Biography

1. Little Nappy Headed Boy

A skinny little boy, radiant with unlimited energy, sat in the living room of Ronnie White, member of The Miracles recording group. Shaking his head from side to side the 10 year old boy repeated the question asked of him, “Can I sing? Yeah, I'm bad, I'm better than Smokey!” the brash kid began to sing The Miracles recording of Lonely Boy. Impressed by the little kid's talents, Ronnie set up a meeting for him with Brian Holland, a talent scout for Motown.

It was back in 1961 that Stevland Morris AKA Little Stevie Wonder was brought to Motown. Reflecting on the past Stevie says, “Singing for me was fun and I didn't realize that I was going through all of the auditions. I was just having fun singing.”

Born on May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan, Stephen Judkins Hardaway was the third of six children whose family later moved to Detroit. Although blind since birth, Stevie never looked upon his blindness as being a handicap. “I did what all the kids my age were doing, I played games, rode bikes and climbed trees.” His first introduction in the music field came when he received a gift of a small six hole harmonica from his uncle and a set of toy drums for Christmas. A local Kiwanis Club replaced the toy drums with a set of real drums soon after.

Steve recalled, “People at school told me I couldn't make it, that I'd end up making potholders instead. But after I thought I was going to be a musician, I became very determined simply to prove those people wrong.”

Stevie found that during the beginning stages of his career things were given to him, including his name "Little Stevie Wonder" which came from Motown. According to Stevie, Billie Jean Brown who worked at Motown in the A & R Department (Artist Relations) along with Lucy and Berry Gordy, tossed around different names for their new artist.

Stevie Little Wonder, Little Stevie Wonder, Stevie The Little Wonder, were some of the suggestions. In the 50's and 60's Little was an identifiable label attached to most protégés or teenage entertainers, such as Little John, Little Anthony and the Imperials. This along with the type of music they selected for him all pointed towards the name Little Stevie Wonder. Stevie says, “If they had waited a while longer they might have called me Knuckle-head or something.”

“I used to get into a lot of trouble then, I loved to play jokes on people. I knew the phone numbers of everyone at Motown and would change my voice and say, "This is Berry and I want you to get Stevie that tape recorder right away. He's a great new artist so it's o.k. to get him the tape recorder, he'll have it back in a few days. After they fell for this about three times and never got the recorder back, they gave me a recorder as a belated birthday present. I had turned 11 that May and received the tape recorder that September.”

2. Everybody Say Yeah

Stevie was signed with Motown for almost two years before his career launching recording Fingertips Part 2 recorded live, took the public by storm. Stevie had recorded three singles and one album prior to Fingertips. His first single, I Call It Pretty Music But The Old People Call It The Blues, sold well locally and in the South. His second single, Little Water Boy written by Clarence Paul and Stevie himself didn't do too well. This was followed by a third single, Contract On Love, written by Lamont Dozier and it did well locally and regionally in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Originally, Fingertips was done on an album called The Jazz Soul Of Little Stevie. It featured Thomas 'Bean' Bowles on flute, Marvin Gaye on drums and piano, Stevie played drums on one cut, Joe Messina, Robert White, James Jamerson on bass, Benny Benjamin on drums, Joe Hunter on piano and Earl Van Dyke on organ. This gave the Motown musicians a chance to play like they did in the clubs of Detroit. “After recording Fingertips in the key of G, we decided to change the key to C and that's when the excitement started. Audience participation happened on the road with "Everybody Say Yeah" and it stuck.” The ad-libbing by Little Stevie, both vocally and on the harmonica, together with his exuberant stage presence is what transformed the song into the hit it turned out to be. Fingertips Part 2 was the first recording whose single and album became #1 simultaneously on Billboard chart.

The summer of 1963 and the remainder of the year offered nothing but success for Little Stevie Wonder. There were many who felt that success at such a young age would spoil Little Stevie Wonder.

“As far as a large ego is concerned, many people felt that I was getting too much too soon, but I didn't realize that it was all happening. I just enjoyed singing. Sometime when it was time for an interview or rehearsal, I asked for candy. I just wanted to go play or have a few cookies and candy, I didn't care about interviews, I wanted to do other things. That might have made some feel that I was a brat, but not true, just a normal kid.”

Motown controlled everything from the artists stage movements to their concert bookings and the copyrights of their songs. Many of the performers were straight from the street and unschooled in finance. Unlike most white performers, they had no lawyers to negotiate their contracts, and they accepted without question the royalties they received. Stevie's royalties were kept in trust for him by a state-appointed guardian until he was twenty-one.

As Little Stevie Wonder became more and more popular, more and more problems developed. Scholastically, things were not working out. “I could not keep up my regular studies at school as it became necessary to go on the road. There was no person qualified to tutor me in my studies while on tour. Because of this, my teachers told me that I should stop pursuing music and continue my education until I was 19 years old. They informed me that legally they could keep me in school until that time. I went in the bathroom and cried and prayed that God would allow me to remain in the industry, but I just knew it was impossible. One of my teachers told me that I had three strikes against me that must be considered.”

“I was poor, black and blind. I should buckle down and try to forget about music, realistically, there would be nothing for an uneducated blind man to do but make rugs and pot holders.”

3. One Hit Wonder?

Stevie says that he is fortunate that God gave him the gift and made it possible for him to create. “Most important, says Stevie, is that I was able to live in a family situation where I was loved and encouraged. If you lack any of those things, it can throw you off balance as to what is to be or not.”

Motown was a special place for Little Stevie Wonder. It provided him with more than enough parents, “Everyone over 11 was my parent, Clarence Paul loved me like his own son, Esther Edwards, Berry Gordy's sister, Ardena Johnson, all the musicians and artists watched over me. Wanda of the Marvelettes would always tell me when she thought I was eating too much candy. I wish kids today could have the same kind of caring expressed and shown to them. Today there is a lack of concern for others and for ones' self.”

Adults began to recognise Stevie as an entertainer after Fingertips. They compared him with Ray Charles. Stevie was labelled, The 12 Year Old Genius I'd say 'What is a genius?' I was not able to compare anything to anything. I was having fun. I felt that I was only having fun and that the Ray Charles was the professional.

Between his recordings of 1963 and 1965, several major events took place in Stevie's career. There were two traumatic events. “My voice changed”. Clarence Paul was producing With A Song In My Heart, Dream, Smile, Make Someone Happy, etc. All the keys had been done. In 1964, Stevie went on tour with the Supremes and the Temptations. At the beginning of the tour Clarence had all the keys, after the tour and back in the studio, all of the keys were too high for Stevie. “My second tragedy was not having the opportunity to meet Dinah Washington. She had expressed a desire to meet me but when I got off the tour in the South, she was performing. She past away soon after that.”

Little Stevie Wonder was beginning to mature. He was taller, had a moustache and was talking to girls on the phone. Instead of throwing his tie out to the audience he was hoping that the girls would throw phone numbers on stage.

Not to overlook his studies, Stevie was fortunate enough to acquire a private teacher to travel with him. One who cared about him very much. “Ted Hull could see well enough to not be considered blind and was considered partially sighted. By Ted having experience of travel around the world, he helped me a great deal from the standpoint of understanding what blindness is about, how to deal and communicate with people.”

“A person who had no experience of travelling the world may not have been able to so readily understand the things that should be checked out by a person with the opportunities. If Ted had been a different person he might have felt that as long as we got the studies done and toured a little that would be enough. But he explained the foreign currencies to me, taught me about the electric currents and their differences. He connected the blind world with the sighted world.”

Stevie recalls a personal experience shared by Ted and himself. “I met a person in a record shop while I was signing autographs. I thought this person was so nice, had such a nice voice. I kept holding this person's hand. The person's name was Bobbie. After we left the shop, I asked Ted about Bobbie. Wasn't that girl nice? Ted said, 'What girl?' The girl in the record shop whose hand I was holding. Ted fell out into hysterics. "That was a boy, Stevie." Then I broke out into hysterics.”

“I was into voices at the time I thought by the voice being high that Bobbie was a short girl. I don't know how funny that would be today, but it was funny then.”

The time period between Fingertips and Uptight was crucial. One of Motown's producers suggested that along with some of their other artists, that they drop Little Stevie Wonder. He had gone 2 years without a hit record. The singles Workout Stevie Workout, Castles In The Sand, Hey Harmonica Man, Kiss Me Baby and High Heal Sneakers did not fare too well on the charts. None of them charted in the UK and only Hey Harmonica Man entered the US top 30 at 29.

It was evident that much of the material selected for Stevie during that period was inappropriate for his age and vocal styling. It was left to Stevie himself and a new team of songwriters to see how best they could rescue his career.

4. Everyting Will Be Alright

However, Uptight (Everything's Alright) changed that story a bit and every year thereafter, in the sixties, Stevie had hit records. Much of this success had to do with the new song writing team of 15 year old Stevie along with Henry Cosby and Sylvia Moy. Stevie always liked to write and several things influenced his writing. “I was greatly influenced by radio. Detroit had the best cross section of music, different cultures, etc.”

The Uptight album showed a more personal side of Stevie. It embraced many of his influences such as the soulful moods of Sam Cooke to a cover of Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind.

The single Uptight returned Stevie to the top of the US R&B chart, while placing at #3 on the pop chart. It was his first single to enter the UK singles chart, where it peaked at #14. Other singles from the albums were Nothing's to Good For My Baby and Blowin' in the Wind.

Six months later saw the release of Stevie's next album Down To Earth. The first single culled from it, being the optimistic A Place In The Sun that placed well in the top US pop and R&B charts as well as returning Stevie to the UK top 20.

At 17, Stevie met a girl named Angie and fell in love. The melody and music for I Was Made To Love Her came from that experience. Sylvia Moy wrote incredible lyrics to that song. It was a vigorously exciting track, with a compelling dance beat, an inspiring James Jamerson bass line and Stevie's racing vocals.

