To celebrate Stevie Wonder’s 70th birthday, we look back on his outstanding career and appreciate the beloved Motown legend…
Stevland Hardaway Morris, or ‘Stevie Wonder’ as the world knows him, was born on 13 May 1950 and is one of America’s best singer-songwriters, musicians, and record producers. He was bought up in Saginaw, Michigan, and was one of six children to Calvin and Judkins and his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway – who was also a songwriter.
Unfortunately, Stevie was found out to be blind shortly after birth due to being born premature and suffered a condition that stopped the growth of his eyes. However, this didn’t stop him from becoming one of the most successful musicians in music history.
From a young age, it was apparent Wonder had talent. A child prodigy known as “Little Stevie Wonder”, at only 11 years old he was signed by Berry Gordy to Motown’s Tamla label – a well-renowned music label that has seen consecutive success from artists including Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson Five, Lionel Richie and many more.
The road to his musical destiny was bumpy to start with as after releasing numerous singles, they proved to be a flop. However, at just 12, whilst Stevie was on tour with the Motortown Revue, the album Recorded Live: The 12-Year-Old Genius was released and the single Fingertips was released in May 1963 and became a huge hit.
From this, Wonder was the youngest artist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart at only 13 years old. However, once again things were not plain sailing for Wonder as he grew up. Over the next few years, his voice started to change, and it was even questioned by Berry Gordy to drop Wonder altogether from the label as he was not producing anything deemed successful. However, singer Sylvia Moy persuaded the label to give him another chance (good thing they did, imagine a world without Stevie Wonder’s music!).
It was with Moy that he worked with to create one of his best hits, Uptight (Everything’s Alright), and eventually Wonder began to work within the songwriting department at Motown and helped to compose some of the labels number one hits including The Tears of a Clown – sung by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
Stevie Wonder during rehearsal in the Netherlands
As Stevie moved into the 1970s, his success started to reach its peak as we moved into his “classic period”. From this period of his career, we were graced with the release of some of his best hits including Superstition and You are the Sunshine of My Life, all featured on his 1972 album, Talking Book. These two songs were so successful they went onto win three Grammy awards between them.
The 70s continued to be successful for Wonder as we also saw the release of Higher Ground on his 1973 album, Innervisions – an album which won him another three Grammy awards including album of the year. The album is also ranked by The Rolling Stones magazine as Number 23 on the 500 Greatest Albums of all time.
In Stevie Wonder’s personal life, he married his first wife, Syreeta Wright in 1970, aged 20. She was a songwriter, just like Stevie, and worked with him on his 1971 album Where I’m Coming From. However, they divorced in 1972. From 2001 to 2012, he was married to fashion designer Kai Mallard and in 2017 he married Tomeeka Bracy.
Although he was married three times, Stevie Wonder had nine children by five different women. As avid fans of Wonder will know, his 1976 classic Isn’t She Lovely was written and released after the birth of his daughter Aisha as Wonder said: “She was the one thing that I needed in my life and in my music for a long time.”
For any generation and age, whether you are seven or seventy, his music is still and loved and appreciated to this day. As a singer who has recorded more than 30 U.S top ten hits and won 25 Grammy awards, there is no doubt Stevie Wonder is one of the finest singers any of us will ever witness.
He is one of the few singers that will leave behind a repertoire of music that will be listened for years to come and remain in the ears of all future generations.
By Katie Green
Feature Image Credit: Wegow