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The history of it’s a small world began when executives at Pepsi approached Disney about creating a pavilion for the 1964 World's Fair in New York <ref name= "fair"> http://www.nywf64.com/pepsi03.shtml </ref>. Although it was only a year before the World's Fair would begin, Pepsi wanted to Disney to construct a pavilion that would be a "salute to UNICEF and all the world's children. <ref name= "fair"/> In February 1963, Pepsi executives (encouraged by board member and film star Joan Crawford) approached Disneyland's head of construction Admiral Joe Fowler. Regrettably however , Fowler informed the executives that Disney would be unable to work on the pavilion on such short notice, due to the fact that their time and resources were needed for the other three pavilions that Disney was working on at the Fair, these being pavilions for: Ford Motors (the Skyway), General Electric ([[The Carousel of Progress]]) and the State of Illinois ([[Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln]]) <ref name= "mouseplanet"> https://www.mouseplanet.com/8343/The_History_of_its_a_small_world </ref>. When Walt Disney heard that Fowler had rejected the idea of creating Pepsi's pavilion, he was furious. Overruling Fowler, Walt committed the company to a fourth pavilion for the World's Fair.

Inspired by ideas of Imagineer Bob Gurr, it was Walt Disney himself who initially came up with the concept of a boat ride for the attraction which he titled "Children of the World". Early designs for the attraction were done by Imagineer Marc Davis. The boat system that the attraction used was designed by Imagineer Bob Gurr who was already working on such a system with Arrow Manufacturing <ref name= "Korkis"> http://allears.net/ae/issue769.htm. </ref>.

When Walt originally pitched his boat ride attraction, he titled it "The Children of the World" and he hoped that all of the different children could sing their own national anthem <ref name= "mouseplanet"/>. Although this idea was originally tried, it was eventually deemed infeasibleunfeasible. In order to come up with a song that could continuously play on the attraction, Walt turned to the Sherman Brothers<ref> http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/a_conversation_with_richard_m._sherman </ref>, asking . Walt asked them to write a song that could be sung as a round like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" <ref name= "mouseplanet"/>. According to Imagineer Harriet Burns When , when explaining to the songwriting duo the kind of song that he wanted , Walt used the phrase "it’s a small world after all". Although not intended as a lyric for the song, the Sherman brothers used the phrase as the basis for their song new composition <ref name= "Korkis"/>. Although "it's a small world" was the first song that the Shermans wrote for the attraction, they were afraid that the song it had come together too quickly. Subsequently, two more songs were written, although they were deemed inferior. With time running out, the Sherman Brothers presented "it's a small world" to Walt, who was said to comment "That will work" (Disney employees knew that this meant Walt liked the song) <ref name= "Korkis"/>. Although he approved the song, Walt did have one suggestion for the Sherman Brothers. Initially, the brothers had written the song it's a small world as a slow ballad, and after hearing it , Walt told the duo to "speed it up" <ref> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-small-world-20140804-story.html </ref>. Besides just becoming the attraction’s theme song, “it’s a small world” also would also give the ride its namesake.

Although Crump was not a fan of the final result, the Tower proved to be successful. Besides just drawing guests into the Pepsi Pavilion, the Tower also inspired the phrase "Meet me at the Tower of the Four Winds" which was used throughot throughout the World's Fair <ref> http://www.nywf64.com/pepsi05.shtml </ref>.

In order to create the attraction on time for the fair, construction crews worked seven days a week <ref name= "mouseplanet"/>,. Although In spite of the fact that Pepsi disliked the attraction Disney had created <ref name= "Korkis"/>, the pavilion proved to be extremely popular. Over its two year run, an estimated 10 million people rode "it's a small world" <ref> http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20796496,00.html </ref>, making it one of the post popular attractions at the World's Fair. One of the factors that made the ride so popular was the high capacity that it had. By using multiple boats every hour to get guests on the attraction, there was almost never a wait. This ride system would later be used in other Disney attractions including [[Pirates of the Caribbean]] <ref> http://www.waltdisney.org/blog/marty-sklar-x-atencio-and-bob-gurr-talk-pirates </ref>.