[87] The album was released in October 2013. He recorded a soundtrack album for Spike Lee's film Jungle Fever in 1991. Wonder’s “classic period”—the polite phrase for when Stevie spent five years ferociously dunking on the entire history of popular music with the releases of Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life [...] We’ve never heard anything like it since, and barring another reincarnation, we never will again.

Wonder's "classic period", which culminated in 1976, was noted for his funky style of playing on the keyboard, personal control of production, and series of songs integrated with one another to make a concept album. The album also featured a duet with India Arie on the title track "A Time to Love".

[36] Wonder and Wright wanted to "touch on the social problems of the world", and for the lyrics "to mean something". Image of Stevie Wonder and Patti LaBelle performing at the Shrine Auditorium, 1978. [48] Innervisions generated three more Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Wonder's critical success was at its peak in the 1970s. 1 on the R&B charts. He was also featured in Chaka Khan's cover of Prince's "I Feel For You", alongside Melle Mel, playing his signature harmonica. When people in decades and centuries to come talk about the history of music, they will talk about Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder [...] he [Wonder] evolved into an amazing songwriter and a genuine musical force of nature. Conversation Peace and the live album Natural Wonder were released in the 1990s. STEPHEN RAY 'STEVIE' YOUNG October 18,1964-Jue 6,2019 Stephen Ray Stevie Young age 54 of Smithville, passed away Thursday night at NHC HealthCare Center.

If you see something that doesn't look right on this page, please do inform us using the form below: © 2017 Dead or Kicking / All Rights Reserved. 1 hit that year in collaboration with Paul McCartney in their paean to racial harmony, "Ebony and Ivory". He performed "Overjoyed" on Saturday Night Live when he was the host. Stevland Hardaway Morris (né Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. [127] Consistent with that spiritual vision, Wonder became vegetarian, and later a vegan, singing about it in October 2015 on The Late Late Show with James Corden during the show's "Carpool Karaoke" segment. [11][12], In 1961, when aged 11, Wonder sang his own composition, "Lonely Boy", to Ronnie White of the Miracles;[13][14] White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown's Tamla label. – Elton John[102], Wonder has recorded more than 30 U.S. top ten hits, including ten U.S. number-one hits on the pop charts, well as 20 R&B number one hits. [35] The album was released at around the same time as Marvin Gaye's What's Going On.

In 2006, Wonder staged a duet with Andrea Bocelli on the latter's album Amore, offering harmonica and additional vocals on "Canzoni Stonate".
", "Stevie Wonder has ninth child on the way", "Lula Mae Hardaway, 76, Stevie Wonder's Mother, Dies", "Stevie Wonder Went Vegan and He Loves it So Much He Sings About it! He also plays the piano, synthesizer, harmonica, congas, drums, bongos, organ, melodica and Clavinet. [118][119] After Aisha was born, Wonder said "she was the one thing that I needed in my life and in my music for a long time". The Album of the Year was again one of three Grammys won. Until 1979's Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" his only release was the retrospective three-disc album Looking Back, an anthology of his early Motown period. The baby-celebratory "Isn't She Lovely?"

His key appearances include performing at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City,[75] the 2005 Live 8 concert in Philadelphia,[76] the pre-game show for Super Bowl XL in 2006, the Obama Inaugural Celebration in 2009, and the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece. For me, it's the best album ever made, and I'm always left in awe after I listen to it. In 2009, he was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. [15] A single, "Fingertips", from the album was also released in May, and became a major hit. Your contribution is much appreciated! Between 1967 and 1970 he recorded four 45 rpm[30][31][32][33] and an Italian LP. 1 on the R&B chart, the first time that had occurred. 8). Wonder accepted the award in the name of Nelson Mandela and was subsequently banned from all South African radio by the Government of South Africa. Wonder wrote the lyrics. [53][54] He also co-wrote and produced the Syreeta Wright album Stevie Wonder Presents: Syreeta.[55][56]. [7][8], When Wonder was four, his mother divorced his father and moved with her children to Detroit, Michigan, where Wonder sang as a child in a choir at the Whitestone Baptist Church. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. In 1983, he scheduled an album to be entitled People Work, Human Play. In 1963, the single "Fingertips" was a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when Wonder was 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. Wonder was the recipient of numerous honours.
He has sold over 100 million records, 19.5 million of which are albums;[103] he is one of the top 60 best-selling music artists with combined sales of singles and albums. Wonder is often hailed as a "genius", and has been credited as a pioneer and influence to musicians of various genres including rhythm and blues, pop, soul, gospel, funk and jazz. Wonder won 25 Grammy Awards[46] (the most ever won by a solo artist) as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award. [128][129][130], Wonder joined Twitter on April 4, 2018, and his first tweet was a five-minute video honoring Martin Luther King Jr. [132][133][134], On August 31, 2018, Wonder performed at the funeral of Aretha Franklin at Detroit's Greater Grace Temple. [78] The first single, "So What the Fuss", was released in April. His albums of the "classic period", Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976), all won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, making him the tied-record holder for the most Album of the Year wins, with three. In 1982, Wonder released a retrospective of his 1970s work with Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium, which included four new songs: the ten-minute funk classic "Do I Do" (which featured Dizzy Gillespie), "That Girl" (one of the year's biggest singles to chart on the R&B side), "Front Line", a narrative about a soldier in the Vietnam War that Wonder wrote and sang in the first person, and "Ribbon in the Sky", one of his many classic compositions. Stephen Crawford "Stevie" Young (born 11 December 1956) is a Scottish musician and the rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist for the Australian hard rock band, AC/DC. [24] His next few recordings, however, were not successful; his voice was changing as he got older, and some Motown executives were considering cancelling his recording contract. [79] If Wonder were to join forces with Bennett, it would not be for the first time; their rendition of "For Once in My Life" earned them a Grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals in 2006. But Wonder was much more than a freakish prepubescent imitation of Ray Charles, as audiences discovered when he demonstrated his prowess with piano, organ, harmonica, and drums. Wright and Wonder worked together on the next album, Where I'm Coming From (1971), Wonder writing the music, and Wright helping with the lyrics. [123] This turned out not to be the case, and the couple's new daughter was given the name Nia,[124] meaning "purpose"–one of the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Pop charts and number 11 on the US Adult Contemporary charts.

