Stevie Wonder

At 73 years old, Stevie Wonder has this physical status:

Career

Wonder performed his own composition, "Lonely Boy," to Ronnie White of the Miracles in 1961; White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition in Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla brand. Producer Clarence Paul gave him the name Little Stevie Wonder before signing. Wonder's age led to a five-year deal in which royalties would be kept in trust until Wonder was 21. Wonder earned $2.50 (equivalent to $22.67 in 2021) per week, and a private tutor was hired while Wonder was on tour.

Wonder was put in the custody of producer and songwriter Clarence Paul, who performed on two albums together for a year. When Wonder was still 11 years old, he paid tribute to Uncle Ray first. The album featured a Wonder and Paul song "Sunset" in large part, with the exception of Ray Charles's songs. "The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie" was recorded next, an instrumental album made up of Paul's works, two of which, "Wondering" and "Session Number 112," were co-written with Wonder. Feeling Wonder was ready, a song titled "Mother You" was planned for release as a single but "The Old People Call It Pretty Music" was replaced by Berry Gordy's "I Call It Pretty Music" as his first single, but "I Call It the Blues" was pulled and replaced by the Berry Gordy song "I Call It Pretty Music" was released as a single, but it barely cracked the Billboard Top 100, spending one week in August at 102 Both "Little Water Boy" and "Contract on Love" were no hits, and both albums, "The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie" and "Tribute to Uncle Ray" in October 1962, failed to meet with much success.

Wonder performed in 1962, when Wonder was 12 years old, and he appeared on "Chitlin' Circuit" of theaters around America that welcomed black artists. He appeared at the Regal Theater in Chicago in May 1963 as the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. In May, a single called "Fingertips" from the album was also released, and it became a big hit. The song, which features a vivacious and vivacious Wonder, is a spontaneous encore that sees out the replacement bass player, who is heard to say, "What is the key?"

What key?

"It was a No." Wonder, who was 13 years old at the time, debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, making him the youngest artist to ever to top the charts. The single was simultaneously No. 1 on the charts. The R&B chart's first appearance on the R&B chart was a one on the R&B chart, the first time that had occurred. His next two albums, on the other hand, were not successful; his voice was changing as he got older; and some Motown employees were considering canceling his recording deal. Wonder appeared in two films as himself, the Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach, but these were not popular. Berry Gordy, the label's owner, was advised by Sylvia Moy to give Wonder a second shot.

Moy and Wonder co-created the hit "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" together, with Moy and Wonder co-sung by his mentor, producer Clarence Paul, co-sung by Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind). He also started to work in Motown's songwriting group, writing songs for himself and his label coworkers, including "The Tears of a Clown," a No. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles were first introduced in 1967, but the group's last track of their Make It Happen LP was not well known, but it soon became a huge success when Robinson was re-released as a single in 1970, prompting Robinson to reconsider his decision to leave the company).

He released an album of instrumental soul/jazz tracks, mainly harmonica solos, under the name Etivets Rednow, which is "Stevie Wonder" spelled backward. The album received little attention, and its only single, a cover of Burt Bacharach's and Hal David's "Alfie," reached number 66 in the United States, earning only one. The US Adult Contemporary charts have pop charts and number 11 on the top of the charts. Nonetheless, he managed to score numerous hits between 1968 and 1970, such as "I Was Made to Love Her," "Fortee, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" and "I Was Born to Love Her," to name a few others. "My Cherie Amour," "I Was Made to Love Her," and "Uptight (Everything's Alright) were co-written by Henry Cosby. The hit single "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" was his first-ever self-produced song.

Wonder performed "Se tu raga mia" at the San Francisco Music Festival in 1969, in collaboration with Gabriella Ferri. He appeared on 45rpm singles and an Italian LP between 1967 and 1970.

The appearance of Wonder at the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival opens the 2021 music film Summer of Souls. Wonder plays a drum solo at his set.

Wonder married Syeta Wright, a guitarist and former Motown secretary, in September 1970 at the age of 20. Wright and Wonder co-produced this album, Where I'm Coming From (1971), where Wonder wrote the story and Wright helped with the lyrics. After hearing demos from Tonto's Expanding Head Band's electronic band, Wonder became interested in synthesizers around this time. Wonder and Wright wanted to "touch on the world's social problems," and the lyrics "to mean something." The album was released about the same time as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Both albums had common aspirations and themes; they were compared in a contemporaneous review by Vince Aletti of Rolling Stone, Gaye's, which saw Wonder's triumph as a result of "self-indulgent and cluttered" production, "undistinguished" and "prevalent" lyrics, and a general lack of unity and flow, as both albums had similar aspirations and themes; but Wonder's was seen as ineffective, according to Vince Aletti Wonder co-wrote, and performed on several instruments on the hit "It's a Shame" for fellow Motown act the Spinners in 1970. His contribution was supposed to be a showcase of his abilities and, consequently, a weapon in his continuing discussions with Gordy regarding creative autonomy. Wonder, who was 21 years old on May 13, 1971, has dated his Motown service to an end.