The single shot to #1 on the R&B chart and #2 on the pop charts. It was Stevie's first top ten UK hit where it peaked at #5. The album I Was made To Love Her was produced by Hank Cosby and released in August 1967. It was a pot-pourri of interesting sounds, appealing to a wider audience than his previous works. I was a sign of things to come in the not too distant future.

By the end of the year, Motown was ready to put out a Stevie Wonder Christmas album containing a combination of festive favourites complimented by some in-house original compositions. It was customary for Motown to release Christmas albums for its leading stars to cash in on the seasonal event. In addition it would almost annually bring out compilation of various permutations and combinations from these albums.

In 1968 Stevie graduated with honours from the Michigan School for the Blind thus enabling him to now spend more time developing his music. Ted Hull his personal tutor for the last 5 years stayed on with Stevie for another year until he was 19.

In March the single Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da Day was released and shot to #1 on the R&B charts and top 10 in the pop charts. However as the single climbed the charts, sad news rocked the nation, news that would affect Stevie for many years to come and encourage him in the future to embark in a national crusade. Dr. Martin Luther, civil rights leader, was assisinated in Memphis, Tennessee, as he prepared to lead a march of workers protesting against unfair treatment by their employers.

By March 1968, Motown felt it was about time they put together a Greatest Hits package. The album included his hits so far in addition to the song, I'm Wondering. It was his first album to enter the UK album charts.

With the Greatest Hits album in the charts Stevie rose to the challenge of a suggestion by Berry Gordy that he record an instrumental version of the Bacharach/David song Alfie. The project taken over by Hank Cosby as producer eventually grew into a full fledged album. To avoid confusion with Stevie's current work it was decided to release the album under the pseudonym Eivets Rednow, which is Stevie Wonder spelt backwards. On the album were 4 songs written by Stevie. He played most of the instruments including piano, drums, various keyboards and all the percussion.

The self-titled album, Eivets Rednow, never really took off, most likely because of the unknown artist name and lack of conviction on Motown's part.

Later that year Stevie heard For Once In My Life. Not knowing that it was a Jobete/Motown song he went to Motown with suggesting that he do a cover. “Even though it was a ballad and I loved it as that, I felt the tune could be done in the form of rejoicing in meeting someone who needed me. I was excited and recorded it that way.” It was release as a single a month before the album shipped. The single reached #2 in the US and provided Stevie with his highest UK position on the charts - #3.

The album when released contained 2 previous singles Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da Day and You Met Your Match. It showed a growth in Stevie's music and his venturing into the realm of production with the tracks You Met Your Match and I Don't Know Why (I Love You). The latter track was arguably the best track on the album, a hard-edged emotional declaration of love. It was released as the next single, with My Cherie Amour on the flipside. The top title though only reached #14 in UK and #16 in the US R&B charts. However it was the B-side that attracted major attention from the radio deejays. The song did not make it onto the last album, though Stevie had written it two years previously. Stevie says that the song was personal, “I wrote it when when I was sixteen after me and my sweetheart broke up. It took me thirty minutes to write and was initially titled My Marsha, but Sylvia (Moy) came up with the revised title.”

The song did not conform to the standard Motown formula and hence the powers that be never felt it appropriate for release.

Now sensing a possible hit with My Cherie Amour based on public exposure, Motown flipped it to the A side, a move that proved successful. This resulted in the single reaching #4 in both in both US charts and in the UK.

As expected, an album was hastily compiled, titled My Cherie Amour and released in August 1969. It contained many standard songs such as, Light My Fire, The Shadow Of Your Smile and Hello Young Lovers, which Stevie capably handled. He matched these with four of his own compositions. Also on the album was Yeter-Me Yester-You Yesterday destined to be his next single, a song that would peak at #2 in the UK, his biggest hit there, and placing in the US top ten.

By the end of the year Stevie was invited to the White House by President Nixon to receive the Distinguished Service Award.

During the last few years, although working on songs for himself he also wrote sons for many other Motown artists, including Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Contours and the Four Tops.

5. The Girl My Heart Beats For

Although he stood six feet and towered over most disc jockeys and fans, people found it hard to drop the word Little from Little Stevie Wonder. A major factor in helping people to drop Little from his name was his marriage to Syreeta Wright in September of 1970. “I met Syreeta when Don Hunter and I were working together. After hearing her voice, I thought she could do a particular song. She was working in the arranging department of Motown. Brian Holland had discovered her also. We became very good friends, a love at first sight. She was older than I, but I was determined to get her.” As his adolescence came to an end, Wonder took charge of his career. By the time of Signed, Sealed & Delivered, he was virtually self-sufficient in the studio, serving as his own producer and arranger, playing most of the instruments himself, and writing material with his wife, Syreeta Wright. In this phase, he scored three more hit singles: Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours, Heaven Help Us All, and Never Had A Dream Come True.

His next album Where I'm Comin' From, was the last album he would make under his original two five-year contracts with Motown. Where I'm Comin' From may have been Stevie's indirect way of telling executives at Motown what they did not want to hear. Stevie later spoke to Rolling Stone magazine about the album: “That was kinda premature to some extent, but I wanted to express myself . A lot of it now I'd probably remix. Never Dreamed You 'd Leave In Summer came from that album, and If You Really Love Me . . . but it's nothin' like the things I write now. I love gettin' into just as much weird shit as possible.” But weird music was not acceptable at Motown then.

After Where I'm Comin' From, Steve did not cut any more records until he turned twenty-one and was eligible for the money that had been held in trust for him. More importantly, his contract with Motown ran out and he said he was through with them. “They were upset at first,” he says, speaking cautiously in deliberate understatement, “but they began to understand--later. Whatever peak I had reached doing that kind of music, I had reached. It was important for them to understand we were going nowhere.”

When he reached his 21st birthday in 1971 Motown threw a party for him. However the next morning Berry Gordy was surprised to receive a letter from Stevie's lawyer cutting ties with Motown. At this time he was eligible to received the money due to him that accumulated while a minor; despite earning over $30 million, he received only $1 million.

By now his life became affected by different realizations. “I realized that there are things that do happen within the business. You must deal with originality to a certain degree, commercialism to a certain degree, but again, all of it has a proper balance.”

6. Mind Full Of Music

Now that Stevie had the ability to create without the limitations of Motown, and backed up by financial security, he soared. This period in his life was one of extreme activity, enormous creativity, new directions and seemingly limitless change and growth. Remarking about that time in his life, he says “I then asked the question again of where am I going, what am I going to do. I had to see and feel what I wanted to do . . . feel where my destiny was, or the direction of my destiny anyway. I think that when you gradually change you still have a certain thing that you left behind. When you take a very abrupt change, you say, 'Okay, boom, this is what this is going to be about--click, and you do it. It was time for a change musically. Spiritually I had gone as far as I could have gone.” To explore the music swirling in his mind he ventured to New York City, a place now buzzing with state-of-the-art recording studios, and the latest technological innovations. He lived in a hotel, but spent most of the time in the studio. It was at this time that he met Robert Margoulef and Malcolm Cecil, both engineers and composers. They had recently released and album called Tonto's Expanding Headband, which used the Arp and Moog synthesizers to create a cacophony of sounds. Stevie says, “The synthesizer allowed me to do a lot of things I wanted to do for a long time, but which were just not possible until it came along. It adds a whole new dimension to music.”

With this new dimension of sound his new compositions now took on both a more mental flavour and a rock sound, the direct result of the synthesizers. This in no way sacrificed the emotional content of his music, but the ARP and Moog did offer him the dimension he wanted. “They express what's inside my mind.”

Hence the name of the next album he did, the ground-breaking Music Of My Mind. Working with him Co-writing some of the songs was Syreeta Wright. Stevie sank some quarter of a million dollars of his own money into time at three non-Motown studios in New York and Los Angeles (Electric Lady and Media Sound in New York, and Crystal Industries in Los Angeles). There, playing most of the instruments himself and heavily emphasizing the synthesizers, he independently recorded and produced Music Of My Mind. The instruments he played included piano, drums, organ, harmonica, clavichord, clavinet and of course the Synthesizers.

Stevie says about the project, “When you get music and you get creativity and you get love together, it's pretty heavy.” The album was a truly remarkable departure from anything else Stevie had done. Yet, more than any of his other records, Music Of My Mind emanates the real personality of Stevie Wonder, the raw energy and emotion he was brimming with. The album really was before its time, and did not get the recognition that it deserved.

Without exception, all the tracks on Music Of My Mind give that feeling of Stevie's wings spreading and his mind venturing in many directions.

Also of note, Music Of My Mind looked as different outside as it sounded inside, and this, too, was due to Stevie's new artistic say-so and sense of freedom. There was this sophisticated look about, very differnt from the tacky cover designs of the Motown controlled albums of the 60's. It was also his first album to include printed lyrics.

The album marked a milestone in the development of a great talent. A man who keeps his promise, Stevie in maturity shines with that same loving and brilliant light that had drawn people to him for a decade. Born a star, he never lets his technical and artistic proficiency overshadow his deep humility. This album is a gift to the spirit from one who really cares.

With this remarkable new material, Stevie went back to talk business with Motown. His second contract with Motown had lapsed some time now. He and his lawyer, Johannan Vigoda, went back to negotiate with Motown, spending six full weeks working out a new contract. The final result was 120 pages long and absolutely unprecedented in what it made possible for Stevie, and, ultimately, for Motown too. Stevie achieved the right to produce and record his music virtually any place, any time, and any way--he had complete artistic control. He also owned his own publishing rights, something no other Motown artist had ever done, and increased royalty rates.

Vigoda, who had previously worked out contracts for such rock luminaries as Richie Havens and Jimi Hendrix, told Rolling Stone, "It was a very important contract for Motown, and a very important contract for Stevie, representing the artists of Motown. He broke tradition with the deal, legally, professionally--in terms of how he could cut his records and where he could cut--and in breaking tradition he opened up the future for Motown. That's what they understood. They had never had an artist in thirteen years, they had singles records, they managed to create a name in certain areas, but they never came through with a major, major artist.

