Stevie Wonder For Whom Blindness Was Not An Impediment

Incredible Journey of A Singer Who Can Not See : Stevie Wonder 

I grew up with the music and songs of Stevie Wonder. Actually he is only two year elder to me but when I started learning algebra, Stevie started recording music albums! 

And I feel proud that my generation grew up with Stevie’s sonorous voice and his soul touching music . He is the one who influenced music  scenario of seventies, eighties and partly nineties. 

Stevie hardly needs any introduction. But this piece is especially for those friends who are born after 1990. 

He won not one or two but 25 Grammy Awards, a feast difficult to replicate, a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, more than 100 million of his records sold worldwide — only speak partially to his legend. 

In 1961, when he was only 11 year old, Wonder sang his own composition, ‘Lonely Boy’,  to Ronnie White of the Miracles; White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy who signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label. Before signing, producer Clarence Paul gave him the name Little Stevie Wonder. His career began when he signed to Motown Records at the age of 11, becoming a teenage soul sensation billed as "Little Stevie." 

All his achievements are incredible as  Stevie Wonder lost his sight as a newborn when he came into the world six weeks early with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), an eye disorder caused by abnormal blood vessels throughout the retina. Receiving too much oxygen in the incubator likely worsened the condition for the tiny baby, leaving him blind. But he took his blindness as a challenge and it never come in between him and success. 

What is the secret behind Stevie Wonder’s unprecedented success as singer, lyricist, composer ? To me , the answer is simple , when you listen to him , you have a strong feeling as if he is singing for you. Not only this, through his heavy use of electronic instruments and innovative sounds, Wonder became a pioneer and influence to musicians of many genre like pop, rhythm and blues, soul, funk and rock.

I will take a quick look of his beautiful journey in the world of music. 

In the debut year he also released  ‘Another World - Tribute to Uncle Ray’, where Wonder covered the songs of soul icon Ray Charles, Wonder then developed a major audience with Little Stevie Wonder the 12 Year Old Genius, an album recorded live. 

After dropping ‘Little’ from his stage name in the mid-1960s, he churned out the top 5 pop single ‘Uptight (Everything's Alright),’ which reached No. 1 on the R&B charts. 

Wonder scored two more No. 1 R&B hits with a cover of Bob Dylan's ‘Blowin' in the Wind’ and the jubilant ‘I Was Made to Love Her,’with the latter reaching No. 2 on the pop charts. 

1968 was another Lucy year for him with his album For Once in My Life he offered even more successful singles with the title track, "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day" and ‘You Met Your Match,’ with Wonder serving as co-writer on all three songs. 

Due in part to innate talent, but also because of his deep commitment to his craft, Wonder faced the difficulty of staying relevant as a musician as he grew from boy to man, and his voice matured into a shining tenor. That was the year and onward that my only source of pop music was Breakfast show on VOA ie Voice of America on Short Waves Radio in a small city Nagin where I grew as teenager. I saved money to buy a transistor radio of my own to listen Breakfast Show !

In 1971, Wonder could be able to negotiate a new contract with Motown that provided him almost total control over his records and greatly increased his royalty rate. It was an unprecedented concession by Gordy, but, artistically, just what Wonder needed. 

As the 1970s unfolded, the musician went through an unrivaled period of production. 1971's Where I'm Coming From, with its groovy top 10 single ‘If You Really Love Me,’ marked the first time Wonder had writing or co-writing credits for every song on an album. 

1972's Music of My Mind offered the top 20 R&B/top 40 pop single ‘Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You),’an emotionally rich jazz-soul opus that highlighted Wonder's pioneering work in synthesized/electronic sounds. 

His 1972 album Talking Book offered two No. 1 hits, the jaunty funk jam ‘Superstition’ and ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life,’ a smile-inducing ode to love that exemplified Wonder's abilities as a romanticist. 

Next up was Innervisions, a meditative concept album that was simultaneously introspective, political, critical and full of wit. The record featured two socially conscious No. 1 R&B hits, ‘Higher Ground’ and ‘Living for the City,’as well as the humorous ‘Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing,’ which reached No. 2 on the R&B chart. All three singles fared well on the pop charts as well. 

