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

 

(Continued from Part Five)

In 1983, Wonder was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he received the Founders Award from ASCAP the following year.  Stevie wrote the lyrics to "Stay Gold" for the movie The Outsiders.  He also recorded one of his biggest career hits, and another in that distinguished list--"I Just Called To Say I Love You", for the movie The Woman in Red.  It reached #1 in every country in the world and garnered a Golden Globe and an Oscar for Best Original Song from a Motion Picture, beating out a stellar lineup of "Against All Odds" by Phil Collins, Kenny Loggins' "Footloose", "Let's Hear It For The Boy" from Deniece Williams and Ray Parker, Jr.'s "Ghostbusters".

The soundtrack was a Top 10 album in every major country in the world and sold over one million copies.  Wonder won an Academy Award for Best Song from a Motion Picture and he was nominated for Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male for "I Just Called To Say I Love You", Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the instrumental version of the song, and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male for the soundtrack album at the Grammy Awards.  Stevie also received American Music Award nominations for Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Video Artist.  In 2002, the song was ranked as the 13th best-selling single of all-time in the U.K.

Stevie was honored by the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid for his work against racism in South Africa.  In 1985, Wonder released the album In Square Circle.  "Overjoyed", which Stevie performed live on May 7, 1983 on Saturday Night Live, was a #1 AC smash.

 

In Square Circle reached the Top 10 in virtually every country, including a #2 peak in Sweden, won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male, and has sold over two million copies.  Stevie also performed "Go Home" on SNL, which helped propel it to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #10 overall.

Stevie played harmonica on Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You" and on Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues".

Wonder also took part in the charity project "We Are The World", a #1 smash in 1986. 

Stevie joined Elton John, Dionne Warwick, and Gladys Knight for this spectacular #1 benefit for AIDS research, which was nominated for Record of the Year at the Grammys and captured the award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal--"That's What Friends Are For".

Stevie played harmonica for John Denver on his album Dreamland Express, wrote a song for the Beach Boys' 1985 album, played harmonica on "Can't Help Lovin' That Man" on the respected The Broadway Album for Barbra Streisand, and joined Michael Jackson in the duet "Just Good Friends" for MJ's album Bad.

 

In 1987, Stevie received an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Brown University.  Wonder released the album Characters, which went Platinum.  "Skeletons" went to #1 on the R&B chart and peaked at #19 on the Popular chart.  It earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Song and the album was nominated for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

 

"You Will Know" is another of Stevie's career best.

In 1989, Stevie was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Stevie recorded music for the movie Jungle Fever in 1991 (with both the title song and "Gotta' Have You" nominated for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television at the Grammy Awards).

 Stevie joined Whitney Houston for "We Didn't Know, Houston's sixth single from her album I'm Your Baby Tonight in 1992.

Wonder released another Gold album in 1995 (Conversation Peace), which gave Wonder Grammys for Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for the song "For Your Love". 

In 1994, Stevie received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  In 1996, he released the album Song Review:  A Greatest Hits Collection, which went Platinum. 

In 1996, Wonder received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards and was honored with an honorary Doctorate of Music by University of Alabama-Birmingham.

His pace of both studio albums and live appearances has slowed in the years since.  He joined Babyface for a song about domestic violence called "How Come, How Long" (which received Grammy nominations for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and Best Short Form Music Video) and played harmonica on "Brand New Day" by Sting in 1999.   

In 1998, Stevie received the Ambassador of Peace Award from the United Nations.  Stevie won Grammys for Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s) for the song he recorded with Herbie Hancock--"St. Louis Blues" in 1999.

In 1999, Wonder was awarded Kennedy Center Honors, received an honorary doctorate degree in fine arts from Rutgers University, and was named MusicCare's Person of the Year.  

In 2002, Stevie received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.  Another compilation work considering is The Definitive Collection, released in 2002, which has sold over one million copies.  Stevie's duet with George Michael, a cover of Wonder's "Love's In Need Of Love Today" from Songs in the Key of Life, won the Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

Wonder was nominated for another Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for "Christmas Song" in 2003; his work with Take 6 in 2004 earned another nomination in the same category.

Wonder received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Billboard Music Awards.  With help from Prince and En Vogue, here is "So What The Fuss".

