The word “beloved” gets tossed around too often when talking about musicians (guilty as charged on that front), but it’s the perfect word to use when describing Stevie Wonder.
An American icon in every sense of the word, Wonder was born six weeks premature and developed retrolental fibroplasia which caused him to become blind shortly after birth. This early adversity didn’t stop him however– Wonder was a childhood musical prodigy, singing in the Whitestone Baptist Church as a soloist at the age of 8, and achieving commercial success in 1963 at the age of 13 when his song “Fingertips” was a No. 1 hit on the Billboard charts that made him the youngest artist ever to top the charts. Throughout his career he has transformed the R&B and soul genres, introducing synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during his prolific run in the 1970’s (which includes Songs In The Key Of Life) that reshaped music history and cemented his place as an icon in American R&B music.
Along with his technical prowess, Wonder focused on creating albums that stood as cohesive bodies of work compared to a mere collection of singles. This wasn’t the case in R&B and pop music at the time, and really is where Songs In The Key Of Life enters the picture as one of the most critically acclaimed albums of all-time. It’s important not just because of its immensely diverse and complex musicality found within it, but also because of its socially conscious subject matter that serves as a guiding theme throughout the entire experience. Wonder breezily but thoughtfully recalls childhood memories, feelings of love and loss, faith in God, the black experience in America, and social justice for the poor and downtrodden.
Over 130 musicians contributed to Songs In The Key Of Life, with Wonder serving as principal songwriter and conductor. The list of notable names is immense– Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Minnie Riperton, Deniece Williams, Nathan Watts, and Mike Sembello all contributed to the recording sessions that stretched on for three years due to Wonder’s perfectionist nature and desire to make a record that stood the test of time.
It remains a magnum opus, not only for Wonder himself but for pop and R&B music as a genre. In name and in spirit, it is an album in the key of life.
Standout Songs: “Sir Duke”, “Have A Talk With God”, “Pastime Paradise”, “Ordinary Pain”, “Isn’t She Lovely”