Despite the chagrin and the bad feelings that must have existed for a time on the part of Motown management, the decision was clearly the right one for the company to make.

"I'm unashamed to say Stevie and Marvin [Gaye] changed our approach," Ewart Abner, Motown Records president, told Newsweek. "They loosened us up. We made a lot of money and we didn't have to change. They taught us how to have a little fun." With this "loosening up," Marvin Gaye and Stevie made millions and millions for Motown, indirectly causing the company to change its promotion and distribution system. And most significantly, Motown was at last opened up to the mass white rock audience.

7. Does Love for One Another Have To End

By this time Steve's life was undergoing other changes. His marriage with Syreeta was on the rocks. Their life together was becoming troubled and difficult. “She's a Leo, and I'm a Taurus, and, phew, that's like putting two sticks of dynamite together!” Though it eventually ended in divorce, they would still work closely together. Stevie wrote the song 'Cause We've Ended As Lovers which was later included on a Syreeta album. The lyrics related some of his thoughts on the divorce: 'Cause we've ended now as lovers

Does it mean that we each other can't be friends
Cause we've ended now as lovers
Does our love for one another have to end

The first single culled from Music of My Mind was Superwoman. The album track was really two songs cleverly merged into one, Superwoman and Where Were You When I Needed You. The former tells of a love going sour because of the ambitions of two persons, pulling the relationship in different directions. And the latter a seperation and desperate plea to mend an inevitable break up. The other song released as a single was Keep On Running. Neither fared very well on the charts, but they were tasters for great things to come.

Alongside his work on Music of My Mind, Stevie also produced an album entitled, Syreeta, for Syreeta. Containing 9 songs 7 written by Stevie and Syreeta, one, What Love Has Joined Together by Smokey Robison, and the Beatles' She's Leaving Home. In addition to doing most of the instrumentation, he also sang the intro verse on To Know You Is To Love You. An excellent album illustrating Stevie's new found freedom and blossoming use of the synthesizers.

Stevie's follow up album to Music of My Mind was soon in coming. It was evident that Stevie had accumulated many songs during his recording stint working on Music of My Mind, and six months after this, Talking Book was ready for the world. The cover photo on Talking Book is of a reflective Stevie sitting on an arid hillside. A very poignant picture taken by Robert Margoulef.

Talking Book is a more finished album than Music of My Mind. It manages to maintain the high vitality of that record while cutting back on the jiving around.

The sum total is a tight, hard-hitting, solidly professional product which went platinum. It was as if, with the first flush of freedom over, Stevie could now relax into full artistic control. The spontaneity had always been there; what he had found now was a little more self-discipline. The album begins with the lovely You Are The Sunshine Of My Life and ends with the endearing I Believe (When I Fall In Love). In between we have slices of funk, ballad, social commentary and jazz.

Superstition was the first single taken from the album. A very hard hitting funky number criticizing those people who are dictated to by such beliefs because:

When you believe in things that you don't understand
Then you suffer.

Lucidly he points out how self-destructive superstition and ignorance are. Superstition made it all the way to the top of the charts. This was soon to be followed by You Are The Sunshine of My Life.

If you happen to have a copy of the first pressing of Talking Book, and if you know how to read Braille, you can touch Stevie's own words about the record: “Here is my music. It is all that I have to tell you how I feel. Know that your love keeps my love strong - Stevie.”

8. People Sinning Just For Fun

Stevie Wonder & Rolling StonesAs a promotion for Talking Book, Stevie toured the US and Canada with the Rolling Stones. This exposed him to a totally new audience who seemed to love him and his music and resulted in sales of Talking Book soaring wherever he'd played. However there were many difficulties with the tour, involving allotted time and lack of billing for Stevie at certain venues. However Steve still managed to attract attention. The New York Times reporter noted, "Spectacular as the Stones were, my most vivid musical memories are of the charged-up playing and singing of the blind soul singer/musician Stevie Wonder and his crisp band, Wonderlove." Or, as the New York Post put it, "Stevie Wonder is second fiddle to no one." Lifestyle and philosophical differences between Stevie and the Stones also made for some feeling of ambivalence on Steve's part. The Stones' studied decadence, their drug use, sexual promiscuity, and glorification of the seamier side of life were in stark contrast to Steve's values. To him, the Stones came as a shock. By rock standards Stevie is square. He does not drink; he does not smoke and certainly did not do drugs.

He said while on tour, My head hasn't swelled because I had success early. At least I don't think so. Some of it has actually turned me off. I mean, there's a lot of bull that goes down in the business. People blowing money on cocaine when they could be giving it to those who need it. We artists owe more than our music to, like, black people. We should give them some time, and, maybe, some money too.

Stevie WonderTo a Newsweek reporter, he said, I don't see any reason for taking drugs. . . If I were high it would destroy the character of my music, because I would be tripping out so much on myself as opposed to the things around me, or what I was seeing as opposed to the conclusions I've come to within my mind." He also added, "I can feel the cycle of the sun going up and down, I can feel the world spinning round. But how can you print that? People will say, 'Whoooeee! How high is he now?

Because Stevie speaks through his music you can find his position of drugs on a number of recording. In Bird of Beauty, on the Fulfillingness' First Finale album, he says:

There is so much in life for you to feel
Unfound in white, red, or yellow pills.

In Too High, on the Innervisions album, he takes a different angle, looking directly at dope and how it can destroy and empty people who seek in it an artificial enhancement of life.

In Chemical Love, on the Jungle Fever soundtrack he writes:

Some people find themselves hooked on the weirdest things
That have nothing to do with living
Some people crave for physical love
Some people crave material love
Yet fewer crave for spiritual love
You've got a chemical jones,
You've got a chemical love

It was around this time that Rolling Stone magazine ran a short piece called "Stevie Wonder: Can A Black Man Sing The Whites?" It mentioned that Steve was "talking about working on a Graham Nash session;" and that he'd just gotten through playing clavinet on a song he'd written for Jeff Beck, and also reported that the last time he'd been in England he'd played with Eric Clapton. He told Rolling Stone, I'm not playing with these guys for a money consideration. They have something to say that'll make what I want to say better.

Stevie is nothing if not modest; his humility is genuine, unaffected. But what was happening was that finally his genius was being acknowledged by circles that cut across age, race, and musical style. To Motown's everlasting credit, it had recognized his talent eleven years earlier.

9. So Glad He Let Him Try It Again

I'm so glad that he let me try it again
'Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin.
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then.
Gonna keep on tryin', 'til I reach my
Highest ground.

On August 6th, 1973 Stevie played concert in Greeneville, South Carolina. It was on the way back just outside Durham, North Carolina that Stevie's life almost taken from him. Stevie was asleep in the front seat of a car being driven by his friend, John Harris . They were snaking along the road, just behind a truck loaded high with logs. Suddenly the trucker jammed on his brakes, and the two vehicles collided. Logs went flying, and one smashed through the wind shield, sailing squarely into Steve's forehead. He was bloody and unconscious when he was pulled from the wrecked car. For ten days he lay in a coma caused by severe brain contusion, as friends, fans, and relatives prayed.

It was his friend and tour director Ira Tucker who first elicited some response from him: "I remember when I got to the hospital in Winston-Salem. . .man, I couldn't even recognize him. His head was swollen up about five times normal size. And nobody could get through to him. I knew that he likes to listen to music really loud and I thought maybe if I shouted in his ear it might reach him. The doctor told me to go ahead and try, it couldn't hurt him. The first time I didn't get any response, but the next day I went back and I got right down in his ear and sang Higher Ground. His hand was resting on my arm and after awhile his fingers started going in time with the song. I said yeah! Yeeeeaaah! This dude is going to make it !"

It was still a long, slow climb back to health, though. When Stevie regained consciousness, he discovered that he had lost his sense of smell, perhaps permanently. And he was deeply afraid that he might have lost his musical faculty too. Finally Ira Tucker said, "We brought one of his instruments--I think it was the clavinet--to the hospital. For a while, Stevie just looked at it, or didn't do anything with it. You could see he was afraid to touch it, because he didn't know if he still had it in him--he didn't know if he could still play. And then, when he finally did touch it - man, you could just see the happiness spreading all over him. I'll never forget that."

Still, he had to take medication for a year, tired easily, and suffered severe headaches. That he lived at all is miraculous. But that he lived to reach higher and higher ground--personally, musically, spiritually--at least in part because of the accident makes you wonder. Steve's deep faith and spiritual vision make him even doubt that it was an accident: “You can never change anything that has already happened”, he once said, speaking of the incident. “Everything is the way it's supposed to be . . . everything that ever happened to me is the way it is supposed to have been. A confirmation of his belief in destiny.”

Michael Sembello, Wonderlove's lead guitarist at the time said, "Well, I think he'd always had some awareness of the spiritual side of life. But the accident really brought it to the surface. Like now I know he really sees--and uses--every concert as the spiritual opportunity it is, to reach people. . . The accident made him recognize God, it changed him a lot. Some times he'd just drift off in conversation, he'd just . . . be some place else. He got really intense after the accident, his ESP got really strong." Steve told the New York Times, The accident opened my ears up to many things around me. Naturally, life is just more important to me now . . . and what I do with my life.

The song Higher Ground, written a couple months before the accident, was truly uncanny. Stevie once said, “I would like to believe in reincarnation. I would like to believe that there is another life. I think that sometimes your consciousness can happen on this earth a second time around. For me, I wrote Higher Ground even before the accident. But something must have been telling me that something was going to happen to make me aware of a lot of things and to get myself together. This is like my second chance for life, to do something or to do more, and to value the fact that I am alive.”

Before the accident. Steve had been scheduled to do a five-week, twenty-city tour in March-April of 1974. It was postponed, with the exception of one date in Madison Square Garden in late March. That concert began with Stevie pointing to his scarred forehead, looking up, grinning, and giving "thanks to God that I'm alive." The crowd, 21,000 strong, roared, and as a Post critic noted, "it was hard not to be thrilled."