During this period, he independently recorded two albums and signed a new Motown Records deal. The 120-page deal at Motown was a precedent and paid Wonder a much higher royalty rate. With Music of My Mind, he returned to Motown in March 1972. Music of My Mind was a full-length artistic work with songs flowing together thematically like most recent Motown albums, which consisted of a series of singles, B-sides, and covers. Wonder's songs addressed socioeconomic, political, and mystical as well as traditional romantic ones, as well as conventional romantic ones, while musically exploring overdubbing and recording the majority of the instrument parts himself. My Mind was born at the start of a long friendship with Tonto's Expanding Head Band (Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil), as well as lyricist Yvonne Wright.

The No. 1 in Wonder's album Talking Book, which was released in late 1972, was the No. 1. One of the most popular and representative examples of the Hohner Clavinet keyboard sound was the hit "Superstition," which is one of the most popular and popular examples of the Hohner Clavinet keyboard's sounds. "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" was also included in the Talking Book, which also reached No. 1 in the Top Tensions. 1. Wonder began touring with the Rolling Stones in order to minimize the negative effects of pigeonholing as a result of being an R&B artist in America. Wonder's touring with the Stones was also a factor in the success of both "Superstition" and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life"'s popularity. The two artists received three Grammy Awards between them. Wonder and his band performed "Superstition" on an episode of the children's television show Sesame Street that aired in April 1973, as well as an original called "Sesame Street Song," which demonstrated his television skills.

Innervisions, which were released in 1973, had the slogan "Higher Ground" (No. 1). (No. 4 on the pop charts) as well as the trenchant "Life for the City" (No. 8: Both songs debuted at No. 1 in the United States. 1 on the R&B charts. "Golden Lady" and "All in Love Is Fair" were among the popular ballads on display, but as a whole, a unified whole was retained. Three more Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, were given to Innervisions. The album is ranked No. 1 on the charts. 34 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Wonder made a name for herself in the early 1970s as the most influential and well-known black musician of the early 1970s.

Wonder was injured in a serious car accident while on tour in North Carolina on August 6, 1973, when a vehicle in which he was riding collided with a truck. He was in a coma for four days, resulting in a partial loss of his smell and a temporary loss of taste. Wonder performed at a homecoming benefit for Shaw University in Raleigh, despite his doctor's orders not to participate. Shaw was facing financial difficulties, so Wonder, who was a trustee on the university's board of trustees, rallied other artists, including Exuma, LaBelle, and the Chambers Brothers, who raised over $10,000 for the school's scholarship fund.

Wonder embarked on a European tour in early 1974, appearing at the Midem convention in Cannes, at the Rainbow Theatre in London, and on the German television program Musikladen. On his return from Europe, he appeared in a sold-out concert at Madison Square Garden in March 1974, highlighting both up-tempo content and long-building improvisations on mid-tempo songs like "Life for the City." Fulfillingness's First Finale appeared in July 1974 and was one of the pop charts' top hits: the No. "You Haven't Done Nothin'" and the Top Ten "Boogie on Reggae Women" have been incorporated into the Top Tends. One of three Grammy Awards was again named Album of the Year.

Wonder performed in a Los Angeles jam session with ex Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney, which would later be known as the bootleg album A Toot and a Snore in '74.' He co-wrote and produced the 1974 Symbiotica Wright album. Syvie Wonder Presents: Syvie Wonder Presents.

Wonder appeared at the historic "Wonder Dream Concert" in Kingston, Jamaica, on October 4, 1975, a benefit for the Jamaican Institute for the Blind. He performed harmonica on two tracks on Billy Preston's album It's My Pleasure in 1975.

Wonder had won two Grammy Awards in 1974 and 1975 for Fulfillingness' First Finale, both at the age of 25. "I'd like to thank Stevie Wonder, who didn't make an album this year," Paul Simon wryly wrote after his still Crazy After All These Years.

Songs in the Key of Life, a double album with extra EP, was first released in September 1976. The album, which was spruce in style and often difficult to comprehend, was difficult for some listeners to comprehend, but others are expected to remember it as Wonder's crowning achievement and one of the most well-known and successful pop music albums in pop music history. The album debuted at No. 1 in straight at No. 1, the first American artist to debut in straight at No. 1. In the Billboard charts, it is number 1 where it stood for 14 weeks in a row. Two tracks were also no. "I Wish" and "Sir Duke" are two pop/R&B hits, as well as "I Wish."

