Six definitive songs: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Stevie Wonder
If you’re looking for the definition of a child prodigy, look no further. Born Steveland Judkins on May 13th, 1950, in Michigan, Stevie wonder became a musical sensation at an age when most of us were more concerned with running around with our pants on our heads. Then again, maybe that was just me.
Steveland was raised in inner-city Detroit, an industrial centre where jobs were scarce, police brutality commonplace. He’d been born six weeks premature, which, coupled with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in retinopathy, a condition in which the growth of the eyes is halted, causing the retinas to detach.
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. It is here that our dive into the musical life of Stevie wonder begins.
Stevie Wonder’s six definitive songs:
‘Finger Tips (Part 2)’ (1963)
Wonder’s first live recording to soar to the top of the charts, ‘Fingertips (Part 2)’, has a dizzying origin story. By the age of 12, Wonder was part of a Motown tour called The Motortown Revue. On March 10th 1963, Wonder and the rest of the Revue came to the Regal Theatre in Chicago, where the young musician decided to play an improvised version of ‘Fingertips’ which went on for ten minutes, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
Despite the stage manager’s attempts to clear the stage for the next act, Wonder continued to feed off the audience, even improving a fragment of ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb on the harmonica. When he finally finished the song, the next band, The Marvelettes, shuffled onstage, only for Wonder to strike up again. Three minutes of the recorded performance were released as the B-Side to another version of ‘Fingertips’, but it was the B-side that became a hit, spending three weeks at Number One and rocketing him to stardom.
‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’ (1968)
In 1968, Wonder recorded an album of instrumental soul tracks under the title Eivits Rednow, which the more observant among you will notice is ‘Stevie Wonder’ spelt backwards. The album failed to chart, but he did manage to land several hits between 1968 and 1970, including ‘For Once In My Life’, ‘I Was Made to Love Her’ and the immortal ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’.
Wonder composed the track with the help of Motown songwriters Lee Garrett and Syreeta Wright. But if you look at the writing credits, you’ll notice a fourth name: Lila Mae Hardaway, Stevie’s mother. Speaking to Blues & Soul in 1970, Wonder explained: “Syreeta has a unique ability to express exactly what I want to say with a lyric. I write the melody and music and might come up with the main idea. I would also come up with the rhythm music. On ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered,’ for example, I came up with the music and Syreeta came up with the lyric. And my mother came up with some ideas on that one, too.”
‘Superstition’ (1972)
In the autumn of 1970, Wonder married his songwriting partner Syreeta Wright. A year later, he allowed his contract with Motown to expire and set about recording music independently, often overdubbing all the instrumental parts himself. Wonder’s lyrics became more overtly political and socially conscious during this period, but with his 1972 hit ‘Superstition’ he focused on more mystical themes.
The track was originally intended for Jeff Beck, who had played some of the guitar parts on Talking Book. Committed to giving Beck something in return, Wonder came up with the main riff during one of the studio sessions and offered it up to the guitarist. However, by the time Beck got round to recording the single, Wonder had already released his own version.
‘Sir Duke’ (1975)
After taking part in a jam session with Paul McCartney and John Lennon that ended up on 1974’s A Toot And A Snore and bagging two Grammy Awards, Wonder set to work on his 1975 album Songs In The Key Of Life. Marking a departure from the overtly political and spiritual subject matter of Talking Book, tracks like ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ and ‘Sir Duke’ saw Wonder tackle more personal subject matter.
At its heart, ‘Sir Duke’ is a tribute to music, specifically to the jazz pianist Duke Ellington, who hugely influenced Wonder and died in 1975. the track also refers to other luminaries of the Harlem renaissance, including Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong, Count Basie and Sodarisa Miller.
‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ (1984)
The 1980s weren’t kind to Stevie Wonder. In 1982, the musicians collaborated on the almost universally despised ‘Ebony and Ivory’ with Paul McCartney. Around this time, he also released the equally maligned ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’, a syrupy ballad written for The Women In Red.
For some at the time, ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ was proof that Wonder had decided to hunker down in the middle ground. For others, it was a firm indicator of his enduring talent. The single bagged the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1984, beating out ‘Let’s Hear It For The Boy’ from Footloose and Ray Parker Jr.’s ‘Ghostbusters’.
‘Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate’ (2020)
Throughout the 1990s, Stevie Wonder continued releasing new material but at a much slower pace. There were occasional collaborations and the odd appearance at a music festival, but there was a growing sense that Wonder was moving towards adopting the role of a producer.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Wonder picked up the pace yet again, releasing his first album in ten years (A Time To Love) in 2005. Then, in October 2020, Wonder unveiled his new vanity label, So What The Fuss Records. To celebrate the announcement, he shared two new singles: ‘Where Is your Love Song’ and ‘Can’t Put It In The Hands of Fate’, the latter of which is a straight-up funk rap track dealing with police brutality in the wake of the George Floyd murder.