He gave himself about a month and a half of recuperation before heading back to the studio to work on his next album. By mid-November he was on stage again, for the homecoming benefit of Shaw University, where he was a trustee. The university was facing financial difficulties; the performers at the wildly successful fundraising show included LaBelle, Wonderlove, Exhuma, and Pride of the Ghetto, in addition to Steve himself. Later in the month, he was a surprise guest at an Elton John concert in Boston. "A friend of mine is here tonight, he was badly hurt in an accident some time ago. . ." Elton John started to announce to the 18,000-strong audience in the Boston Garden. But, according to Esquire's Burr Snider, Elton never finished the sentence: "The immense cavern began to rumble. It went on and on and it seemed as if it would never subside. When it did, Elton John and Stevie Wonder jammed into Honky Tonk Woman and when Stevie Wonder took a side-shot at Superstition, it seemed as if the Garden would tumble down. I found to my surprise that tears were tracking down my face."

Although he had originally planned to go to Africa that winter, that trip too was postponed. Late January and February found him knocking out audiences in Europe. He played at the annual MIDEM Convention in Cannes, France, and then did two sellout performances at the Rainbow Theatre in London in front of an audience comprising many stars of British rock.

March brought the Grammy awards. The nominations list had been announced in January, and Steve had been nominated in seven categories. He won five awards: Best Pop Vocal Performance-Male (Sunshine Of My Life), Best Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance--Male (Superstition), Best Rhythm and Blues Song-Writer (Superstition), Best Engineered Recording--Nonclassical (Innervisions), and the most prestigious of the Grammys, Album of the Year--Innervisions.

10. Visions In My Mind

Although Innervisions was recorded before the accident, it was released after, and most people associates it with Stevie's miraculous recovery. Indeed, in many places it is weirdly prophetic. The New York Times review of the album says "Stevie, identifies himself as a gang and a genius, producing, composing, arranging, singing, and, on several tracks, playing all the accompanying instruments (yes, it is impossible, or used to be). But Stevie Wonder, you see and want to know more. At the center of his music is the sound of what is real. Vocally, he remains inventive and unafraid, he sings all the things he hears: rock, folk, and all forms of Black music. The sum total of these varying components is an awesome knowledge, consumed and then shared by an artist who is free enough to do both." It was around this time that Roberta Flack said in Newsweek, of Steve's music, "It's the most sensitive of our decade . . . it has tapped the pulse of the people."

The first track released as a single was Higher Ground a song encouraging people to get up and keep on doing what they need to keep the world turning. He relates it to himself saying that his last time on earth he did not make the best use of life and hence in this life he intends to keep on trying till he reaches the highest ground. The album opens with Too High, Stevie's statement of his position on the use and effects of drugs. Visions describes a utopia as he perceives it, but the next track Living For The City, the albums second single, brings us back to the reality of the harshness of life for blacks in the in the city. Golden Lady a song Stevie said he wrote about Minnie Riperton is a mid-tempo ballad that is seamlessly segued to the end of Living For The City. After Higher Ground, is Jesus Children Of America asking if those that prayed really did so from the bottom of their hearts or if they felt what they were praying. All Is Fair In Love the most pop orientated track on the album sounds as though it was written about the break-up in his marriage with Syreeta. Don't You Worry About A Thing the third US single has Stevie in high spirits and He's Mistra Know-It-All the third UK single ends of the package with a statement warning about the dangers of associating with persons only out to deceive.

All in all, it is possibly the greatest collection of songs put on a single album.

1974 was a busy year for Stevie. He produced a second album for Syreeta, entitled Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta. Writing all eleven songs, some with Syreeta, his trademark arrangements coming across beautifully complimenting Syreeta's soft sultry voice. Two singles Your Kiss Is Sweet and Spinin' And Spinnin' were released from the album. An essential album for any Stevie Wonder collection.

Syreeta's 1977 album, One To One, featured only the one song written, produced and arranged by Stevie. Harmour Love was released as a single which reached a disappointing #75 on the US R&B charts. A sprightly acoustic guitar track with a reggae feel and Stevie on background vocals that certainly deserved better chart placing.

Also in 1974, Stevie produced and played on the Perfect Angel album from Minnie Riperton, writing two songs, the title track and Take A Little Trip. The single Lovin' You brought Minnie to the public's attention, aptly displaying her multi-octave vocal range capability.

In addition to all this, Stevie wrote and produced the song Tell Me Something Good for the group Rufus featuring Chaka Khan. A #1 R&B and #3 pop chart hit, a song featuring a funky clavinet based track that filled the radio airwaves in the summer of 1974.

11. Smile Please

In the mean time Stevie was busy in the studio putting the finishing touches on his next album, to be called Fulfillingness' First Finale. Its an album that may not have had the raw edge as did its predecessor, but taken song by song, Fulfillingness' is virtually unflawed, full of emotion without being maudlin. Its lyrics range from the political to the spiritual to the romantic, its music from gentle to forceful to jive--a dazzlingly beautiful and innovative collection. An album that truly showed Stevie writing what he felt deep inside - a gift not many can claim.

Stevie WonderFulfillingness' kicks off with the lovely and cheering Smile Please, a song many claim to be the best opening track on any of Stevies albums. The first track taken as a single was You Haven't Done Nothing featuring the Jackson 5. A swipe at politicians and their do nothing attitude for the less fortunate that took Stevie to the top of both pop and R&B charts. Boogie On Reggae Woman, the second single to be culled from the album was a sensual and rythmic number that encouraged the listener to get up on their feet and get down. Stevie showed he was still in top form with the ballads Creepin', Too Shy To Say and It Ain't No Use. His spiritual thoughts were revealed without being preachy but subtley pointing to a higher being ,on the tracks, Heaven is Ten Zillion Light Years Away and They Won't Go. The Brazilian flavoured Birds of Beauty is an enlivening number both musically and mentally, in that it speaks of freeing the mind and body of harmful external influences. The album ends with an emotional plea Please Don't Go that sees Stevie at his finest together with chorus belting out an almost gospel flavoured appeal.

In November 1974 Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley proclaimed the 18th, Stevie Wonder Day for the city. A proclamation had been drawn up. Representatives from the press and photographers had been invited to the Mayor's office. However Stevie was in New York unaware of the ceremony at the mayor's office.

On the 22nd, Stevie finally arrived. Before he could make it to the Mayor's office, however, some seventy-five school children who were touring City Hall caught wind of his presence and engulfed him.Stevie Wonder

The Mayor's ceremony was full of cliches, with the Mayor praising Steve's musical genius, versatility, concern for other people and social problems, and ability to "transcend boundaries of race, age, and nationality."

Steve's last concert on the Fall Festival Tour was a benefit at Madison Square Garden. In addition to giving a performance which brought raves from all who attended, Stevie donated $50,000 to seven New York charities. The show itself is legendary; the finale was Superstition, with Sly Stone, Eddie Kendricks, and Roberta Flack singing along.

It was certainly a period during which Stevie had a lot to smile about.

12. Isn't She Wonderful

Around this time Stevie had fallen in love with a young woman named Yolanda Simmons. She had joined Stevie's entourage as his secretary-bookkeeper, and in a short time they had fallen in love. Stevie was convinced that he would never fall in love with someone who was not, inside, a beautiful person. “I can usually tell about a woman by her conversation, Stevie says, her voice and the way she carries herself. Some women can have a very beautiful outer face and a very ugly inner face.”

Yolanda was proud of his talent and pleased with his fame, but she loved Stevie as a person, not as a personality. She radiated the sort of inner beauty that he, perhaps better than sighted people, could identify. In April 1975 their daughter was born. They named her Aisha Zakia, combining African words meaning strength and intelligence. “I want to be young with my kids,” Stevie has said. “WOW, I really want 'em, boy or girl, doesn't matter, that's part of you, the sunshine of your life.”

In March 1975 he added five more Grammies to his collection, including Best Album for Fulfillingness', Best Producer and Best Male Vocalist.

By now Stevie had won awards in various music genres, Soul, Pop and Rock. He does not like labeling. “I don't like it when one is put into a category of music,” he says, “so that when he ventures into some other kind of music the press or the public has a hard time relating to it. It seems that every person is put into a certain bag. Being an artist is not being limited to one kind of music. For instance, soul music was derived from gospel and early rhythm and blues. In my mind, soul means feeling. When a person is categorized as a soul artist because of his colour, I don't like it. True artistry is about variety, the real spice of an artist's life.”

“I have never been labelled in my own mind,” says Stevie.

In August of 1975 his contract with Motown was up for renewal again. The new contract a seven year thirteen-million-dollar deal was the largest ever made with a recording star. But Motown expected to get more than that back, beginning with its share of the profits from Stevie's first double album, which was to be released in 1976.

Few musical products were as eagerly awaited as Stevie Wonder's new album, but he was in no hurry to release it. A perfectionist who will spend hours on a single musical phrase, Stevie was not yet satisfied with the album. By the fall of 1975 he still felt it needed much more work. He had not even decided on a definite title. The year ended, and it had been a rather unique one: in all of 1975, Stevie Wonder had not released a single record.

Each year Grammy awards are given only to those artists who have released records during the previous year, so Stevie was not nominated for any of the 1975 Grammies presented in February 1976. On the night of the awards ceremony, Paul Simon won the Grammy for Best Album. In his acceptance speech, he thanked Stevie Wonder for not making an album in 1975.

13. What Key, What Key?

Stevie continued to work on his new album. By the spring of 1976 he had decided to call it Songs in the Key of Life. He had also tentatively decided to release it in May. But May came and went, and still no album. By July Motown printed tee-shirts with the message, Stevie's almost ready.

By the summer of 1976 the public and the record stores were clamouring for Songs in the Key of Life, but Stevie was still not satisfied with the album. As hard as he tried, he could not get all the material he wanted to include in the album on four record sides. In the end it would be a double album plus a single, 33-rpm disc containing four songs.

