 on their 2002 album Magic Hotel and by English soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 singer Joss Stone

Joss Stone

Jocelyn Eve Stoker , better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is an English soul singer-songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist...

 on her debut album, 2003's The Soul Sessions

The Soul Sessions

The Soul Sessions is the debut album by English recording artist Joss Stone. It was released in the United Kingdom on 24 November 2003 by Relentless Records...

.

Charts

Year	Artist	Chart	Peak position
1967	Soul Brothers Six	U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...	91
1968	The Fantastic Johnny C	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	87
1975	Grand Funk Railroad	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	3
1994	Huey Lewis and the News	U.S. Billboard Hot 100	44
		U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks The Adult Contemporary chart is a weekly chart published in Billboard magazine that lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary and "lite-pop" radio stations in the United States...	7