The wild performance that made 12-year-old Stevie Wonder a star
In the music world, you often hear people who have “it”. What is “it”, many people ask. Well, that’s the whole point; it’s an indescribable quality only possessed by stars, the thing that ignites a spark in the audience that makes whoever it is they’re watching completely impossible to turn away from. Given how subjective music can be, the idea is that some people have this indescribable, universal quality, which sounds like pure myth, but then you see some people like Stevie Wonder, and it’s hard to deny that they indeed have “it”.
Wonder was turning heads well before he ever had a hit record. Barry Gordy and the rest of Motown recognised his indistinguishable talent, and before he was even a teenager, Wonder was on the road performing. His live show captivated the world and shot him to stardom, as even as a kid, he had barrels of confidence and musical energy that was hard to ignore.
Stevie Wonder was on The Motortown Revue tour, where several acts would play one by one on a night of upbeat and exciting music. On March 10th, 1963, the crowd were ushered in, ready for a night of music and dancing, which they would get; however, they also got the birth of a superstar.
Stevie Wonder took to the stage and played an improvised version of his song ‘Fingertips’. Already a musical maestro, he had no trouble moving up and down the keys, dancing around notes and seeing what worked. He fed off the crowd’s energy, a call and response without words as he played the piano and people in the audience cheered.
The show began to overrun, and the stage manager started to get concerned about time, given he had other bands to bring on. Regardless, Wonder kept playing more keys on the piano before switching to the harmonica, where he improvised further and even treated the crowd to the first few notes of ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’.
Eventually, the stage manager got the band off the stage, and the next act, The Marvelettes, came on. As they were setting up, still not finished, Wonder carried on playing to the eruption of the crowd. If you listen carefully, you can then hear the bass player of The Marvelettes say, “What key?” before they start joining in with Wonders’s even extended improvised version of ‘Fingertips’.
The performance was recorded, so Motown released the last three minutes entitled ‘Fingerprints (part 2)’ as the B-side to a different performance of the single. To their surprise, the improvised live version of part 2 became a hit, so the single was re-issued with that as the A-side and the song went to #1.
‘Fingertips (part 2)’ was the first live recording to reach number one in the charts and marked the start of the legendary career of a legendary musician. That performance was the spark that set Wonder’s career alight, and the cheers heard on that live recording were the people lucky enough to see him perform for the first time. What about that recording, that show and Wonder in general has led to such a career? It’s hard to say, suppose he just has it.