At last, in September 1976, it was ready. Reporters and music critics, everyone who had worked on the album, all of Stevie's publicity people and close friends, and Stevie, Yolanda, and Aisha traveled to a farm in Connecticut for a press preview of the album. While Aisha played with the farm animals and romped in the grass under the watchful eye of her mother, Stevie autographed copies of the album and gave interviews. He hoped the reporters and critics like the album, he said, but it really didn't matter, because he knew he had given it everything he had and that it was the best he could do.

He need not have been concerned about others' reaction to the album. Not only did almost everyone like it, but most people were awed by it. "Brilliant," "Exciting," "Bursting," "the album of the decade," were words and phrases used over and over to describe Songs in the Key of Life. It was like a guided tour through the whole range of musical styles as well as through the life and feelings of Stevie Wonder. It included recollections of childhood, of first love and lost love. It contained songs about faith and love among all peoples and songs about social justice for the poor and downtrodden. It featured Stevie playing a host of instruments and manipulating his voice like only he could.

It took no time at all for Songs in the Key of Life to reach the No. 1 spot on the record charts where it entered on it first week of release.

Songs kicks off with the evocative Love's In need of Love Today. Have a Talk with God co-written with brother Calvin suggests using God in time of need - He's the only free psychiatrist in town. Village Ghetto Land with its string synthesisers provides a haunting feel while describing the life of those living in the ghetto. Contusion an instrumental, written and performed live about 3 years prior, was named after the injury he sustained in the car accident. The first side closes with Sir Duke, a tribute to Duke Ellington and other jazz greats. Side 2 of the vinyl record opens with the happy reminiscing I Wish with its famous bass intro. The first love song on the record, Knocks Me Off My Feet, has Stevie extolling his love but not trying to bore his loved one. The use of the drums to emulate being knocked off his feet is ingenious.

Pastime Paradise condemns those that live in the past harping on all the negatives that are now considered evil and praises those who look to future with the positives that make life better. To add a touch of universality to the record Stevie has the Los Angeles Church Choir and the Hare Krishna devotees chant during the culmination of the song. Summer Soft plays on the theme of the changing seasons in relation to the ups and downs in love. Ordinary Pain closes side 2 with Stevie singing about the pain suffered as a result of a lost love, and then cleverly switches to the other side of the coin from where Kimberly Brewer provides her story.

Side 3 opens with the cries of a baby, though not Aisha, on the song Isn't She Lovely written about the joys of his baby girl. Joy Inside My tears is a very emotional track praising the joy that the love of someone has brought into a sad life. 1976 saw grand celebrations for the US bicentennial independence anniversary. Black Man played on that theme by announcing all the great things achieved by Americans, though of all colour, throughout the years.

Ngiculela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing leads off Side 4 with Stevie singing in Zulu, Spanish and English about what his music is all about, and that is love from the heart. If Its Magic is a witty song about love, though the word love is never mentioned. As features jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock on electric piano. Its a song with some of the most beautiful lyrics that Stevie has so graced the world with. An open-ended expression of infinite love. Another Star is a high spirited though sad love song featuring George Benson on guitar and Bobbi Humphreys on flute. At eight minutes long its a wonderful sing-a-long to bring to an end side 4 of the album.

The original album came with a Something's Extra bonus EP containing 4 songs. Ebony Eyes extols the beauty of the woman even though she may be from ghetto streets. Saturn, co-written with Michael Sembello places Stevie in the role of a being from the planet Saturn looking on at the chaos humans are creating for themselves and comparing it with his peaceful life back home. All Day Sucker is about as funky as anything you will ever hear and to close of the masterpiece Stevie provides the ideal wind-down instrumental, Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call), that would contrast with the beauty of the setting of the sun.

Shortly after the album's release, Stevie went on a national tour to promote it, and early in 1977 the record industry also did some promoting of the album and its artist. Stevie and his work were nominated for a total of seven Grammy awards, and on the February evening when the awards were presented he actually won four: Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Per former, Best Male Rhythm and Blues Performer, and Best Producer.

Stevie was not present at the awards ceremonies as he, off late had an interest in visiting Africa and that February he went to Nigeria for two weeks, primarily to explore his musical heritage, as he put it. He did give a few concerts, however, one of which was scheduled at the exact time of the Grammy awards ceremony back in the United States. A satellite hook-up was arranged so that Stevie could be awarded his Grammies from across the sea. However the video signal was poor and the audio inaudible. Andy Williams went on to make a public blunder at the US end when he asked, "Stevie can you see us?"

Taking a break from the recording studio he became a father for the second time. In April 1977 Yolanda gave birth to an eight-pound, seven-ounce baby boy. They named him Keita Sawandi, meaning "worshiper" and "founder."

14. Sharing The Knowledge, Fewer Cared

As far back as 1974, Michael Braun approached Stevie to write a theme song for a movie he was making called the Secret Life of Plants. The movie was to be based on a best selling book of the same name authored by Christopher Tompkins and Peter Bird. However after Stevie presented the song, the film producers requested that Stevie do the entire soundtrack to the movie. Having never attempted such a task, Stevie felt it would be a challenge for a blind person to not just score a movie but one with a very unusual subject matter.

With three years in the making, Stevie Wonders Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants was finally released in October of 1979. It did not help that the movie was not generally released, hence the public never had a chance to see the movie and appreciate and understand the soundtrack as intended by Stevie.

As expected the music was a complete evolution in style, surpassing in scale anything he had since produced. He incorporated much symphonic musical styles, blending African, Indian and Japanese music also in the fray, showing the diverse life and understandings of plants from various cultures worldwide.

However being released in an era where disco was the fad, it was not surprising that Secret Life of Plants failed to garner the public acceptance afforded Stevie's albums since Music Of My Mind. As the lyrics to a song, Same Old Story, on the album declares:

And those who knew that shared
Their knowledge fewer cared
About what plants could do

Nevertheless, it was an album of which Stevie could be proud. It has to be his most underrated and misunderstood albums in his repertoire. The stylistic range of the album was impressive, starting with Earth's Creation and The First Garden to the melodic sitar based Voyage to India, to the jazzy Venus Flytrap right through to the two spectacular closing tracks, Tree and Finale, an astoundingly beautiful climax to the record. In between Stevie finds space for some standard ballads that would supposedly avail it to radio station play lists. These were Send One Your Love, Black Orchid and Outside My Window. Syreeta performs lead vocals on Come Back As A Flower, a song on which she wrote the lyrics.

Stevie felt he was growing and being innovative. He could have followed the music scene at the time and brought out a disco album, which I am sure would have been better accepted, but as he says, “If you don't take a chance in life, then you really cannot move forward.”

A tour to promote the album did not fare too well. Concerts featuring an orchestra and Wonderlove with a large screen portraying clips from the movie in synch with the live music were quite a spectacular affair. However they were received with a lukewarm reception with many venues failing to sell-out. A disappointed Stevie reflected, “I have to think why it was not (successful) - were people unable to get into the Secret Life Of Plants? The true meaning of an artist is to be expressive and innovative. A lot of things have been afforded me by the people, so I have to share with them the experiences I have had and am having.”

15. Jammin' Til The Break Of Dawn

Stevie could not allow another 2 or 3 years to go by before releasing another album. Hence he was under pressure to get back to the studio to come up with material for a new record.

However while working on tracks for what would be supposedly a more commercial offering, he found time to work on albums for both Jermaine Jackson and Roberta Flack.

Jermaine Jackson then the son-in-law of Berry Gordy, opted to stay with Motown as a solo artist when the Jackson 5 left for Epic records. His previous 2 solo albums were unsuccessful, and Berry Gordy felt it necessary to inject some life into his son-in-law's waning career. When he heard a track Stevie was working on called Lets Get Serious, he thought it would be ideal for Jermaine. The track showed that Stevie's commercial spark was clearly not blunted. Two other songs on the album was also written and produced by Stevie, You're Supposed To Keep Your Love For Me and Where Are You Now. The former was also released as a single, though did not achieve the success as did Let's Get Serious.

On Roberta's album, titled Roberta Flack Featuring Donny Hathaway, Stevie contributed 2 songs. Donny had died the previous year from an unfortunate fall from an office building. The cause has never been verified, as there have been theories ranging from suicide to tripping while under the influence of drugs. One of Stevie's songs on the album, You Are My Heaven, was a Roberta/Donny duet and co-written with Eric Mercury. The other was a disco smash called Don't Make Me Wait Too Long.

Also in 1980, Stevie contributed a song on Quincy Jones' album The Dude. The track Betcha Wouldn't Hurt Me also featured Stevie on Synthesizers.

By May 1980 a press release of a forthcoming album titled Hotter Than July for July release was greeted with much skepticism by the press. As expected July came and went with no new record. However in August, concert dates were announced in the UK at Wembley Stadium, titled Hotter Than July Music Picnic, fuelling speculation of the album's imminent release.

To promote the tour dates, Stevie released the single, Masterblaster (Jammin'), though this was not necessary to ensure the instant sell-out of the 7 nights. On the last night September 7th, Stevie was joined on-stage by Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye causing pandemonium amongst the 8,000 strong audience. An extra date was then added on the 8th September to raise funds for charity.

The album was eventually released in October to much more favourable reviews than were afforded his previous record. It was more assessable to the record buying public, containing a more traditional collection of Stevie songs. It was written produced and arranged by Stevie and recorded and mixed at his own recently purchased studio called Wonderland in Los Angeles. The album kicks off with a soft 'ahh' that builds up to a crescendo and then the guitar crashes in Did I Hear You Say You Love Me. A great intro to an album. All I Do follows, a song written back in 1967, but until then never released featuring the O'Jays, Betty Wright and Michael Jackson on background vocals. Next is Rocket Love a beautiful ballad, featuring a moving string arrangement by Paul Riser. I Ain't Gonna Stand For It, the second single from the includes the Gap Band on background vocals, and inspired drumming by Stevie. It reached #10 on the UK charts, 4 on the US R&B and 11 US pop. As If You Read My Mind ended off side A of the then vinyl record.

