"Some Kind of Wonderful" was written by John Ellison, a Canadian-American musician born in 1941, who is credited as composer and lyricist. The first recording came from the R&B group Soul Brothers Six, cut at Atlantic Studios in New York in March 1967 and released that May on Atlantic 2406, with "I'll Be Loving You" on the B-side. The single peaked at number 91 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The Fantastic Johnny C followed with a 1968 cover that reached number 87 on the Hot 100. The version that became a hit was Grand Funk Railroad's 1974 recording, produced by Jimmy Ienner and issued on Capitol 4002 from the album All the Girls in the World Beware!!! It reached number 3 on the US Hot 100 in February 1975 and number 6 in Canada, and was certified Platinum in the United States. The Grand Funk version also appears in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Later versions by Huey Lewis and the News (1994), Toploader (2002), Joss Stone (2003) and Rod Stewart (2021) followed. The song is associated with soul, funk and gospel styles.
