Wayback Wednesday: Stevie Wonder
May 13th marks the 70th birthday of a true musical genius…Stevie Wonder. Born Stevland Morris in 1950, he was a musical prodigy, signed to Motown’s Tamla label at the age of 11. When “Fingertips” became Number 1 in 1963, Stevie was the youngest artist to ever top the chart. On Wayback Wednesday we feature a song from his 18th album…Songs In The Key of Life, a double LP released in September, 1976. It debuted at Number 1, and spent a total of 14 weeks on top of the Billboard album chart. At the 1977 Grammy Awards, it won Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, and Stevie won Performer Of The Year as well!
Elton John called it the best album ever made, and Prince said it was his favorite album.
“As” was the fourth single from the album, and while not a huge Top 40 hit, it is one of the highlights of Stevie’s amazing career. If you haven’t listened to the words to this great piece of music, you can see them as this video plays, and be amazed at the enormous talent that is Stevie Wonder. And that’s Jazz great Herbie Hancock playing the Fender Rhodes on “As”. Happy Birthday Stevie, and may you continue to enrich the world with your music!
