Stevie Wonder, Part 2 (1972-1977)

Welcome to another edition of Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  This podcast episode is Part 2 of a three part series of podcasts that I am recording about the extensive career of one of the most influential musicians of the past 60 years:  Stevie Wonder!  Part 2 will review Stevie's so-called "Classic Period" from 1972 through early 1977.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott. The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John. It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then.
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Rock On!

Transcript

Thank you for that introduction, and welcome to another edition of Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  This podcast episode is Part 2 of a three part series of podcasts that I am recording about the extensive career of one of the most influential musicians of the past 60 years:  Stevie Wonder!  Part 2 will review Stevie's so-called "Classic Period" from 1972 through early 1977.

On his 21st birthday, Stevie's contract with Motown expired.  He negotiated a new deal with Motown that dramatically increased his royalty rate and established his own publishing company, Black Bull Music.  The next year, the so-called "classic period" of Stevie Wonder's musical evolution kicked off on March 3rd, 1972.  That was when his album, Music of My Mind, was released.  The new LP pushed the boundaries of R&B and hit #21 in the Billboard LP chart.  It is generally considered by modern critics to be the first album of Wonder's "classic period" and representative of Stevie's artistic growth.  That same year, Wonder toured with the Rolling Stones, exposing his music to a larger white audience.

For the follow-up LP, Wonder refined his approach and produced one of the greatest R&B albums of all time.  Featuring Wonder's spacy, futuristic experiments with electronics, the LP was hailed as a magnificently realized masterpiece.  The sound of the album is sharply defined by Wonder's keyboard work, in particular synthesizers and the Hohner Clavinet.  Wonder played the majority of the instruments on the album himself, but he received some support from such guest musicians as Jeff Beck, Ray Parker Jr., David Sanborn, and Buzz Feiten.  That album, Talking Book, was released on October 27th, 1972 and made Stevie Wonder a superstar.  The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard Top LPs chart and finished at #3 on Billboard's year-end chart for 1973.  

The back story behind the song "Superstition" is very interesting.  In the early 1970's, Wonder was playing most of the instruments on his songs by himself, but he preferred to let other guitarists play on his records.  After he learned that Jeff Beck was an admirer of his, an agreement was quickly made for Beck to become involved in the sessions that became the Talking Book album.  In return Stevie would write a song for Beck.  Between the album sessions, Beck came up with the opening drum beat.  Wonder told Beck to keep playing while he improvised over the top of it.  Stevie ended up improvising most of the song, including the riff, on the spot, and he and Jeff Beck created a rough demo.  Wonder's use of the Clavinet Model C on the song is widely regarded as one of the definitive tracks featuring the instrument.  That song would become "Superstition"! 

[Here is Stevie Wonder's "Superstition".] 

By January 1973 the single "Superstition" had reached #1 in both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Best Selling Soul Singles charts.  It was Wonder's first #1 single since "Fingertips, Pt. 2" in 1963.  It peaked at #11 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1973.  In 2021 Rolling Stone ranked the song #12 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  

The single "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" became Wonder's third #1 single on the Billboard  Hot 100 chart and his first #1 on the Easy Listening chart.  It won Wonder a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and was nominated for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year.  Rolling Stone ranks the song at #183 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".  In 2002, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The album Talking Book earned Stevie Wonder his first Grammy Awards.  "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" won Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 16th Grammy Awards.  "Superstition" also won two Grammys, for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.  Often included in lists of the greatest albums of all time, Talking Book was ranked #59 on Rolling Stone's 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Stevie's next album would be 1973's Innervisions.  As with many of Wonder's albums, the lyrics, composition, and production of Innervisions are almost entirely his own work.  Stevie also played virtually all the instruments on many of the album's tracks, making prominent use of synthesizers throughout the album.  Innervisions was a concept album about the state of contemporary society.  The nine tracks of the LP encompass a wide range of themes and issues:  from drug abuse in "Too High", through inequality and systemic racism in "Living for the City", to love in the ballads "All in Love Is Fair" and "Golden Lady".  The album's closer, "He's Misstra Know-It-All", is Stevie's critique of then-US President Richard Nixon.  The LP peaked at #4 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart and #1 on the Billboard Soul LPs chart.  Innervisions was #4 on Billboard's Top Pop Albums chart for 1974.  At the 16th Grammy Awards, it won Album of the Year and Best Engineered Non-Classical Recording, while "Living for the City" won Best R&B Song.  The LP was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.  Innervisions was ranked #34 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2020.  