Stevie recorded songs for Spike Lee's Bamboozled album and released the Top Five album A Time to Love in 2005.  Stevie won Grammy Awards for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance (for "From The Bottom Of My Heart"), Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "So Amazing", with "How Will I Know" also being nominated in that same category and Wonder picking up additional nominations for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (for "So What The Fuss", the title song for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals and another nomination for Best R&B Album.  

Stevie released the album 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection:  The Best of Stevie Wonder that year as well.  

Wonder won the most recent of his 25 Grammys (Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals) for his work with Tony Bennett on Stevie's song "For Once In My Life") in 2007.

In 2008, Wonder received the Gershwin Prize from the United States Congress and in 2009, he was named U.N. Messenger of Peace by the United Nations.  

Stevie continued to sing and play for other artists such as Elton John, Rod Stewart, Gloria Estefan, Cyndi Lauper, India Arie, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, and Warren G.  He performed at the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City and the Capitol Fourth celebration in Washington, D.C. in 2006, the pre-game show for Super Bowl XL in 2006, the Inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009, and the opening ceremony for the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece. 

Wonder gave 13 performances in a tour of North America in 2007, his first in over 10 years.  His 2008 tour of Europe was the first time there in over a decade.  His shows at the O2 Arena in London were released on the DVD Live at Last.  Stevie sang at funeral services for Michael Jackson in 2009 and for Etta James and Whitney Houston in 2012.

Stevie recorded the single "All About The Love Again" for the presidential election and inauguration of Barack Obama.  The song earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance.

In 2010, Wonder received the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from France.  He also was given an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Oberlin College.  The following year, he received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from Tulane University.  In 2012, Stevie received the Icon Award from the Billboard Music Awards.

Stevie and Celine Dion recorded a cover of Wonder's 1985 song "Overjoyed" in 2013.

In 2014, Stevie received the President's Medal of Freedom through an act of the U.S. Congress.  It is the highest civilian award in the United States.  In 2017, Wonder married Tomeeka Bracy and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music by prestigious Yale University. 

Wonder performed at the funeral of Aretha Franklin in Detroit, Michigan on August 31, 2018 and closed the ceremony by singing the Lord's Prayer and "As".

Stevie was named one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace and earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014.  In 2016, the city of Detroit renamed a portion of his childhood street as "Stevie Wonder Avenue" and he was awarded an honorary key to the city from Mayor Mike Duggan.

Wonder performed at the funeral of Aretha Franklin in Detroit, Michigan on August 31, 2018 and closed the ceremony by singing the Lord's Prayer and "As".

In 2020, Stevie announced the beginning of So What the Fuss Records, which would release his material in the future.  He released two singles on the label, including "Where Is Our Love Song", which benefitted the organization Feeding America.

Critics will come and go, but the highest and most important praise comes from your peers.  Elton John had this to say:

          Let me put it this way: Wherever I go in 

            the world, I always take a copy of Songs in

            the Key of Life. For me, it's the best album 

           ever made, and I'm always left in awe after

           I listen to it. When people in decades and

           centuries to come talk about the history of

           music, they will talk about Louis Armstrong, 

           Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and Stevie

           Wonder [...] he [Wonder] evolved into an

           amazing songwriter and a genuine

           musical force of nature. He's so 

           multitalented that it's hard to pinpoint 

           exactly what it is that makes him one of the

           greatest ever.  But first, there's that voice. 

           Along with Ray Charles, he's the greatest 

          R&B singer who ever lived.

Stevie has sold over 100 million albums worldwide, though the exact figure is difficult to determine since Motown Records does not have regular audits to verify sales figures.  

Wonder is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame.  Stevie has won an incredible 23 Grammy Awards out of 49 nominations, received Kennedy Honors and been awarded numerous Honorary Doctorate degrees.  He has won two Billboard Music Awards and has been nominated for three American Music Awards and received an Academy Award (from two nominations) and a Golden Globe Award among two nominations.

Stevie has scored 65 career hits, with 28 Top 10's and 10 of those going all the way to #1.  He is one of the top R&B performers of all-time, charting 77 career hits on that chart, with a sensational 49 of those reaching the Top 10 and 19 reaching #1.  Wonder has also posted 33 career hits on the Adult chart with 14 Top 10's and 8 #1 songs.

