found the Desideratanear his bedside and discovered that Stevenson had planned to use it in

his Christmas cards. This contributed further to the poem becoming widely known.[2]
The text was widely distributed in poster form in the 1960s and 1970s.[4]
Calling it "Spock Thoughts", Leonard Nimoy recited the poem on his 1968 album, Two Sides of
Leonard Nimoy. This version also appeared on the 1995 re-release of Leonard Nimoy Presents
Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space. His rendition is not the only one to change the second-to-
last sentence from "Be Cheerful" to "Be Careful".
In concluding her January 8, 1970, interview with David Frost, actress Joan
Crawford recited Desiderata.[5]
In late 1971 and early 1972, Les Crane's spoken-word recording of Desiderata (the lead track on
his 1971 Warner Bros. album Desiderata)[6] peaked at #8 on the Billboard chart, #4 on the
Canadian RPM Magazine chart, and #6 on the UK Melody Maker's chart. It made #4 on the
Australian singles chart in 1971. The producers of Crane's recording assumed that the poem
was too old to be in copyright, but the publicity surrounding the record led to clarification of
Ehrmann's authorship and his family eventually receiving royalties. The British band In the
Nurseryadapted the poem to music on its 1992 album Duality.[7]
A Spanish language version by Mexican actor Arturo Benavides topped the Mexican charts for
six weeks in 1972.
In 1972, National Lampoon did a parody on this prose entitled "Deteriorata", which featured the
line: "You are a fluke of the universe".
In response to his government's losing its majority in the Canadian federal election, 1972 Prime
Minister Pierre Trudeau quoted Desiderata by reassuring the nation that "the universe is
unfolding as it should."[8] He also quoted the poem's final stanza at the end of his concession
speech after losing the 1979 election to Joe Clark.
In a 1980 episode of the British TV series The Professionals entitled "Discovered in a
Graveyard", part of the poem is recited by George Cowley (Gordon Jackson).[9]
On August 26, 2010, a bronze statue of Ehrmann sitting on a park bench was unveiled in Terre
Haute, Indiana, his hometown, with the sculpture done by Bill Wolfe. On a nearby walkway,
some lines of the poem are also available to be read by passers-by.[10]
Actor Morgan Freeman interviewed on Oprah Winfrey's Master Class television special (2012),
expressed how deeply the poem Desiderata shaped his life.[11]
Reggae band SOJA has a Grammy nominated album titled Amid the Noise and Haste in
reference to this poem.
Canadian indie rock band The New Pornographers' song You Tell Me Where references
Desiderata by name.
Lazyboy the band has a song 'Desiderata' which quotes this poem on their album LazyBoy TV[12]
Director Nicolas Pesce's 2016 horror The Eyes of My Mother features a scene in which the main
character quotes the first two sentences of Desiderata in Portuguese.
In Christian Cameron 's book The Red Knight , a queen is given the namesake Desiderata.
In 2016, in celebration of 25th anniversary of the Philippine drama anthology series Maalaala Mo
Kaya, a spoken-word music recording of the poem (recorded in both English and Filipino) was
performed by TBUP Choir and OPM singers Lea Salonga, Martin Nievera, Gary
Valenciano, Lani Misalucha, Ogie Alcasid, Zsa Zsa Padilla and Sharon Cuneta, with a spoken
narration of the poem by the program's host Charo Santos-Concio, and included on the
compilation album Life Songs with Charo Santos.[13]