The singles released from the album all charted very well.  "Living for the City" reached #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the R&B chart. "Living for the City" was one of the first soul music songs to deal explicitly with systemic racism and to incorporate everyday sounds of the street in with music recorded in the studio.  Rolling Stone ranked the song #104 on their 2004 list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".  The intense spiritual self-examination song, "Higher Ground", reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the US Hot R&B Singles chart.  In 2021 Rolling Stone ranked "Higher Ground" #113 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.  "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing" was released as the third single.  It spent fifteen weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at #16 the week of June 1st, 1974.  It also reached #10 on the Cash Box Top 100, and #2 on the R&B chart. 

On August 6, 1973, three days after the commercial release of Innervisions, Wonder played a concert in Greenville, South Carolina.  After the concert Wonder was in a car accident, where he sustained serious head injuries and fell into a coma.  Wonder's climb back to health was long and slow, but fortunately he made a full recovery.  Nevertheless, he had to take medication for a year, tired easily, and suffered severe headaches.

Wonder's next record, 1974's Fulfillingness' First Finale, was Wonder's second to top the Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart, where it remained for two weeks.  It also reached #1 on the Billboard Soul LPs chart, where it spent eight non-consecutive weeks between October 5th and Christmas 1974.  At the 17th Annual Grammy Awards, Fulfillingness' First Finale won in three categories.

The single "You Haven't Done Nothin'", featuring background vocals by the Jackson 5, became Wonder's fourth #1 pop hit and his tenth #1 soul hit.  It also reached #1 in Canada.  In the UK "You Haven't Done Nothin'", spent five weeks on the chart, peaking at #30.  "Boogie On Reggae Woman" was released as the second single from the album.  Despite the song's title, its style is firmly funk and R&B and neither boogie nor reggae. It continued Wonder's successful Top Ten streak on the pop charts, reaching #3 and also spent two weeks at #1 on the soul charts. Billboard ranked it as the #26 song for 1975.  The single spent eight weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at #12.

By 1975 Stevie Wonder seriously considered quitting the music industry and emigrating to Ghana to aid children with disabilities.  When plans for a farewell concert had already begun, Wonder changed his mind and signed a new contract with Motown on August 5th, 1975.  At the time, it was the biggest recording deal in history.  Stevie retired to his studio and worked on a major collection of ambitious and expansive songs.  Finally released by Tamla on September 28th, 1976, Songs in the Key of Life was a double album with a four song bonus EP.  The album spent thirteen consecutive weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200, becoming the album with the most weeks at #1 during the year.  It ended up as the second-best-selling album of 1977 in the US.  In 2005, the album was certified Diamond by the RIAA, indicating sales of 5 million units for a double album.  The album won Album of the Year at the 19th Grammy Awards and is the best-selling and most critically acclaimed album of Wonder's career.  Songs in the Key of Life is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums in history, and many musicians have remarked on its influence on their own work. In 2002, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2005 it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, which deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".  It was ranked #4 on Rolling Stone's 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".  

Successful single releases from the LP included "Sir Duke," a tribute to music in general and Duke Ellington in particular, and "I Wish".  Both songs went to #1 on both the pop and R&B charts.  The hit "Isn't She Lovely," celebrating the birth of Wonder's daughter, was never issued as a commercial single.  However, due to radio airplay, it reached #23 on the Billboard  Easy Listening chart on January 29th, 1977.  Over time, "Isn't She Lovely" has became something of a standard.  

It could be argued that Wonder's critical success was at its peak in the 1970's.  A virtual one-man band, Wonder's innovative use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970's reshaped the conventions of contemporary R&B.  His LPs were cohesive and consistent, featuring socially conscious statements and complex compositions.  The albums "Innervisions", "Fulfillingness' First Finale", and "Songs in the Key of Life" all won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making him the only artist to have won the award with three consecutive album releases. 

This concludes the second of three Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts about the musical genius that is Stevie Wonder!  In this episode, Stevie Wonder, Part 2, I discussed Stevie's so-called "Classic Period" from 1972 through early 1977.  To learn more about the amazing career of Stevie Wonder, be sure to check out Parts 1 and Parts 3 of my Stevie Wonder series here on Rock and Roll Flashback podcasts!  So for now, I'm Jumpin' John McDermott!  And until next time, Rock On!