Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder has been a major figure within the Black Music scene

over the last forty years. Stevie Wonder was born Steveland Judkins on

May13, 1950, however, he now prefers to be known as Steveland Morris

after his mother's married name.

He was blind at birth. The cause was the prematurity of the eye. Blood

vessels in the back of the eye hadn't reached the front of the eye

thus when he was born, prematurely, that growth temporarily stopped

then wildly took off branching out in the Vitreous of the eye.

After his family moved to Detroit in 1954, Steveland joined a church

choir, the gospel leanings on his music balanced by R & B. In 1961,

Ronnie White of the Miracles, who arranged an audition at Motown

Records, discovered him. Berry Gordy immediately signed Steveland to

the label. Wonder was placed in the care of writer / producer Clarence

Paul, who supervised his early recordings. In 1963, the release of the

live recording 'Fingertips' made his commercial success, and Motown

quickly marketed him on a series of albums as 'the 12-year-old genius'

to try to link him with the popularity of 'the late genius', Ray

Charles. Attempts to repeat the success of 'Fingertips' was difficult,

and Wonder's career was placed on hold during 1964 while his voice was

changing.

From 1965-70, Stevie Wonder was marketed like the other big Motown

stars, recording stuff that was chosen for him by the label's

executives, and issuing albums that mixed conventional soul

compositions with pop principles. Stevie also recorded his versions of

Bob Dylan's "Blowin' ln The Wind" and Ron Miller's 'A Place In The

Sun' in 1966. He co-wrote ...

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...uld enable him to see again. Wonder hopes

to have the operation, which involves the insertion of a microchip

in his eye, at Baltimore's John Hopkins University's Wilmer Eye

Institute.'

His songs can be heard on Spike Lee's movie 'Bamboozled, entitled

'Misrepresented People' and 'Some Years Ago' and represented a return

to Stevie's political comment.

Stevie returned to recording in 2004 with the album 'A Time 2 Love'.

The man has been the most influential Black Music artist over the last

4 decades. Whatever he turns his songwriting skills to, demands

attention.

Musical Contributions

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1. My Cherie Amour (Talma 1969) R&B- piano

2. All I Do (Talma 1980) R&B- piano

3. Superstition (Talma 1972) R&B- synthesizer

4. Isn't She Lovely (Talma 1976) R&B-harmonica