Wonder had survived a serious car accident in 1975 that left him in a coma, 

Fulfillingness' First Finale, released thereafter, he displayed his trademark odes to romance and beauty while also looking squarely at spirituality and death. Wonder created a song that railed against President Richard Nixon —‘You Haven't Done Nothin',’ which reached No. 1 on both the pop and R&B charts and featured Jackson 5. 

The sexy "Boogie on Reggae Woman" went to No. 1 on the pop chart as well, while the album tracks "Creepin'" and "They Won't Go When I Go" were eventually covered by Luther Vandross and George Michael respectively.

Even with this array of accomplishments, it was the double album with EP set Songs in the Key of Life that many have hailed as Wonder's most legendary project and one of the greatest records of all time. Offering a rich span of songs with genre fusions aplenty, Songs covered everything from ethnic diversity in the U.S. and fantastic utopian communities to vengeful relationships and transcendent love. 

Songs had two pop/R&B No. 1 singles, both uptempo: the Duke Ellington tribute ‘Sir Duke’ and the back-in-the-day paean ‘I Wish.’ Wonder had additional top 40 hits with ‘Another Star’ and ‘As,’ while the harmonica-laden ‘Isn't She Lovely,’ though not a charting single, nonetheless became a radio mainstay as it heralded the cherished birth of a daughter.

During this era, Wonder was working with other artists as well, including Minnie Riperton (the mother of Maya Rudolph) and the band Rufus, with Chaka Khan’s  vocals heard on the Wonder-penned top 5 track ‘Tell Me Something Good.’

Over the years, other artists struck gold with Wonder remakes, as seen with Aretha Franklin 's No. 1 R&B cover of ‘Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do).’ Among an array of honors, Wonder captured 15 Grammy Awards during the decade, with Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life each recognized as album of the year.

By those incredible lofty standards, the 1980s weren't nearly as successful for Wonder. Still, he continued to be a huge musical force. He ended the '70s with the double album Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, an avant-garde set film The Woman in Red, which featured contributions from  Dionne Warwick    as well as the top 5 R&B hit ‘Love Light in Flight’ and the massive No. 1 pop single ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You.’ Like so much of Wonder's work, the song appealed to a wide audience, paving the way for it to become Motown's biggest international hit of all time. The single also won Wonder an Academy Award for best original song.

Wonder released his next album, Square Circle, in 1985, which featured the historic track ‘Part-Time Lover,’the first song to ever reach No. 1 on the pop, R&B, adult contemporary and dance charts. 

The album Characters was released two years later, featuring two No. 1 R&B hits—‘Skeletons’ and ‘You Will Know.’ In 1989, Wonder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Wonder continued his soundtrack contributions with his work for the 1991 Spike Lee  film Jungle Fever, starring  Wesley Spikes and Annabella Sciorra. For the Jungle Fever album, Wonder composed three more top 10 R&B singles: ‘Gotta Have You,’ ‘ Fun Day’ and ‘These Three Words.’

A few years later, Wonder released Conversation Peace; its first single, the easygoing ‘For Your Love,’reached the top 20 R&B and earned two Grammys in 1996, the same year he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wonder occasionally surfaced with new music as he progressed through his late 60s, recording the Golden Globe-nominated single ‘Faith’ with  Ariana Grande  in 2016, as well as the song ‘Future Sunny Days,’specifically written for the 2018 finale of the hit series Scandal.

Wonder married fellow Motown singer/songwriter Syreeta Wright in 1970, divorcing two years later. A skilled lyricist, she worked with Wonder on hits like ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours’ and ‘If You Really Love Me,’ while he worked with Wright on her albums Syreeta (1972) and Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta (1974). Wright died of cancer in 2004.

Wonder had his first child, Aisha, with Yolanda Simmons in 1975. His daughter was the inspiration for ‘Isn't She Lovely.’ The couple had a son, Keita, who was born in 1977. In 1983, he had a son, Mumtaz, with Melody McCulley. Wonder had a daughter, Sophia, and son, Kwame, with a woman whose name has not been publicized.

Wonder married Karen Millard Morris in 2001. The couple had two sons, Kailand and Mandla, before their divorce was finalized in 2015. Meanwhile, Wonder began a relationship with Tomeeka Robyn Bracy; the couple had two children, before tying the knot in 2017.