[23] The single was simultaneously No. [92] Virtually a one-man band during his peak years, his use of synthesizers and further electronic musical instruments during the 1970s helped expand the sound of R&B. [109][110] In June 2009 he became the fourth artist to receive the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award. [123] The name of Wonder's first child with Bracy is unknown. ", "Stevie Wonder, 64, Welcomes Ninth Child, a Baby Girl Named Nia! 1 in the Billboard charts, where it stood for 14 non-consecutive weeks. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 when Wonder was aged 13, making him the youngest artist ever to top the chart. [46] On an episode of the children's television show Sesame Street that aired in April 1973,[47] Wonder and his band performed "Superstition", as well as an original called "Sesame Street Song", which demonstrated his abilities with television. [10], As a child, Wonder attended Fitzgerald Elementary School. Wonder was in a featured duet with Bruce Springsteen on the all-star charity single for African Famine Relief, "We Are the World", and he was part of another charity single the following year (1986), the AIDS-inspired "That's What Friends Are For". The album also included "Master Blaster (Jammin')", "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It", and the sentimental ballad, "Lately".

He also gained a No.

Such a fertile period was unlikely to last forever, and it came to an end in 1979 with a fey and overambitious extended work called Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. [15] Feeling Wonder was now ready, a song, "Mother Thank You", was recorded for release as a single, but then pulled and replaced by the Berry Gordy song "I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues" as his début single;[16] released summer 1962,[17] it almost broke into the Billboard 100, spending one week of August at 101. [83] His 2010 tour included a two-hour set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, a stop at London's "Hard Rock Calling" in Hyde Park, and appearances at England's Glastonbury Festival, Rotterdam's North Sea Jazz Festival, and a concert in Bergen, Norway, and a concert in Dublin, Ireland, at the O2 Arena on June 24. He officially joined the band in September 2014, replacing his uncle, Malcolm Young who retired due to dementia. [28] The album failed to get much attention, and its only single, a cover of "Alfie", only reached number 66 on the U.S. 1 R&B single of 1980). [40] Wonder's lyrics dealt with social, political, and mystical themes as well as standard romantic ones, while musically he began exploring overdubbing and recording most of the instrumental parts himself. [97], Wonder's albums during his "classic period" were considered very influential in the music world: the 1983 Rolling Stone Record Guide said they "pioneered stylistic approaches that helped to determine the shape of pop music for the next decade";[43] Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time included four of the five albums, with three in the top 90. [104] Wonder was the first Motown artist and second African-American musician to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song, which he won for his 1984 hit single "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from the movie The Woman in Red. [74] Wonder continues to record and perform; though mainly occasional appearances and guest performances, he did do two tours, and released one album of new material, 2005's A Time to Love. [83], He sang at the Michael Jackson memorial service in 2009,[84] at Etta James' funeral, in 2012,[85] and a month later at Whitney Houston's memorial service.[86].

At the Regal Theater, Chicago, his 20-minute performance was recorded and released in May 1963 as the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. He was also featured on two tracks on Mark Ronson's album Uptown Special. See Stevie's age, contact number, house address, email address, public records & run a background check. The 1980s saw Wonder achieving his biggest hits and highest level of fame; he had increased album sales, charity participation, high-profile collaborations, political impact, and television appearances.