Cast Your Fate to the Wind



"Cast Your Fate to the Wind" is an American jazz instrumental selection whose music was composed, and which was originally recorded, by Vince Guaraldi; later, lyrics for it were written by Carel Werber. It won a Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition in 1963. It was included on the album Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus, which the Vince Guaraldi Trio released on the Fantasy Records label on April 18, 1962. On at least some copies of the album, the title on the label contained a printing error; it read "Cast Your Faith To The Wind," an unintentionally comic twist to the sentiment of the song. Fantasy also released Guaraldi's recording of the song as a single in the U.S., where it reached #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart and #9 on the Easy Listening chart.

The tune has been covered by many artists in a wide range of genres, including both male and female solo vocalists, pop, folk, and rock groups, as well as many instrumental performers. In Australia, a vocal version by Mel Tormé was a hit in 1963. In 1965 the British easy listening group Sounds Orchestral redirected the song away from much of the jazz influenced midsection to more of a nightclub sound and concluded the tune with a short piano section. That version attained #5 in the UK, #10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and #1 on the US Easy Listening chart. In 1966, North Hollywood singer Shelby Flint released a version of the song which peaked at #61 on the Hot 100 and #11 on the Easy Listening chart.

The West Coast folk-rock bands We Five and The Sandpipers, along with pop singer Johnny Rivers, recorded vocal versions of the song, and there were further instrumental recordings from Earl Klugh, George Benson, David Benoit, Chet Atkins, George Winston and Nelson Rangell. In 1970, the rock group James Gang covered the song as part of a three-song medley ("The Bomber Medley") on their album James Gang Rides Again. Quincy Jones rendered an orchestral arrangement of the song on his 1971 album Smackwater Jack. In 1976 an easy listening version was recorded by guitarist Harald Winkler and the Norman Candler Orchestra.

The song was featured in the 1987 film Good Morning, Vietnam and also in the 1988 film The In Crowd. In 2007, the alternative-rock band They Might Be Giants spoofed the song's title by issuing "Cast Your Pod to the Wind," a bonus disc to their album The Else. It consisted of songs which, before then, had only been heard on their podcasts. Allen Toussaint's version is the first ending theme for the 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street.

The song has been rendered, with French lyrics, as both "Ne tremble pas mon pauvre coeur" (1965) recorded by Marianne Mille (fr) and also as "Le nez dans le vent" (1967) recorded by Shirley Théroux (fr).

Lee Mendelson cited "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" as the song he heard on the radio that prompted him to hire Guaraldi for A Charlie Brown Christmas; the hiring would begin a long collaboration between Guaraldi and Mendelson that would see Guaraldi compose for numerous Peanuts television specials until his death in 1976.