“Love is all around”, from Troggs to Rem to Wet Wet Wet
The Wet Wet Wet will be in concert in Italy for a single date, Tuesday 28 April 2026 at the General Warehouses in Milan, with their “Love is all Around Europe – The Greatest Hits Tour 2026”  An opportunity to listen to the great successes of the British band – from “Wishing I was Lucky” to “Goodnight Girl” – and above all “Love is all around”, the song that made them famous all over the world, with the insertion into the soundtrack of “4 weddings and one functional”.
But the song has a story that starts from far away, and which also passes through the Rem, which rediscovered the song and the wet wets were inspired.
From Troggs to “Four weddings and a funeral”
The song was written and published in 1967 by the Troggs, a British famous British band for “Wild Thing”. In that version it was a delicate pop-psychic song that obtained good results in the UK rankings. The guitarist and founder Reg Presley later said he had written it in ten minutes.
In the 90s, “Love is all around” returned to a new live version of the Rem, who engraved it as side B of the single “Radio Song” and included it in the lineup of their first “unplugged” for MTV, recorded in the most successful period, that of “Out of Time”. The song was sung by the bassist Mike Mills, who occasionally did the first voice as well as the choirs – with Michael Stipe to the harmonies “It was a song we loved, Peter and I in particular,” said Mike Mills. “Michael was always willing to share the solo voice when it came to covers: if it was a piece that liked us, I sang it.” Peter Buck added: “I believe that the Wet Wet Wet were present at one of our concerts when we played it. If you listen to the versions, that of the Troggs, ours and theirs, there is a voice harmony that is not in the original version, but only in ours and in them. I like to think that they felt it from us” – Buck refers to the mytholular concerts that the band kept in March in London in March in March in March ’91 as Bingo Hand Job for the publication of “Out of Time”. In September ’91 the Troggs engraved “Athens Andover” an album with 3/4 of the Rem, which was released the following year.
The world (and unexpected) world success of the Wet Wet Wet
In 1994 the Wet Wet Wet were chosen to record a cover for the soundtrack of the film “Four weddings and a funeral” with Hugh Grant. They chose the song of the Troggs. And they recorded a version that ended up becoming one of the most popular songs ever in England, also thanks to the success of the film with Andie McDowell and Hugh Grant. He remained at the top of the British rankings for 15 consecutive weeks, becoming a radio catchphrase and a symbol of the romantic pop 90s. The author of the film, Richard Curtis, used the song again in an ironic way in “Love Actuary”: one of the protagonists, the decayed rocksta Billy Mack tries to transform “Love is all around” into a Christmas song, “Christmas is all around”, with terrible results
A band of over 15 million copies
The Wet Wet Wet, who returned to Tour in 2026 with the new voice of Kevin Simm (ex Liberty X and winner of “The Voice Uk”, who took the place of Marti Pellow), released their last album “The Journey” in 2021. The tickets for the Milanese date are already on sale
