The 1976 song that still reduces Stevie Wonder to tears: “Emotion stuck in a moment”
As instant as his impact on the music industry may have been, with him making his mark on it from much earlier than most, Stevie Wonder only seemed to grow exponentially as a songwriter over the years.
During the 1960s, when he was seemingly releasing one hit single after another, he showed more than just promise, but not necessarily a great deal of depth in terms of the subject matter. Given he hadn’t made it out of his teenage years by this point in his career, it makes complete sense that he wouldn’t have developed as much of a knack for touching upon mature themes that serve to be more attention-grabbing, but his lovelorn soul smashes were undoubtedly a stepping stone for the greatness that would come later.
He’d go on to explore a greater range of sounds and themes during the 1970s when his work was becoming more album-oriented and conceptual in nature, with his worldview rapidly and naturally expanding to incorporate plenty of politically-motivated angles. This change of pace didn’t mean that he suffered a commercial downturn due to the material being heavier or more complex, and for many listeners, it convinced them that Wonder had plenty more to offer.
However, it’s not necessarily through these expansive records like Talking Book and Innervisions that Wonder noticed himself finding an audience, and during a 2004 interview with Oprah Winfrey, he found himself reflecting on the moment when he first noticed his music connecting with people.
“I wonder if you get this feeling too,” Wonder pondered, before proclaiming that playing to a live audience seemed to give him a greater indication of just how popular he was becoming. “There’s a synergy when you’re performing, an exchange of energy between you and the audience.”
However, when he was asked whether his aim was to chase this feeling even more, he responded by indicating that the creation of one song in particular ended up feeding him with the same energy due to how personal it was to him.
“I remember writing ‘Isn’t She Lovely’,” he began. “I can almost cry right now thinking about it. The sound of my daughter Aisha splashing in the bathtub created a picture. That was emotion stuck in a moment, and that can never, ever be taken away.”
It’s perhaps the most touching and human moment in his catalogue, and while you can feel the complete elation in his delivery as he sings about his newborn daughter, because it’s a moment of sincere happiness that so many can relate to, he was able to recognise why he managed to connect with a wider audience as a result.
Placed in the middle of Songs in the Key of Life, it takes on a completely different tone once again, with the album perfectly balancing the more jubilant moments of human existence while also acknowledging how tough things can be from the perspective of a Black man in the US. ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ is the sort of song that’s bound to resonate with people, and given how much it means to Wonder, for him to recognise that it also means so much to his audience must be one of the most thrilling things to observe.