Masterblaster opened Side 2, a reggae flavoured number that paid tribute to Bob Marley. It topped the US R&B charts, #5 pop and #2 UK. In Do Like You Stevie writes about his 2 kids, and Cash In Your Face he describes the plight of people looking for housing, but denied because of the colour of their skin. Lately a beautiful ballad, was the third single peaking at #3 UK but not faring too well in the US where it only managed a disappointing #64 pop.

Closing the album was Happy Birthday a song paying homage to Dr. Martin Luther King that would become an anthem for the movement to make his birthday January 15th a National Holiday.

16. Making The Dream A Reality

Stevie worked with king's widow, Coretta Scott king and John Conyers the congressman who sponsored the bill. He attended the January 1981 parade in Washington in support of the bill, addressed the crowd and chanted the Happy Birthday anthem. During the next year a strategy was developed for mobilising national awareness and development of a legislative agenda for presentation on Capitol Hill. In January 1982, despite inhumane weather conditions, Stevie was joined by a 50,000 strong crowd, and supported at the podium by Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, Jesse Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron at a peaceful rally demanding a day of recognition. “I know you've been standing in the cold for a long time,” Wonder told the crowd, “but I hope your spirits are warm. I hope your spirits are hotter than July. Dr. King left an unfinished symphony which we must finish.”

Although Stevie was rather inactive in the studio during this period, he did find time to collaborate with the reggae band, Third World and ex Beatle Paul McCartney.

In 1982, Stevie appeared at the annual Reggae Sunsplash Festival in Jamaica. That year the festival paid tribute to Bob Marley who had died a year earlier. Stevie was joined on stage by the group Third World and Rita Marley to perform Masterblaster (Jammin') and Marley's Redemption Song. After their performance Stevie suggested that he write some material for the band's next album. The result was the hit single Try Jah Love and the socially aware, You're Playing Us Much Too Close.

The more high profile collaboration that year was his teaming up with Paul McCartney. McCartney recording his album in Montserrat came up with the song Ebony and Ivory. Thinking it would be a good idea to make it into a duet with a leading black artist he invited Stevie to be part of the project. Though the message of the song was poignant, the critics were not to kind to what they referred to as a trite message. The song however zoomed to the top of the US and UK charts, the first time Stevie was able to reach that position in the UK, albeit on the vehicle of a Paul McCartney song. The pair also co-wrote and cut another song for Paul's Tug of War album called What's That You're Doing? With Stevie on synthesizers and drums and Paul on bass, the pair crafted an exhilarating track with their instruments and voices spontaneously interchanging in what resulted in the best track on the album.

However Motown was getting wary of the lack of material for Stevie's own records and decided to release a greatest hits double album called Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I. The album mainly comprised tracks from the Music of My Mind - Hotter Than July period, with some remixed. It also included 4 new songs, each ending a side of the vinyl LP - Frontline a rock inspired ant-war theme, the jazzy ballad Ribbon In The Sky, the slyly melodious That Girl and the closing ten-minute extravaganza Do I Do, featuring Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet and Stevie rapping during its finale.

Stevie's contract had now come to an end, and there was speculation that Musiquarium was released to fulfil the conditions of the previous deal. The new contract was more low-key than the previous, no speeches, and no disclosures of monetary value.

The eighties saw Stevie maturing and no longer viewed as a driving force in the music industry. In addition the video era was now born, and Stevie strengths were not exactly suited for this medium. He now spent more time on political and social issues and working with other artists than making records for himself.

It was at this time that Stevie bought the radio station, KJLH in Los Angeles and in 1983 started his own record label called Wondirection. The debut release on his label was the The Crown, a rap record produced by Stevie and performed by Gary Byrd who wrote the lyrics, with Stevie supplying the music and adding a beautifully sung bridge. The song was only released as a 12" single and did extremely well in the UK peaking at #6 considering the limited format. However in the US it had very little impact and deterred Byrd from recording a planned follow-up.

Also in 1983 Stevie guested on the song Someday by the Gap Band, playing harmonica. He did the same on El Debarge's ballad In A Special Way and also for Manhattan Transfer's Spice Of Life.

Adding to this, Stevie ventured to the realms of television, when he was the guest host on the Saturday Night Live comedy show. On the show he introduced a new song called Overjoyed, which was to appear 2 years later on the In Square Circle album.

Also in 1983 was the Motown 25th anniversary television special, getting a standing ovation for live performances of I Wish, You Are The Sunshine Of My Life and My Cherie Amour.

By October of that year the bill sponsoring the official holiday for MLK was voted on in the senate and passed in favour of the holiday. Stevie released the following statement, “Somewhere Dr. King is smiling, not because his birthday is a holiday, but because he too is convinced that we are moving in the right direction. I know that Dr. King appreciates that this day is a day for all Americans to celebrate love, peace and unity. It is not a cure-all, but it is a healing aid.”

The holiday was not to come into effect until January 1986. Stevie was deeply satisfied in winning this battle. He said, you can assassinate the man but you cannot kill the values.

17. Just A Call Of Love

Events of a few months later were to bring sadness to Stevie and many others. On the 1st of April 1984 Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his own father. A few hours before Stevie had written a song called Lighting Up The Candles which Stevie performed at the funeral service

Lighting up the candles
To what use to be
Tender memories in moments of love
Happy times and bad times
All seem wonderful

The planned album, In Square Circle was again delayed, but a surprise soundtrack was on the way. A Gene Wilder comedy, The Woman In Red opened in August 1984 to a soundtrack put together by Stevie ably assisted by Dionne Warwick. The first single I Just Called To Say I Love You was a worldwide smash, giving Stevie his first UK #1 single as a solo artist. It also topped the US charts. The album included a classic Wonder composition, Love Light In Flight, the title track, and the socially aware Don't Drive Drunk. Stevie duets with Dionne on It's You and Weakness both ballads in a pop vein. Dionne solos on Moments Aren't Moments and Wonderlove has an instrumental outing on It's More Than You written by Ben Bridges.

More session work would follow for Stevie during the 1984-5 period. He contributed a harp solo on the King Sunny Ade track Ase for the Aura album, played harmonica on the Chaka Khan hit I Feel For You which also sampled his Fingertips and on Dizzy Gillespie's Closer To The Source. He also appeared on Rockwells album, and contributed the songs Upset Stomach to the soundtrack of the Motown movie, The Last Dragon, and the opening track, Feel It on the British Trio Feelabilia's debut album.

Stevie also wrote two tracks, Do I and Everything's Coming Up Roses for Eddie Murphy's first album of songs. The Eurythmics invited him to add a harmonica solo to their song There Must be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) which would be a UK #1 smash and a top 20 US single. And he contributed the song I Do Love You to the Beach Boys eponymous album.

Stevie then got involved in the USA for Africa project which was based on the efforts by British artists to raise funds for the starving people of Ethiopia. The brainchild of Bob Geldof, a group of British singers and musicians under the collective name of Band Aid released the song, Do They Know It's Christmas?. The American version was conceived by Harry Belafonte, who invited Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie and Stevie Wonder to compose an appropriate song. Stevie was initially unavailable for the first part of the project and advised the other two to compose the song in his absence. However when the artists did assemble to perform the song We Are The World, Stevie's presence was critical in working out the complex vocal arrangements. Sitting at the piano he offered suggestions, encouragement and constructive criticism. He even had to guide Bob Dylan, telling him how he should sing his part. The high point of the final vocal performance was Stevie's duet with Bruce Springsteen.

In 1985 Stevie was arrested for demonstrating outside the South African embassy in Washington D.C.. He was held in custody as a symbol of his commitment to the cause: “They said I was disturbing the peace. I was singing.”

I Just Called To Say I Love You was nominated for both Oscar and Grammy awards. Though it did not win the Grammy, Stevie did take the coveted Oscar home, though with some controversy. In his acceptance speech at the awards Stevie dedicated it to the then imprisoned black South African leader, Nelson Mandela. This resulted in Stevie Wonder's Music being banned in South Africa.

18. Freedom Is Coming

On May 13th, his 35th birthday, he appeared at the United Nations where he was commended for his work against apartheid and discrimination. He addressed the audience in both song and speech.

By September, Stevie's album, In Square Circle was finally ready. The concept was one of dovetailing the themes of love and spirituality fully explained in the albums booklet that Stevie co-wrote with Theresa Cropper. As Stevie explains about the characters in the essay, 'Their hearts minds were recalling the cycles of love while their minds were exploring the square root of the universe.' The essay goes on to explain the meaning of each song in the context of the overall story.

Part-time Lover the first single kicks off this set. It take the catchiest, danceable beat you can think of and mixes it with a great story about cheating, a cool yet eerie synthesizer line and a great doo wop riff from a guy named Luther Vandross and what do you get? Another number one hit. This is definitely lite Stevie but the song is too catchy not to love. Being Stevie though, he ends it with a lesson: The person who was doing the cheating throughout the song finds that their lover was cheating on them too! On I Love You Too Much, Stevie's keyboard playing is still great and it's the main show in this yet another layered work. Whereabouts is not the classic Stevie ballad but it does tend to grow on you with time. Stranger On The Shore Of Love speaks of taking love for granted and eventually losing it. Not one of his most memorable melodies. Never In Your Sun is a sweet song about bringing happiness to people when they're down. Great vocals and a good harmonica solo helps lift the song to another level.

In Spiritual Walkers Stevie sings about us hiding from preachers when they knock on our doors or approach us on the streets, put to an up-tempo dance beat. Land Of La La does have a driving beat, but fails to live up to the standard set by tracks like Living For The City. Go Home is jazzy, funky and cool all at once great horn riffs weave in and out of an even funkier bass line. The song is about a person in love with someone and who is willing to do anything for that person. Yet the person pushes them away. Of course at the end, Stevie being Stevie, that person realizes that they need the other but it's too late.

