Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder (born Steveland Hardaway Morris, May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Michigan) is one of the most important figures in the history of American popular music. Born six weeks premature, he lost his sight shortly after birth due to excess oxygen in his incubator. He showed extraordinary musical aptitude from early childhood, teaching himself harmonica, piano, and drums before the age of ten.^[1]

He signed to Motown Records at age 11, and his debut single, "I Call It Pretty Music But the Old People Call It the Blues," was released in 1962. His live recording "Fingertips (Pt. 2)," captured at the Regal Theater in Chicago when he was 13, reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963, making him one of the youngest artists ever to top that chart.^[1]

The defining turning point of his career came in May 1971, when his original Motown contract expired on his 21st birthday. Rather than simply renewing, he negotiated a landmark new deal that gave him full creative control, the right to self-produce, and ownership of his publishing through his own company, Black Bull Music, along with an unprecedented 20% royalty rate.^[2] This was a direct rebuke of Motown's assembly-line approach, which had resisted politically conscious material and confined him to teen-oriented soul. Wonder was explicit about the social urgency driving this break: he spoke openly about Nixon-era cuts to social programs and the ongoing struggle for equity in Black communities, insisting that his music needed to address these realities.^[4]

What followed is known as his "classic period" (1972-1976): a sequence of albums -- Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life -- that transformed him from a reliable hitmaker into one of the defining artists in American music. Working with producers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff and their TONTO synthesizer system (a room-filling polyphonic analog machine weighing roughly a ton), Wonder played nearly every instrument himself and pursued themes of social justice, spirituality, and personal love with equal depth.^[3]

The summer of 1972 was a pivotal crossover moment. Wonder served as opening act for the Rolling Stones' massive North American tour, performing to more than half a million predominantly white, rock-oriented audience members across stadiums and arenas.^[5] He used these shows to debut material from the still-unreleased Talking Book, including "Superstition," months before the record came out. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards had genuine affection for Wonder, and the two acts performed medleys together as encores. The tour demonstrated decisively that Wonder's music transcended genre boundaries and could command any audience.

His personal life during this period also shaped the music. His marriage to singer and songwriter Syreeta Wright, whom he had wed in 1970, was breaking down during the Talking Book sessions; Wright co-wrote several tracks on the album and remained a close collaborator even after their divorce. The combination of personal heartbreak and creative liberation gives the album, and much of the classic period work, its peculiar emotional texture: at once deeply vulnerable and assertively new.^[1]

In August 1973, three days after the release of Innervisions, Wonder was severely injured when a log crashed through the windshield of a car he was riding in, striking him in the forehead and leaving him in a coma for approximately five days. He recovered, losing his sense of smell but regaining full function. The experience deepened his spiritual convictions and shaped the albums that followed.^[1]

Wonder has won 25 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year three times (for Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life). He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. His work as a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer has influenced artists across virtually every genre of popular music.