“A great soul”: the one musician Stevie Wonder was forever grateful to work with
Throughout his career, Stevie Wonder has collaborated with a number of supremely talented individuals, all of whom have helped him to elevate his compositions to another level of brilliance.
The thing is, while it would have undoubtedly been fulfilling for him to have worked with all of these illustrious names, none of it has ever been totally necessary. Wonder is undoubtedly the star of the show after all, and doesn’t need to have superstar names flanking him at all times, but it is nonetheless a good thing to be able to flex on other artists.
On top of this, Wonder was pretty much capable of doing everything himself, whether it’s playing keys, harmonica, drums or any other instrument. Many have joked about how, despite having played with the likes of James Jamerson and Nathan Watts, the best bassist Wonder has ever worked with is his left hand, and while that’s certainly up for debate, his synthesised basslines stand up against those performed by the bassists he had playing on his records.
Given how he was famous from the beginning of his teenage years, he’d already made himself known to the elites by the time he was in his early 20s and entering what many called his golden period, and this ultimately attracted even bigger names to work alongside him.
While he was working on his 1972 album Talking Book, he found himself rubbing shoulders with perhaps one of the greatest guitarists of all time, and one who would end up shaping him even more as a musician after they had collaborated.
Producers Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil introduced Wonder to English virtuoso guitarist Jeff Beck during the sessions for the album, and the former Yardbird would end up performing a sumptuous lead break on the album’s penultimate track, ‘Lookin’ for Another Pure Love’, even though Wonder wasn’t entirely familiar with his work at the time.
“I really didn’t know too much about him,” Wonder later recalled. “But then I heard him play in New York. We were working on ‘Lookin’ for Another Pure Love’, and I said to him, ‘Why don’t you play on this?’ He thought that would be great. He laid one part down, then another part and another part. It was just amazing.”
While his presence on this track alone was sublime, Wonder was so taken aback by Beck’s talents that he almost ended up donating ‘Superstition’ to him, which would have undoubtedly put their career paths on different trajectories. Ultimately, label executives at Motown had to plead with Wonder to keep the song for himself, noting that it had the potential to become a hit, although a Beck version of the song would have been incredible to hear had they not been successful in convincing him to retain the track.
“He was a great soul who did great music,” Wonder later proclaimed in an interview with Detroit Free Press. “I’m glad that I was able to meet him and have him in my life, giving some of his gift to my music.” There haven’t been many other performers who have risen to the same levels as Wonder or Beck, and for them to have worked together on this occasion would undoubtedly have been a special moment to behold in the studio.