Overjoyed one of Stevie's classic ballads was an ok hit when originally released but has become one of his most requested and respected songs in his repertoire. The song was written while he was doing Secret Life Of Plants but it didn't fit in with the rest of the album. Well it fits in perfectly here. The rhythm section is the sounds of water, birds chirping and pebbles dropping. Stevie's strings (yes, he does write his string parts. Mr. Riser just orchestrates them for him) are beautiful and very tricky at the climax of the song. Apartheid (It's Wrong) a message song condemning the then still existing regime of apartheid in South Africa closes off the album. It is the best anti-apartheid song written and one of the best political songs of his career. He uses African vocalist singing in their native language as background vocals. The rhythm is literally crazy and hypnotic using African instruments. The last words are shouted/sung, "Freedom is coming...hold on tight!" Just wonderful.

Stevie was also linked to the UK stage extravaganza, Time. He did one song with Cliff Richards, playing all the instruments, a song that made the top twenty in the UK.

In January 1986 Americans celebrated the first ever observance of Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday. Concerts were organised in major cities and some televised. One of the televised events featured Stevie, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Ross, Quincy Jones and Eddie Murphy.

Later in the year Stevie teamed up with Dionne Warwick, Elton John and Gladys Knight to record a song for AIDS charity. That's What Friends Are For topped the US charts and won a grammy for Best Pop Performance By A Duo or Group category.

19. Things Are Getting Real Funky

To coincide with the 1987 release of Stevie's new album, Characters, he toured the UK and released the single Skeletons.

Stevie was now more involved in worldly affairs like injustices and the like rather than recording. By using his fame and fortune to make people aware of the many wrongs taking place in this world, many say distracted from the quality and frequency of the work at hand. With Characters Stevie wanted to explore the nature of life and the various characters that go to make up people and their relationships. The album kicks off with You Will Know a nice song sprinkled with a beautiful melody, a nice starlight synthesizer sound effect and a great message of knowing God and your place in this great world of his. Overall a pretty good album opener.

Dark And Lovely packs a solid groove. It's another anti-apartheid song featuring some good keyboard work. In Your Corner is probably not the best song Stevie's ever done. A far cry from the classics of previous year, but would probably have some tapping their feet. With Each Beat OF My Heart is an overlooked gem. Stevie mixes a beautiful melody, great background vocal arrangements, a great harmonica solo and a sample of his heartbeat all together to create this beautiful piece of music. A very creative track. One Of A Kind an up-tempo love song in the mould of tracks like I Ain't Gonna Stand For It however not in its class.

Skeletons is a very good political song about the skeletons that can sometimes fall out of a politicians closet. The song was written and released around the time of the Contra-Gate scandal with Oliver North and Reagan. And it worked perfectly in that atmosphere. A funky beat matched with a scratchy keyboard line, Skeletons is very danceable and yet thinkable at the same time:

Oh things are gettin' real funky
Down at the old corral
And it's not the skunks that are stinkin'
It's the stinkin' lies you tell

Get It featuring Michael Jackson is another average dance tune that really failed to pack the punch. Galaxy Paradise is a very different song for Stevie. Something completely out of his style. It makes for interesting listening, using a lot of synthesizer sounds and the starlight. Cryin' Through The Night is another up-tempo song ala One Of A Kind from earlier. Free is certainly an overlooked classic from Stevie. On the original vinyl album, this was the last song and it is one of the best album finales he's ever had. However on the CD it is followed by two rather mediocre tracks which tend to hide its greatness. Come Let Me Make Your Love Come Down features Stevie, Stevie Ray Vaughn and B.B. King doing a song together. Yet it somehow does not live up to the potential you would expect from such a trio. The CD album closes with My Eyes Don't Cry with Stevie doing it all on the synthesizer. Drums, horns, bass, everything.

After his UK gigs, Stevie's tour party rolled into Europe and Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland making him the first Motown artist to perform in Eastern Bloc countries and the first to release an album, Characters, there.

After a relatively quiet three years, with the usual guest appearances on fellow artists' records, Stevie released the single Keep Our Love Alive in 1990. A song mainly in condemnation of apartheid, but generally describing the evils manifest in man, but in usual Stevie style pointing to the solution through love. It fuelled speculation about the release of a new album. However the single did not fare too well in the charts, managing a best position of 24 on the R&B charts. Maybe this resulted in the holding back of the planned album Conversation Piece.

He however found time to write and produce a song for Whitney Houston, We Didn't Know on her album I'm Your Baby Tonight. He also attended the funeral of Stevie Ray Vaughn who died in a helicopter crash, where he, Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne sang an emotional rendition of Amazing Grace at the graveside.

20. Me For You, You For Me

In 1991, Stevie was again distracted from his proposed studio project when he was approached by Spike Lee to compose music for is forthcoming film Jungle Fever. Stevie worked day and night to make the deadline for June release. The album based on the theme of interracial love and substance abuse starred Wesley Snipes and Samuel L Jackson.

It seemed only natural that two great artists like Spike Lee and Stevie Wonder would work someday together. The result is a great album from Stevie. After Characters from four years earlier, this album seemed reinvigorated and the music is top notch. Fun Day lives up to its name as the song has a bouncy, airy, carefree feeling to it and it floats along like a nice summer day. Queen Of Black and Each Other's Throat are funky workouts that have some great keyboard action. These Three Words has become a grass roots classic extolling the virtues of expressing your love for others, instead of keeping it locked up. Gotta Have You the first single is a fiery song with Stevie's vocals in great shape. The most original song of the bunch is probably Make Sure You're Sure, a slow jazzy piece which has Stevie backed up with a small piece jazz combo. The performance is so natural you would think it would have led him to doing a jazz album by now.

The Jungle Fever track explores some world beats thereby achieving with music what he is saying with the lyrics - there can be harmony among peoples of different races. I Go Sailing has a similar theme to Birds of Beauty, exploring the mind, turning within to achieve peace. Chemical Love, Stevie's pronouncements of the ills of drugs while bringing in a hint of spirituality with a pulsating synthesized guitar rhythm. The final track was Lighting Up The Candles, a song performed seven years earlier at Marvin Gaye's funeral finally made an album slot. Jungle Fever showed that Stevie had maintained his relevance over the years.

In his usual generous manner, he worked with Diana Ross on her upcoming album. Writing and producing the song, The Force Behind The Power and producing his 1972 ballad, Blame It On The Sun for her. The new Stevie song was so important to her that she re-titled the album from its original Change Of Heart. The Force Behind The Power returned Diana back to the number one position.

By the time 1995 came around, Stevie announced the release of Conversation Peace now re-titled from Conversation Piece. It generated enormous anticipation and expectation both from fans and the music industry. The final product was a strong and solid album-by any standard. I'm New is tremendous, Taboo To Love as well, For Your Love should have been a top 10, Rain Your Love Down is Classic Stevie, Take The Time Out is very good, and Cold Chill is high quality. The message in the songs are undeniable and Conversation Peace ranks right up there with some of his best:

All for one, one for all
There's no way we'll reach our greatest heights
Unless we heed the call
Me for you, you for me
There's no chance of world salvation
Less the conversation's peace

Stevie shows off his best on Sensuous Whisper, a jazzy number featuring Anita Baker and Edge of Eternity a good up-tempo track on par with hi work in the 80's. My Love Is With You is a musical drama, definitely effective at telling it's story about gang wars and gun crime. Sorry is a heartfelt but somewhat weaker track with Robert Margoulef doing the engineering. So all in all, an excellent album from Stevie, incorporating many elements of the then hip hop craze but not falling prey to its excesses.

Hot on the heals of Conversation Peace, Motown released a live album of Stevie performing during his recent Natural Wonder tour. Out in time for Christmas 1995 Natural Wonder was Stevie's first live album since Live and Live at The Talk Of The Town in1970. The concert shows were recorded in Japan and Israel using an orchestra conducted by Dr. Henry Panion III. The quality of the recording is excellent, and shines a new light of Stevie's gems. It aptly shows off his amazing voice, great instrumentation and supreme song writing. The album contains all the big hits including great versions of Living For The City, Superstition, Higher Ground, My Cherie Amour, I Wish, and Master Blaster (Jammin'). He also serves up lesser known songs like Pastime Paradise, Village Ghetto Land, Another Star, Stay Gold (Theme from The Outsiders) and Overjoyed. He does a nice tribute to the late Stevie Ray Vaughan in Stevie Ray Blues and a couple new songs, Dancing to The Rhythm and Ms. & Mr. Little Ones.

Though he was then 45, he belts out the classics with the same gusto and vocal clarity as he demonstrated in the seventies.

21. Lifetime Of Achievements

The Billboard Music Awards of 1996, at the Shrine auditorium, saw Stevie performing Pastime Paradise, with Coolio who sampled the song for his hit Gangsta's Paradise. Coolio's version went on to win a Grammy for the Best Rap Performance.

In February Stevie received the prestigious NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award as well as two more Grammys, Best R&B Song and Best R&B Vocals, for his single For Your Love from Conversation Peace.

Also in 1996 Stevie wrote three songs for the soundtrack to motion picture The Adventures of Pinocchio. The beautiful ballad, Kiss Lonely Goodbye, was released as a single but had no impact on the charts. The other songs were Hold On To Your Dreams and Pinocchio's Evolution.

Babyface was another recipient of Stevie's time and talent. Together they wrote and performed How Come, How Long on Babyface's The Day album. The song berating the atrocities of domestic violence was released as a single in the UK in 1997 where it reached #10. He also performed the song live with Babyface at an MTV Unplugged concert to raise funds for the Phoenix House Drug Rehabilitation Center.

Stevie met with his long time friend Elton John in 1998 when they were both invited to the White House in Washington to perform at a reception for England's Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Later in the year he appeared at the War Child charity concert, hosted by Luciano Pavarotti in Italy. Stevie wrote the song, Peace Wanted Just To Be Free for the occasion, resulting in a very arousing duet and finale to the event.