The baby-celebratory "Isn't She Lovely?"

Aisha's newborn daughter was written about, but songs such as "Love's in Need of Love Today" and "Village Ghetto Land" depicted a more pensive mood. Songs in the Key of Life received Album of the Year and two other Grammy awards. The album debuts 4th on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Unexpected Life of Plants," his only further 1970s album Looking Back (1977), an anthology of his early Motown period, was released on September 30th.

The majority of the instrumental soundtrack album "Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" (1979) was made using a Computer Music Melodian, a 1981 music sampler. It was also his first digital recording and one of the first popular albums to use the technology, which Wonder used for all subsequent recordings. Wonder toured briefly with an orchestra to promote the album's success, and she used a Fairlight CMI sampler onstage. Wonder wrote and produced "Let's Get Serious," a dance hit starring Jermaine Jackson and ranked No. 1 by Billboard as the No. 1 in this year. 1980 R&B single.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday was a national holiday in the United States, making his debut in July (1980) a hit single album, with its single "Happy Birthday" a hit in his attempt to have him establish Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. "Master Blaster (Jammin's)"," "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It")," and the sentimental ballad "Lately" were also on the album.

Wonder published "Do I Do" (which featured Dizzy Gillespie), "That Girl") (one of the year's top R&B hits), "Front Line," a memoir about a soldier involved in the Vietnam War that Wonder wrote and performed in the first person), and "Ribbon in the Sky," one of his many classic compositions, in 1982. He also gained a No. "Ebony and Ivory" was one of the few things that aided the paean to racial harmony in that year.

Wonder performed the song "Stay Gold," the theme to Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation of S. E. Hinton's book "The Outsiders." Wonder composed the lyrics. People Work, Human Play was his first album on record in 1983. The album never appeared on record, but Wonder's soundtrack album for The Woman in Red appeared in 1984. It was a No. 1 on the lead single, "I Just Called to Say I Love You." In both the United States and the United Kingdom, where it was ranked 13th in the list of best-selling singles in the United Kingdom, which was released in 2002. In 1985, the Academy Award for best song was given to it. Wonder accepted the award in the name of Nelson Mandela and was immediately barred from all South African radio by the Government of South Africa.

Incidentally, the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid praised Stevie Wonder for his role against racism in South Africa that same year (1985). In addition, Dionne Warwick appeared on the album as a guest on "It's You" with Stevie and a few songs of her own. Wonder made a cameback to fame with his album and its lead single in the episode "A Touch of Wonder," where he demonstrated his ability to sample.

The No. ranked in In Square Circle for the following year was featured. "Part-Time Lover" is a pop sensation. "Go Home" is also a Top-ten hit on the album. It also featured the ballad "Overjoyed," which was written for Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants," but it did not make the album. When he was the host of Saturday Night Live, he appeared "Overjoyed." He appeared in Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You" cover, as well as Melle Mel's signature harmonica. He was also on harmonica on Eurythmics' album "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)" and Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" in roughly the same time.

Wonder appeared on "We Are the World," an all-star charity single for African Famine Relief, "We Are the World," and he was also on another charity single the following year (1986), "That's What Friends Are For." He played harmonica on John Denver's album "If Ever" (Want's) and wrote the song "I Do Love You" for the Beach Boys' 1985 self-titled album; and played harmonica on Barbra Streisand's "Can't Help Lovin' That Man."

Wonder appeared on Michael Jackson's Bad album on the duet "Just Good Friends" in 1987. On Wonder's 1987 album Characters, Jackson also performed a duet entitled "Get It." "Skeletons" and "You Will Know" were among "Skeletons" and "You Will Know" in this minor hit single. Wonder performed harmonica on a remake of his own song "Have a Talk With God" (from Songs in the Key of Life 1976), focusing on Jon Gibson's album Body & Soul (1989).

Wonder began to produce new stuff in the 1990s, but at a slower rate. In 1991, Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever made a soundtrack album. "Gotta Have You," "Fun Day" (remix only), "These Three Words" and "Jungle Fever" were among the album's singles and videos. "Feeding Off The Love of the Land," the B-side of the song "Gotta Have You" single, was played during the end credits of Jungle Fever but was not included on the soundtrack. On the Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal compilation, a piano and vocal version of "Feeding Off The Love of the Country" was also published. In the 1990s, Conversation Peace and Natural Wonder, as well as the live album Natural Wonder, were released.

Wonder in 1992 returned to Ghana for Panafest, a biennial festival of music; it was during this tour that he composed many of the songs on Conversation Peace that he would reflect about: "I'd only been there for 18 hours when I decided I'd permanently relocate there." He headlined a concert at the National Theatre in Accra in 1994, as co-chair of Panafest that year.

