Quick Search
 Artist:
 Song:
 

Advanced Search
Browse Artists

Stevie Wonder


Stevie Wonder View Artist Profile

View Song Listing

Find Upcoming Concerts/Events

Find News

Genre:
 R&B

b. Steveland Judkins, 13 May 1950, Saginaw, Michigan, USA. Born Judkins, Wonder now prefers to be known as Steveland Morris after his mother's married name. Placed in an incubator immediately after his birth, baby Steveland was given too much oxygen, causing Steveland to suffer permanent blindness. Despite this handicap, Wonder began to learn the piano at the age of seven, and had also mastered drums and harmonica by the age of nine. After his family moved to Detroit in 1954, Steveland joined a church choir, the gospel influence on his music balanced by the R&B of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke being played on his transistor radio. In 1961, he was discovered by Ronnie White of the Miracles, who arranged an audition at Motown Records. Berry Gordy immediately signed Steveland to the label, renaming him Little Stevie Wonder (the "Little" was dropped in 1964). Wonder was placed in the care of writer/producer Clarence Paul, who supervised his early recordings. These accentuated his prodigal talents as a multi-instrumentalist, but did not represent a clear musical direction. In 1963, however, the release of the ebullient live recording "Fingertips (Part 2)" established his commercial success, and Motown quickly marketed him on a series of albums as "the 12-year-old genius" in an attempt to link him with the popularity of "the genius", Ray Charles. Attempts to repeat the success of "Fingertips" proved abortive, and Wonder's career was placed on hold during 1964 while his voice was breaking. He re-emerged in 1965 with a sound that was much closer to the Motown mainstream, scoring a worldwide hit with the dance-orientated "Uptight (Everything's Alright)", which he co-wrote with Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy. This began a run of US Top 40 hits that continued unbroken (apart from seasonal Christmas releases) for over six years.

From 1965-70, Stevie Wonder was marketed like the other major Motown stars, recording material that was chosen for him by the label's executives, and issuing albums that mixed conventional soul compositions with pop standards. His strong humanitarian principles were allowed expression on his version of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind' and Ron Miller"s "A Place In The Sun" in 1966. He co-wrote almost all of his singles from 1967 onwards, and also began to collaborate on releases by other Motown artists, most notably co-writing Smokey Robinson And The Miracles' hit "The Tears Of A Clown", and writing and producing the (Detroit) Spinners' "It's A Shame".

His contract with Motown expired in 1971; rather than re-signing immediately, as the label expected, Wonder financed the recording of two albums of his own material, playing almost all the instruments himself, and experimenting for the first time with more ambitious musical forms. He pioneered the use of the synthesizer in black music, and also widened his lyrical concerns to take in racial problems and spiritual questions. Wonder then used these recordings as a lever to persuade Motown to offer a more open contract, which gave him total artistic control over his music, plus the opportunity to hold the rights to the music publishing in his own company, Black Bull Music. He celebrated the signing of the deal with the release of the solo recordings, Where I'm Coming From and Music Of My Mind, which despite lukewarm critical reaction quickly established him at the forefront of black music.

Talking Book in 1972 combined the artistic advances of recent albums with major commercial success, producing glorious hit singles with the polyrhythmic funk of "Superstition" and the crafted ballad, "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life". Wonder married fellow Motown artist Syreeta on 14 September 1970; he premiered many of his new production techniques on Syreeta (1972) and Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta (1974), for which he also wrote most of the material. Innervisions (1973) consolidated his growth and success with Talking Book, bringing further hit singles with the socially aware "L