The masterpiece record Elton John called “the best album ever made”
The 1970s were a wild place to be. Coming out of the 1960s, and the summers of peace and love within it, was a head-turning moment. The decade had promised a counterculture revolution that failed to materialise in wider society. It made the ’70s a fearsome era, built out of heavy frustration and the increased destruction of narcotics. It meant guitars were heavier, drums hit harder, and the birth of heavy metal had begun in earnest. In an era when the guitar ruled rock and roll, Elton John was in a league of his own.
After seeing only a handful of rock stars get behind the piano, John brought his signature rock and roll to the masses, joining the heavy hitters of the glam rock movement on albums like Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Even though legends like Paul McCartney and John Lennon had been known to man the ivories now and again, Elton John was already indebted to a future music legend.
While John was coming up the ranks, he was a fan of any pop music he could get his hands on, being an avid record collector throughout his youth. Among some of the strange bands that came across his radar was a young kid from Motown Records named Stevie Wonder. Although Wonder could make magic with his hands behind the keyboard and harmonica blasting, his golden age was yet to come.
His blindness didn’t stop Wonder from becoming a skilled multi-instrumentalist by the age of eight. After singing one of his first compositions, ‘Lonely Boy’, to Ronnie White of The Miracles, he was introduced to Motown Records president Berry Gordy Jr, who renamed Steveland Little Stevie Wonder and signed him to the Tamla label.
Around the time John had dropped his original moniker Reginald Dwight and began making music with lyricist Bernie Taupin, Wonder had been free from his record company obligations and started making one classic album after the next, from Talking Book to Innervisions. Although each project marked a new step forward, John remembered being staggered the first time he heard Songs in the Key of Life.
Spanning across a double album’s worth of material, Wonder samples every genre of music he can get his hands on, from the jazzy groove of ‘Sir Duke’ to the pure pop of ‘Isn’t She Lovely’. Though the album was still in pop territory, John still holds it as the gold standard for any music he makes.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, John opened up about how much the album meant to him, recalling, “Wherever I go in the world, I always bring a copy of Songs in the Key of Life. It’s the best album ever made, and I’m always left in awe when I listen to it. He’s so multitalented that it’s hard to pinpoint what makes him the greatest ever”.
Though John did love the ‘60s hits that Wonder made, like ‘Signed Sealed Delivered’, it’s easy to see where he would take some of the musical lessons from his Motown mentor. Across some of John’s epic pieces like ‘Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding’, he practically balances both sides of his upbringing, starting with the proper classical sounds he learned in school and then transitioning into the rhythmic powerhouse that was always second nature to Wonder.
John is also confident that Wonder’s talents extend far beyond the genre he started in. From his numerous collaborations with legends like Paul McCartney, John would say that Wonder could hold his own when going up against some of the greatest musicians of all time, like John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.
While the music might mean something important to John, it’s always the test of time that will judge Wonder’s legacy. Then again, John agrees with most music fans about Wonder’s legacy: “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”.