I love most of the songs created by Stevie but if you ask me to list out  Top Songs of my choice, I list out these songs :

1. Not a lot of people remember the 1984 Gene Wilder sex comedy The Woman in Red, but everyone remembers ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’ from the soundtrack. The song shot to Number One on the Hot 100 and even won an Academy Award for best song, beating out Ray Parker Junior's ‘Ghostbusters.’ Stevie even sang a bit of the song with the cast of The Cosby Show when he guested on the program a few years later. You see, Theo and Denise got into a minor car accident with Stevie. He invited the whole family into the studio, and of course, they all broke into song fairly quickly. It's one of the all-time great episodes. 

2. Wonder's incredible run of Number One singles in the 1970s kicked off in 1972 with ‘Superstition.’The song began when Jeff Beck came into the studio to contribute guitar parts to the Talking Book sessions. Accounts vary slightly, but Beck created the drum intro and Wonder initially offered the song to the guitarist, but Berry Gordy insisted that Stevie record it himself. It became a worldwide smash, and the next year, Jeff Beck recorded it on his own album. They came together to play the song at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert in 2009.

      

3. American cities were decaying at an alarming rate by 1973, and Stevie Wonder channeled the rage felt by many urbanites on this 1973 classic from  Innervision   . It tells the story of a poor boy from Mississippi who moves to New York City to start a new life but winds up transporting drugs by accident and getting sentenced to 10 years in prison. Much of the story plays out in a spoken-word interlude in the middle of the song, but radio often cut that part out. Near the end, Wonder sang in a growl to convey his rage with the plight of minorities in America. It's a powerful song with a message that is often lost or obscured these days. 

4. Stevie Wonder proclaimed his undying love for a woman on ‘As,’ yet another song on this list from Songs in the Key of Life. Herbie Hancock contributed Fender Rhodes piano on the seven-minute track and it's now seen as one of Wonder's finest love songs, though at the time, the public was a little burned out on Stevie Wonder and it didn't climb beyond Number 36 on the Hot 100.

5. Stevie Wonder was practically exploding with musical ideas in 1973, and he recorded ‘Higher Ground’ in a mad burst of creativity. "I wrote it on May 11th," he said. "I remember the date. I did the whole thing – the words, the music and recorded the track – in three hours. That's the first time I ever finished a song so fast. It was almost as if I had to get it done. I felt something was going to happen. I don't know what or when, but I felt something." Months later, Wonder was in a near-fatal car accident that left him in a coma. The Red Hot Chili Peppers introduced the song to a whole new generation on their 1989 album Mother's Milk. 

6. ‘Sir Duke’ is Stevie Wonder's loving tribute to Duke Ellington, but even people who had never heard of the jazz legend were blasting this song out of their cars in 1977. The song was everywhere, topping the Billboard Hot 100 and even reaching Number Two in England. Though clearly focused on the legacy of Ellington, Wonder broadened it out a bit to honor Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Glenn Miller. Some may argue that Miller isn't quite up to the level of the others, but who is gonna argue with Stevie Wonder when it comes to music?

7. Stevie Wonder looks back on his childhood when he was "a little nappy-headed boy" in his 1976 Number One hit ‘I Wish.’The song kicks off the second side of Songs in the Key of Life, and (much like Sly Stone's "A Family Affair") was composed on a Fender Rhodes electric piano. Will Smith sampled the song on his 1999 track "Wild Wild West" and even played it with Stevie Wonder at the MTV Movie Awards. It did little to save the movie, though, which was an absolute flop. 

8. Many of the biggest stars of the 1970s struggled to find a place in the radically different pop universe of the 1980s, but Stevie Wonder had no such troubles. He kept scoring hits well in the decade, and his 1985 ballad "Overjoyed" reached Number 24 on the Hot 100. He originally recorded the song for his 1979 LP Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants, but it didn't make the cut. He rerecorded it six years later for In Square Circle. It was one of his last huge hits.

Stevie Wonder is battling a serious but manageable health issue but he continues to perform and make music. He keep on traveling for concert tours with a medical team. He believes in ‘Never surrender’.