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

 

(Continued from Part Four)

 

Wonder released the album Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" (a #4 release) in 1979, which was one of the first popular albums to feature digital recording.  "Send Her My Love" went to #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, #4 overall, and #5 on the R&B chart in the United States and #7 in Canada.  

Stevie enjoyed great success with his 1980 album Hotter than July.  He brought back "All I Do", which he had written as a teenager in 1966 along with Clarence Paul and Morris Broadnax.  Tammi Terrell recorded the original version of the song.

Hotter than July reached #2 in the U.K., Canada and New Zealand and #3 in the United States and has sold over one million copies.  

 

Inspired by Reggae music, Stevie wrote this song after meeting Bob Marley.  "Master Blaster (Jammin')" landed in the Top 10 in virtually every country in the world, led by a #1 performance in New Zealand and Switzerland and a seven-week run at the top of the R&B chart in the United States, and was nominated for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male at the Grammy Awards.

 

"I Ain't Gonna' Stand For It" fell short of the Top 10 in the U.S., though it did hit #2 in New Zealand, #6 in Ireland, #9 in Canada and #10 in the United Kingdom.

Stevie used his song "Happy Birthday" to urge the United States to designate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a national holiday.  

"Lately" was largely ignored in most countries, but it was a #3 smash in the U.K.

Stevie was nominated for three Grammy Awards in 1981--Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special and Producer of the Year for Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants and he received another for Best R&B Song for "Let's Get Serious", a song we wrote for Jermaine Jackson.

 

Here is another solid track from the album--"Rocket Love".

In 1982, Wonder released the compilation album of his work in the '70's, Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium, which included the new single "That Girl", another #1 R&B song (#1 for nine weeks) and #4 overall.

 

The album reached #4 in the U.S.  The funky "Do I Do" is another new song recorded for the album which peaked at #13 in the U.S., though it was a Top 10 effort in some countries.

 

Two of the all-time greats (as well as two of the greatest songwriters ever), Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, teamed up for this plea for sanity:  "Ebony And Ivory" rocketed to #1 in the U.S., Canada, Germany and Ireland.

"Ebony And Ivory" is another of The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.  Wonder garnered seven Grammy nominations:  Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (for "Ebony And Ivory"), Best R&B Song for both "That Girl" and "Do I Do", with the latter also picking up nominations for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocal(s), and Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "What's That You're Doing".

The legendary Wonder has put out an amazing array of incredible material.  We have Part Six next!

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!

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

 

(Continued from Part Two)

Those synthesizers first introduced on Music of My Mind were now prominently featured on his incredible 1973 album Innervisions.  That great wah-wah clavinet sound was achieved with a Mu-Tron III envelope filter pedal.  Stevie played all instruments on the song, including drums and percussion, and provided the bass line with his Moog synthesizer.  

The lyrics deal with getting a second chance ("So darn glad he let me try it again").  Ironically, three months after he recorded it, Stevie had a serious accident on his way to a benefit concert in Durham, North Carolina.  The car he was riding in was behind a heavy truck carrying logs, which stopped all of a sudden, sending a log through the windshield and hitting Wonder in the head.  Stevie was in a coma for four days.

His friend and road manager, Ira Tucker Jr., knew Stevie liked to listen to music at high volume, so he tried singing this song right into his ear.  There was no response.  The next day, Tucker tried it again and Wonder's fingers began moving in time with the song.  It was the first sign that he was going to recover.

 

The great "Higher Ground" went #1 R&B and #4 overall in the U.S. and #9 in Canada.

Stevie was for all purposes a one-man band during his prolific period in which he turned out some of the finest albums known to man.  All the while, he was greatly expanding the boundaries of R&B, pushing it in directions it had never gone before or since.  Innervisions reached #4 in the U.S. and #8 in the U.K.  

Stevie again played all the instruments on this song, which also contains some of his finest lyrics.  "I think the deepest I really got into how I feel about the way things are was in 'Living For The City', he said.  "I was able to show the hurt and the anger.  You still have that same mother that scrubs the floors for many, she's still doing it.  Now what is that about?  And that father who works some days for 14 hours.  That's still happening."  "Living For The City" also is underrated at #8, although it did top the R&B chart.

Stevie won Best R&B Song for "Living For The City".  The innovative Innervisions captured Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards and Stevie was nominated for Producer of the Year.  "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing" gave Stevie another #2 R&B smash that peaked at #13 Popular.