Wonder played harmonica on one track for the 1994 Summer Olympics, Classic Kiss Regrooved; performed at the 1996 Summer Olympics closing ceremony with Babyface on "How Come, How Long," a song about domestic violence that was nominated for a Grammy award; and performed harmonica on Sting's 1999 "Brand New Day" – among other things. Wonder was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in fine arts by Rutgers University in May 1999. Wonder said in December 1999 that he was interested in obtaining an intraocular retinal prosthesis to partially restore his vision.

Wonder contributed two new songs to Spike Lee's Bamboozled album ("Misrepresented People" and "Some Years Ago"). Wonder continues to record and perform; although mostly for occasional appearances and occasional guest appearances, he did perform two tours and launched one album of new music, 2005's A Time to Love. Wonder made a guest appearance on Busta Rhymes' album "Been Through the Storm" in June 2006. On the Dr. Dre and Sha Money XL-produced album, he sings the refrain and plays the piano. He appeared on Snoop Dogg's album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, "Conversations" on Thursday. The album is a recreation of "Have a Talk with God" from Songs in the Key of Life. Wonder performed a duet with Andrea Bocelli on the latter's album Amore in 2006, bringing harmonica and additional vocals to "Canzoni Stonate." Wonder also performed at the 2006 "A Capitol Fourth" festival in Washington, D.C. His main appearances include appearing in Salt Lake City, the 2005 Winter Paralympics, the pre-game show for Super Bowl XL in 2006, the Obama Inaugural Celebration in 2009, and the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

Wonder's first new album in ten years, A Time to Love, was released in October 2005 to lower sales than previous albums and lukewarm reviews—most reviewers became dissatisfied with the long wait for an album that mainly copied the look of Wonder's "classic period" without doing anything new. In April, the first single, "So What The Fuss," was released. On adult-contemporary R&B radio, a second single, "From the Bottom of My Heart," was a hit. On the album's title track "A Time to Love," there was also a duet with India Arie.

Wonder did a 13-date tour of North America in 2007, beginning in San Diego on August 23; this was his first U.S. tour in over ten years. He began the European leg of his Wonder Summer's Night Tour on September 8, 2008, the first time he had visited Europe in over a decade. His opening performance at Birmingham's National Indoor Arena was held at the National Indoor Arena. He appeared at eight UK gigs over the tour, four in London and four at the O2 Arena in London (filmed in HD and later released as a live-in-concert release on DVD and Blu-Ray), two in Birmingham and two at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester.

Wonder's other stops in the tour's European leg included performances in the Netherlands (Rotterdam), Sweden (Stockholm), Germany (Cologne, Mannheim and Munich), Norway (Paris), Norway (Paris), Italy (Milan), and Denmark (Aalborg). In October and November, Wonder also visited Australia (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane) and New Zealand (Christchurch, Auckland, and New Plymouth) in both Perth and New Zealand. On June 24, the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, a stop at London's Hard Rock Calling, Rotterdam's North Sea Jazz Festival, and a concert in Dublin, Ireland, were among his 2010 appearances at the O2 Arena.

On the 2009 Grammy Award-nominated "Never Give Up" starring CJ Hilton and Raphael Saadiq, Wonder's harmonica can be heard.

Wonder performed at the Michael Jackson memorial service in 2009, at Etta James' funeral in 2012, a month later, and at Aretha Franklin's funeral in 2018.

Wonder appeared on Celine Dion's studio album Loved Me Back to Life, a tribute to his 1985 hit "Overjoyed." In October 2013, the album was released. On Mark Ronson's 2015 album Uptown Special, he was also featured on two tracks.

Wonder released a new vanity label on Republic Records, So What the Fuss Records, marking the first time his music was not available through Motown Records. The news was matched with the unveiling of two singles: "Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate," a "socially aware" funk band, and "Where Is Our Love Song," which will go to the charity Feeding America.

Wonder was working on two projects simultaneously: a new album titled The Gospel Inspired By Lula, which will address the world's biggest spiritual and cultural crises, and the album Through The Eyes Of Wonder, which will be portrayed as a performance piece based on his experience as a blind man. Wonder was also keeping the door open for a joint venture with Tony Bennett and Quincy Jones regarding a rumored jazz album. If Wonder were to partner with Bennett for the first time: their version of "Forte My Life" gained them a Grammy Award in 2006 for best pop collaboration with vocals.

Wonder revealed in 2013 that he had been recording new material for two albums, When the World Began and Ten Billion Hearts, a project with producer David Foster, will be released in 2014. The albums have yet to be released.

Wonder included Both Through the Eyes of Wonder and The Gospel Inspired by Lula as new projects in progress in October 2020 (the former as an album with both singles and the latter as a future album he may record with his former label Motown).

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