Jim Connelly

Certain Songs #2507: Stevie Wonder – “Boogie On Reggae Woman”

December 14, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fullfillingness’ First Finale
Year: 1976

. . .

One of the things I thought was hilarious as I did my patented half-assed research for yet another killer Stevie Wonder mid-1970s single, “Boogie on Reggae Woman” was how many folks have claimed that the song has any ties to actual reggae music.

Which, of course, it doesn’t: “Boogie on Reggae Woman” is a straight funk song, anchored by Wonder’s fuzzed up Moog bassline and a piano riff that you don’t even notice until it’s stuck forever in your head.

Certain Songs #2506: Stevie Wonder – “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”

December 13, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Fullfillingness’ First Finale
Year: 1974

. . .

Life moved fast in 1974: if the anti Nixon sentiments of “He’s Misstra Know-It-All” weren’t quite fit to release as a single in the spring, there were no such qualms by summer, as Wonder’s utterly vicious screed — the aural equivalent of what Hunter S. Thompson was writing about the man — “You Haven’t Done Nothin'” was released as the lead single from his 1974 album, Fullfillingness’ First Finale.

Certain Songs #2505: Stevie Wonder – “He’s Misstra Know-It-All”

December 12, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Innervisions
Year: 1973

. . .

That the final track on Innervisions — the utterly sublime “He’s Misstra Know-It-All” — was an anti-Richard Nixon song is something that I’ve known for awhile, but what I didn’t know was the genesis of the song. Apparently associate producer Malcolm Cecil had been giving Stevie shit for some time about all of the love songs he’d been writing, and challenged him to write some more topical songs. Thus, songs like “Too High,” “Living For The City” and, of course “He’s Misstra Know-It-All.”

Certain Songs #2504: Stevie Wonder – “Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing”

December 9, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Innervisions
Year: 1973

. . .

But Innervisions wasn’t all philosophy and politics; at least that seemed to be the case with the third single, the salsa-flavored “Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing, which opened up with just Stevie at a piano spouting what seems to be complete gibberish before launching into an pickup routine declaring all of the places he’s been to (including the prescient “Iraq, Iran”) before declaring himself a very fluent Spanish speaker because he knows the word “chévere,” which roughly translates to “groovy.”

Certain Songs #2503: Stevie Wonder – “Living For The City”

December 8, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Innervisions
Year: 1973

. . .

Of course when I first heard my eventual favorite Stevie Wonder song, it was just the shortened single version on KYNO-AM, which they didn’t even have to edit to make a single, as there is a repeated chant of “living for the city” about halfway through which was perfect for the single fade.

So I’ll just say that I don’t exactly remember when I heard the full album version, but I know it was over the radio and I know that it blew my mind, and I know this apocalyptic art-funk cautionary tale is not just the greatest thing that Wonder ever recorded, but one of the greatest things anybody ever recorded. And except for “other voices” in the middle, every single fucking note was Stevie Fucking Wonder.

Certain Songs #2502: Stevie Wonder – “Higher Ground”

December 7, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Innervisions
Year: 1973

. . .

The lead single from what has turned out to be my favorite Stevie Wonder album, Innervisions, is all wrapped up in one of the weirder chapters in Stevie Wonder’s life: it was the last song he recorded before he was involved in an automobile accident that left him in a coma for four days, and apparently what revived him was hearing “Higher Ground.” Naturally, with stories like this, there are differing accounts: one has the rhythm track being played for him; another has it that a guy named Ira Tucker — either his publicist or a gospel singer (maybe both!) — sang it to him.

Certain Songs #2501: Stevie Wonder – “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)”

December 6, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Talking Book
Year: 1972

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You’ll probably have noticed that none of the Stevie Wonder songs I’ve written about so far have been ballads. And of course, those of you who have been reading this blog for quite some time are probably well aware of my propensity for fast ones over slow ones.

Which is one of the reasons why I’m skipping the massive ballad that opened up Talking Book (and provided Stevie his second #1 hit single in a row), “You Are The Sunshine of My Life,” a song where I can hear what the rest of the world loves about it while being totally immune to its charms.

Certain Songs #2500: Stevie Wonder – “Superstition”

December 5, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Talking Book
Year: 1972

. . .

Poor Jeff Beck. He’d made a deal with Stevie Wonder that he would play guitar on Wonder’s next album and Wonder would write him a song. The problem is, that song was “Superstition,” which, once Stevie recorded it — without Beck, hilariously enough, because the clavinet riff that dominated the song rocked so hard it precluded the need for guitars — Motown knew it was going to be a big hit, the first return on their brand-new massive investment in the now-fully-adult Wonder. So, tough luck Jeff Beck, who was understandably pissed, as was his record label.

Certain Songs #2499: Stevie Wonder – “Love Having You Around”

December 2, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Music of My Mind
Year: 1972

. . .

If there is any kind of thing as the “great lost Stevie Wonder album,” it would probably be Music of My Mind, the first of his two 1972 albums. Music of My Mind was also the first album where Stevie Wonder played nearly all of the instruments, as well as the first album where he focused on using synthesizers, having been turned onto them by the Tonto’s Expanding Head Band album, Zero Time.

And so, because he was Stevie Wonder, he invited the two guys from that band, Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, to come into the studio with him and help produce his next album, and bring their synth, TONTO — which stood for “The Original New Timbral Orchestra” — because he had some music in his mind that he thought TONTO would help bring out.

Certain Songs #2498: Stevie Wonder – “If You Really Love Me”

December 1, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Where I’m Coming From
Year: 1971

. . .

As he approached his 21st birthday, Stevie Wonder played a game of chicken with Motown. You see, his original contract had a clause in it that allowed him to void it when he turned 21, and Stevie took that option, which gave him even more control over his music than he’d previously enjoyed.

And so he came up with Where I’m Coming From, an awkwardly-titled transitional album that was the first time Stevie did a full album of all original-songs, in this case all co-writes with Syreeta Wright, and some reaching upwards of six minutes in length, a first for his studio albums.