"Visions" is thoughtful while at the same time being gloomy.  It isn't long in the song before Wonder realizes that this utopian vision exists only in his dreams.

 

"He's Misstra Know It All" is a warning of encountering a hustler.  The song begins slowly, but as Stevie gets more irritated, both he and the song jump up a few levels.  The flute-like sounds come from Stevie's TONTO synthesizer.  Bassist Willie Weeks is the only other musician on the track.  Many have said the song is about then-president Richard Nixon.   

Although much of Innervisions features sharp social commentary, Wonder mixed in a love song, "Golden Lady".

 

"Too High" is about drug abuse to a musical background of scat vocals and a jazz fusion arrangement.

 

This amazing gem is not only a Top Track* but one of The Top Unknown/Underrated Songs of the Rock Era*:  "All In Love Is Fair" describes a couple nearing the end of their relationship and Stevie uses clichés to get his point across and proves the clichés true.

After Stevie recovered from the accident described above, he toured Europe and performed on the German television show Musikladen.

 

In 1974, Wonder released another amazing album, Fulfillingness' First Finale.  Stevie enlisted the help of the Jackson 5 on the #1 smash (Popular and R&B in the U.S. and #1 in Canada) which lamented the pathetic presidency of Richard Nixon--"You Haven't Done Nothin'".

During this incredible period of individual success and nearly unparalleled creativity, Wonder also found time to either write, sing, or play on songs by the Supremes, James Taylor, the Pointer Sisters, Roberta Flack, B.B. King, Billy Preston, Jeff Beck, Dave Mason, Rufus (wrote "Tell Me Something Good"), and Minnie Riperton.

The album topped charts in both the U.S. and Canada and jumped to #5 in the U.K.  There was no one producing better albums during this stretch, and Stevie again captured the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.  He was just 25, and Wonder had won that prestigious award two years in a row.  The next year, when Paul Simon accepted the honor for Still Crazy After All These Years, he said, "I would like to thank Stevie Wonder for not making an album this year."  

 

This funky number, incredibly already his 11th career #1 R&B smash (#8 Popular) is "Boogie On Reggae Woman".  Originally slated for inclusion on Innervisions, engineer Robert Margouleff convinced Wonder it would fit better on this album.

Wonder also captured Grammys for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male (the entire album was recognized) and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male (for "Boogie On Reggae Woman").  He was also nominated for Best Producer and "Tell Me Something Good" was also nominated for Best R&B Song.

And the album of his career, and The #4 Album of the Rock Era*, was next.  Join us for Part Four from the incredible Stevie Wonder!

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

 

(Continued from Part One)

Stevie was beginning to attract more fans and his live show was greatly improving during this period.  The time was right for the 1970 release, Stevie Wonder Live.

Stevie wrote this song with Lee Garrett (whom he met at the Michigan School for the Blind), Syreeta Wright (whom he later married), and his mother Lula Hardaway.  Wonder's single "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" (from the album Signed, Sealed and Delivered) was his first in which he also produced a song, though label head Berry Gordy, Jr. balked at the idea at first.  The song features a sitar, showing Wonder's affinity for the Beatles.  It jumped to #1 on the R&B chart and #3 overall and earned Stevie Grammy nominations for Best Rhythm and Blues song and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male.

Wonder scored another hit on the album with "Heaven Help Us All", a #2 R& B smash that landed at #9 on the Popular chart.

 

And, he was beginning to enhance his albums with more than just hits and filler, with this quality track--"Never Had A Dream Come True".

Later in the year, Wonder released the album At the Talk of the Town, another live release.  Stevie also wrote songs for other artists, including the #1 classic "The Tears Of A Clown" for Smoky Robinson and the Miracles.  On September 14, he married Syreeta Wright, whom he met while Wright was a secretary at Motown.  Syreeta helped Stevie with the lyrics for the 1971 album Where I'm Coming From.  

 

This song was the last of Stevie's to use the Motown backing group the Funk Brothers, with Wonder playing Moog bass synthesizer, drums, and piano.  After its release, Wonder moved to New York City and played most of the instruments himself.  He scored another Top 10 smash with "If You Really Love Me", even at #8 a bit underrated, but a #4 R&B hit.  

 "Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer" is another solid track on the album.

Wonder released the compilation album Greatest Hits, Volume 2 in 1971.  

