Stevie Wonder, The #9 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Four

 

(Continued from Part Three)

Wonder performed at the Wonder Dream Concert in Kingston, Jamaica to benefit the Jamaican Institute for the Blind. In 1977, he released his masterpiece, the double album Songs in the Key of Life.  It was the first album by an American artist to debut at #1.  

 

Stevie wrote this song after having a great time at a Motown company picnic in 1976.  Stevie participated in several contests and games that afternoon which brought back memories of his childhood.  "I had such a good time at the picnic that I went to Crystal Recording Studio right afterward and the vibe came right to my mind," he said.  Nathan Watts provided the catchy bass line and Stevie's sister, Renee Hardaway, said the line "You nasty boy!".  "I Wish" rose to #1 in both the U.S. and Canada.

Stevie's tribute to Duke Ellington, "Sir Duke" also peaked at #1 in the United States and Canada and a solid #2 in the U.K.

  

This incredible classic spent a total of 14 weeks at the top in the United States.  Songs in the Key of Life has aged particularly well, and is ranked as The #4 Album of the Rock Era*.  "Isn't She Lovely?" was written about his new daughter Aisha.  Stevie played all of the instruments except some keyboards, which Greg Phillinganes handled.

 

And now we feature two of the absolute best in our series of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*--Billboard magazine in its profound lack of wisdom showed a peak of #36 for the incredible "As", despite the astronomical sales figures that were coming in for the album.

And here is another Wonder tune right up there, with the absurd peak of #32--"Another Star".  George Benson played lead guitar and also did some scat vocals towards the end of the song.  Jazz flautist Bobbi Humphrey, whom Billboard named Best Female Instrumentalist of 1976, played the flute at the end as well.

 Songs in the Key of Life also topped album charts in Canada and the Netherlands and reached #2 in the U.K.  This great song couldn't be more timely, especially in the United States, where Christians have lost their way in supporting the anti-Christ behavior of Donald Trump. Stevie told The Wall Street Journal about writing the song:

                 I wrote the song’s basic idea in late 1974

                 in my hotel room in New York, when

                Yolanda [Simmons] was pregnant with our 

                daughter Aisha. I remember it was so cold 

                outside that day. The concept I had in 

                mind was that for love to be effective, it 

                has to be fed. Love by itself is hollow. I 

                recorded the song’s demo in my hotel 

                room on a Fender Rhodes using a

                portable Nakamichi cassette recorder. I 

                used to take that recorder with me

                everywhere, like a notebook.

"I just play and songs sort of happen," he told Marc Myers for his book Anatomy of a Song.  "Like a painter, I get my inspiration from experiences that can be painful or beautiful," he continued.  "I always start from a feeling of profound gratitude - you know, only by the grace of God am I here - and write from there.  I think most songwriters are inspired by an inner voice and spirit.  God gave me this gift, and this particular song was a message I was supposed to deliver.

Yes, "Love's In Need Of Love Today".

 

The album contains this Jazz Fusion gem, which was nominated for both Best Pop Instrumental Performance and Best Instrumental Composition at the Grammy Awards.  Guitarist Michael Sembello helped create the song "Contusion".  He later had a big hit with "Maniac" from the "Flashdance" Soundtrack.

 

Here is one of Stevie's tenderest of love songs--"If It's Magic".

 

With his Grammy win for Album of the Year, Stevie became one of only three artists in history to win that coveted award three times, joining Frank Sinatra and Paul Simon.  The album contains so many great songs that it could just as easily have served as a greatest hits album.  "Village Ghetto Land" brought attention to environmental justice and racism.

 

This landmark album has sold over 10 million copies in the United States alone.  Wonder won Grammy Awards for Producer of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male (for the entire album) and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male for "I Wish", and he was also nominated for Best Inspirational Performance for this song.  Wonder's brother Calvin Hardaway wrote "Have A Talk With God".

Jack Hamilton, writer for Slate magazine, said of Wonder's incredible run: 

             Most Americans follow up their 21st birthdays 

             with a hangover; Stevie Wonder opted for

             arguably the greatest sustained run of

             creativity in the history of popular music. 

             Wonder’s "classic period"—the polite phrase

             for when Stevie spent five years ferociously 

             dunking on the entire history of popular music 

             with the releases of Music of My Mind, Talking

             Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First  

             Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life [...] We’ve 

             never heard anything like it since, and barring 

             another reincarnation, we never will again. 

 Stevie used catchwords such as "race relations" and "exploitation" without explaining farther, which is the beauty of the songwriting--everyone knows what he is talking about.  Here's another standout song from Songs in the Key of Life--"Pastime Paradise".

The compilation Looking Back that same year contained material from Stevie's early albums.

An album for the ages.  But Stevie's got more--much more--, exclusively on Inside The Rock Era!