In 1998 he also teamed up with long time friend, Herbie Hancock on a tribute album to George Gershwin. This collaboration earned Stevie another 2 Grammies fot the song St. Louis Blues, taking his Grammy award total to a phenomenal 21.

And to aptly close of the millennium, in 1999 Stevie was honoured by the King of Sweden when he received the prestigious Polar Music Prize in May. At the after show party, Stevie performed the song Blusette with Toots Thielsman.

In December he was selected for the distinguished annual Kennedy Center Honours. At 49 he was the youngest person on which the honour has ever been bestowed upon. Chairman of the Center said, 'Stevie Wonder is a musical genius who has been an integral part of American music for four decades.' The ceremony was followed by a reception hosted at the White House by President Clinton.

With no new album on the horizon, Motown released a deluxe four disc box set titled At The Close Of A Century, together with a 96 page booklet. Though the compilation was planned to include a few new songs, Stevie did not deliver to Motown, any new material on time for its release.

In August 2001 Detroit celebrated its 300th birthday and Stevie was on hand to host a free concert. Stevie provided the thousands on hand with one of his trademark Homecoming Concerts.

A month later saw the tragic 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. To honour the heroes of that event many events were organised. One such event was a two hour telethon shown around the Globe which included many celebrities from various walks of life. Contributing were Tom Hanks, Whoopi Goldberg, George Clooney, Meg Ryan, Sting, Bruce Springsteen and Paul Simon and Stevie. He sang Love's In Need Of Love Today with the group Take 6, and led the massed stars for a rousing America The Beautiful as the programme's finale. Stevie's performance that night won him another Grammy for Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group.

In July 2002 the Songwriters Hall of Fame awarded Stevie a Lifetime Achievement award. Later that year in November Stevie was honoured with the BET Walk of Fame award. After being serenaded by many artists performing his songs, Stevie concluded the show with a new song called I Can't Imagine Love Without You which he promised would be on his forthcoming album due out in May 2003.

However Stevie is still in the studio working on this album. At the Billboard Award Ceremony on December 10th 2003 where he presented Sting with the Billboard Century Award, Stevie stated he will deliver Something new to hear in March...maybe April.

Since 1997 Stevie has mentioned the release of an upcoming album. He has even gone so far as mentioning various possible genres - jazz, gospel, rap and even songs from the vaults.

However Stevie, being the consummate artist that he is, insists on only releasing a product that he is thoroughly happy with, and who are we to argue.

Looking back on his forty-one years in the music industry we see an incomparable body of the highest quality music that he has given to us; a repository of compositions that continue to inspire successive generations of mankind.

22. A Time To Give And Share

In June 2004 Stevie appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to announce the imminent release of the much anticipated new album A Time To Love. Sadly a couple weeks later, Syreeta passed away losing her battle against breast cancer. This resulted in further delays to the album. Committed to play the Stockholm Jazz festival at the end of June, Stevie gave an emotional performance dedicating the show to his former wife.

On July 2, 2005, Wonder performed in the USA part of the Live 8 series of concerts in Philadelphia to raise funds for the famines in Africa.

Eventually his first new album in ten years, A Time to Love, was released on October 18, 2005, after having been pushed back from first a May. The album was released electronically on September 27, 2005, exclusively on Apple's iTunes Music Store. The first single, So What the Fuss, was released in April and features Prince on guitar and background vocals from En Vogue. A second single, From the Bottom of My Heart was a hit on adult-contemporary and R&B charts. The album also featured a duet with India.Arie on the title track and duets with Aisha, his daughter. The destructive path left by Hurricane Katrina at that time in New Orleans woke up many to the devastating force of Mother Nature. Contributing to the relief, Stevie released the song Shelter In The Rain as a charity single.

Stevie performed at the pre-game show for Super Bowl XL in Detroit in early 2006, singing various hit singles with various artists, and even four year old son, Kailand on drums, and accompanying Aretha Franklin during "The Star Spangled Banner".

In March 2006, Stevie received national exposure on the popular American Idol television program. Each of 12 contestants were required to sing one of his songs, after having met and received guidance from him. he also performed My Love Is on Fire. In June 2006, Stevie Wonder made a guest appearance on Busta Rhymes' new album, The Big Bang on the track Been through the Storm sing the refrain and playing piano. He also appeared on the last track of Snoop Dogg's new album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, Conversations, a song which sampled Have a Talk with God from Songs in the Key of Life. In 2006 Wonder staged a duet with Andrea Bocelli on the latter's album Amore, offering harmonica and additional vocals on Canzoni Stonate. Stevie also performed at Washington, D.C.'s 2006 "A Capitol Fourth" celebration, which was hosted by actor star Jason Alexander.

Sad news was to befall the entire family though when on May 31st 2006 Lula Mae Hardaway, Stevie's mother passed away. Being very close to his mother Stevie was devastated, and for the next year seemed quite reclusive.

However on August 2, 2007, Stevie announced the A Wonder Summer's Night 13 concert tour — his first U.S. tour in over ten years. The tour was inspired as he states, by a dream he had of his mother speaking to him insisting he get off his behind and continue to do what he does best, make and play music. The tour eventually extended to Europe and Japan. On the road he announced the possible release of two albums, one a a gospel tribute to his mother called A Gospel Inspired By Lula, and the second an album of songs that reflects how he sees the world, titled Through The Eyes of Wonder.

By this time the 2008 Presidential race in the US was on its way. As an early supporter of Barack Obama, who had approached Stevie for advice and support prior to his announcement to run, Stevie was busy up and down the coutry appearing and performing at various political rallies.

On August 28, 2008, the day Barack Obama accepted his party's nomination to run for President of the United States, Wonder performed at the Democratic National Convention at Invesco Field, Colorado. Songs included were the previously unreleased song, Fear Can't Put Dreams to Sleep and Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours a song that was used regularly during the Obama campaign.

After a successful dueting with Tony Bennett on the perennial For Once In My Life, a song both performers released as singles in 1968, rumours circled that the pair were keeping the door open for a jazz album collaboration with Quincy Jones as producer. Later in 2008, Stevie's harmonica playing could be heard on Raphael Saadiq's 2009 Grammy-nominated Never Give You Up track.

At the end of the year Barack Obama was elected as the first black president of the United States of America and Stevie was announced as the second recipient of the prestigious Library of Congress Gershwin Award for Lifetime Achievement. on February 23rd the award was presented by the newly inaugurated president at the White House, the day after Stevie performed his first public classical piece, titled Sketches of a Life, which was commissioned by the Library of Congress.

Stevie performed on January 18, 2009 at the We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial. On Inauguration Day, January 20, Stevie performed the song The Neighborhood Inaugural Ball, one of ten inaugural balls honouring President Barack Obama. He performed his new song All About the Love Again and, with other musical artists, Signed, Sealed, and Delivered in honor of the president.

In July the world was shocked with the news of the death of Michael Jackson. On July 7 Stevie performed Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer and They Won't Go When I Go at the Staples Center for Michael Jackson's memorial service. Later in the month Stevie closed the Mandela Day Tribute concert in the USA, commemorating the South African leader's 91st birthday.

Celebrating its 25th anniversary in October, the Rock & Roll hall of Fame hosted a two day concert extravaganza with Stevie as one of the headline artists. Stevie's harmonica could again be heard by year's end, this time on the Rod Stewart cover of Stevie's My Cherie Amour, on the album Soul Book.

A great honour was conferred on Stevie when he was announced as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. On December 3rd The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon presented Stevie to the world as the latest Messenger of Peace with a special mission of helping people with disabilities. It was not long after, in September 2010 when Stevie urged members of the UN to unlock access to copyrighted material that disabled people need for their education and livelihoods. He pleaded for a deal to facilitate trade in copyrighted books so that they can be translated into readable formats for people with disabilities. Following this plea the organisation subsequently, at a meeting in New Delhi, in October agreed on legislation to create accessible formats of publications for sharing with specialized libraries.

In January the world witnessed the devastating earthquake in Haiti. Hope For Haiti Now was a telethon organised by George Clooney at which Stevie not only performed a medley of A Time To Love and Bridge over Troubled Water, but also found time to man the telephones. An album of performances at the fund raising event was subsequently released.

The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) in March, honoured Stevie with its first AAPD Image Award at their 2010 Leadership Gala in Washington, DC. In May the Oberlin College conferred an honorary Doctorate on Stevie where he performed to commemorate the opening of the college's new Bertram and Judith Kohl Building.

In March Stevie Wonder was awarded France's top cultural honour, which he dedicated to his deceased mother. I receive this honour in memory of my mother and in memory of all of those that have made it possible for me to stand here today. Later at Feench's equivalent of the Grammys, the Victoires de la Musique ceremony, Stevie was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Summer of 2010 saw Stevie headlining a number of highly acclaimed festivals around the world. In June were Bonnaroo in the US, followed by Hard Rock Calling at London's Hyde Park followed the next day Glastonbury. A week later he was closing out the North Sea Jazz Festival, in the Netherlands and the Sporting Summer Festival in Monaco.

In October President Obama signed the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. Present at the signing was Stevie, who has been lobbying for such legislation over the last few years. With this bill, manufacturers would force to comply with laws ensuring that the deaf and visually-impaired will have an easier time using smartphones, accessing TV programs online and using other high-tech devices.

December 2010 saw the 15th Annual House Full of Toys concert. An event Stevie hosts, inviting many varied guests to perform to help raise funds and collect toys for underprivileged children at Christmas time. Earlier on the day of the concert Stevie made an appearance at the Silverlake Music Conservatory in L.A. where he donated $10,000 to further their music development for children. Also on hand was Flea of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, another of the organisation's supporters.

With no new music from Stevie Wonder since 2005, but many philanthropic works, Stevie's life now seems centred on altruistic endeavours. The world, though losing the delights of his uplifting sounds, is benefitting from his many charitable ventures.