Eyeing the creative deal that Marvin Gaye got at the time, Stevie wanted that same autonomy in the studio.  Meanwhile, he co-wrote and played several instruments on the Spinners song "It's A Shame".  When his Motown contract expired, Stevie recorded two albums on independent labels before signing a new deal with Motown, which substantially increased his royalty rate.

In 1972, Wonder released the album Music of My Mind, which was his first in a string of six masterful projects which had a theme and represented Stevie at his creative best.  The album featured mature lyrics with social and political undertones and music which was overdubbed with most of the instruments played by Wonder himself.  

 

Stevie also began to work with Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil of Tonto's Expanding Head Band to implement synthesizers into his music, which would pay dividends in the years that immediately followed.  The single "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)" (with Stevie playing all the instruments on the track except for electric guitar, played by Buzz Feiten) was only a minor hit.

 

Wonder's natural ability and perfection of song structure combined for a stellar decade.  He was now a master at work, ergo the album's liner notes:  "The sounds themselves come from inside his mind. The man is his own instrument. The instrument is an orchestra."  Beautiful Song of the Week is on point with this analysis:

             What makes this a beautiful song:

1. The lyrics. They radiate positivity and love, anticipating “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” which would come out just seven months later.

2. The chords. With their chromatic downward slides and major-to-minor shifts, they anticipate the funkiness of “Sir Duke,” which would come out in 1976.

3. The clavinet. Its use here anticipates perhaps the most iconic Stevie Wonder track of all; “Superstition.”

This is the wonderful "Happier Than The Morning Sun".

 

With a driving rhythm, bass line, and the funkiest wah-wah throughout, "Keep On Running" is among the best in his catalog.

Wonder released the fantastic album Talking Book in 1972.  The emotion, the intensity, the variation of material, and complexity of both the lyrics and music, reflected an artist beginning to reveal his amazing musical personality and songwriting that was nearing the top of his craft.  

 

Jeff Beck, The #3 Guitarist of the Rock Era*, was a big fan of Stevie's and Wonder asked Jeff if he would play guitar on the album in exchange for one of his songs.  While working on the sessions, Beck came up with the opening drum beat for this song.  Stevie told Beck to keep playing while he improvised over the top.  

Wonder improved most of the song, including the riff, on the spot, and the pair had a rough demo that day!  "Superstition" (with vocals from Bill Withers and Billy Preston), his first #1 song since his debut hit, which featured the Hohner Clavinet keyboard, also peaked at #6 in Canada. 

"Superstition" was the first noticeable result of his earlier collaboration with Margouleff and Cecil.  Stevie forcefully sang the vocals as if to make it clear he was his own man.  Up to this point, no one had been able to fashion such warmth and expression from the cold, mechanical-sounding instruments.  Wonder won his first two Grammys with awards for Best Rhythm and Blues Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male.  

Stevie toured with the Rolling Stones, which introduced his genius to a new set of fans and helped the album go to #3, his first Top 10 album in nine years.  Wonder sounded magnificently happy on "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life", which also reached #1 on both the Popular and Adult charts-both this and "Superstition" are included in The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era*.

Wonder won another Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male, and "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" was also nominated for the prestigious Record and Song of the Year awards.   "Looking For Another Pure Love", co-written with wife Syreeta, also features Beck on lead guitar.

 

Yet on the same album as tender love songs such as those two, Stevie gave a hint of what was to come with "Big Brother", which scorched politicians who claimed to be on the side of the people only when they needed votes.  While drawing references from George Orwell's book 1984, the song is primarily about racism and the African-American experience in the United States.

Songs for Talking Book, written either during or directly after the split of Wonder and Wright, is not just Stevie's confessional album; it is the confessions of both parties.  Case in point--"Blame It On The Sun" was written by Syreeta.

 

Ray Parker, Jr., who later formed the group Raydio ("You Can't Change That") and had solo success as well ("Ghostbusters"), played guitar on "Maybe Your Baby".

 We're featuring more Wonder material from Talking Book because it really is that good.  Here is "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)".

 "You've Got It Bad Girl" features lead vocals from Quincy Jones, who also produced the song.  Among the backing musicians is Carole Kaye, famous for being the bassist for The Wrecking Crew.

The master was just getting started on an incredible run of superlative music.  Join us for Part Three!