Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder (1950- ), born Stevland Hardaway Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan, is an American vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has been blind virtually from birth. Throughout his career he has recorded for Motown, firstly as a child prodigy ('Little Stevie Wonder') and then, when his voice broke, as an adult producing a string of classic singles and in the 1970s a series of thematic albums with a conscience.

Wonder still records for Motown, but was almost dropped from the label when his early, somewhat shrill, vocal style (he began his recording career at the age of 11) changed. He is extremely frail physically, and at one point was rumoured to be existing on a diet of one lemon a day. However, he has managed to adapt his style to the changing musical landscape of each successive decade, and scored his first UK number 1 single in 1984 with I Just Called To Say I Love You. Even albums considered relative failures, such as The Secret Life Of Plants (1979), contain much of interest and showcase Wonder's thrilling and emotive vocal style.

Links to Peel
Although Peel had little time for Motown's musical style, he gained an appreciation for Wonder's series of 1970s LPs: John claimed to have played his 1972 release Talking Book and his 1976 double album Songs In The Key Of Life in their entirety on Kat's Karavan. That he regarded him as an iconic figure is scarcely in doubt: when he attended the Nelson Mandela Concert at Wembley in 1988, he regarded the moment when Wonder appeared on stage "as if from nowhere" as the most moving moment. He returned to his LPs during his visit to New Zealand in 2002, when he played a track from Talking Book that he claimed had followed him around at the time. Apparently John Walters was a big fan of Wonder's music.

Festive Fifty Entries

 * None

Sessions

 * None in his own right, but in 1967 Wonder recorded a jam with Jimi Hendrix during the latter's first session which remained unaired until an outing on Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show in 1979.

Other Shows Played

 * 17 July 1967: 'I Was Made To Love Her (7")' (Tamla Motown)
 * 06 June 1972: 'Keep On Running (LP-Music Of My Mind)' (Tamla Motown)
 * Where It's At: 'Boogie On Reggae Woman (LP-Fulfillingness' First Finale)' (Tamla Motown)
 * 25 December 1982 (TOTP): 'Ebony & Ivory (with Paul McCartney)'
 * 06 September 1984 (TOTP): 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' (video)
 * 23 December 1986 (JP: 'Tonight, I managed to listen to most of Janice's programme, which obviously, because I'm working myself, I don't always get the chance to do, and I was most pleased to hear that I'd placed second in the Record Mirror Poll, I hadn't noticed this, in the 'Least Objectionable DJ' category: Janice came top of that. And I've have voted for her myself, I must say, in that particular capacity. I was also listening to Billy Bragg talking to her towards the end of the programe, and he seemed rather surprised that somebody in a Russian factory had given him a table, and given him some kind of message to pass on to Midge Ure, becuase this is the assumption people make in this country, you don't have to go to Russia to do that, on account of people giving me things, saying, "Can you give this to Lou Reed", or Stevie Wonder, or something like that, as though we all lived in the same block of flats. "Stevie's turn to get breakfast".')
 * 13 June 1988: 'Superstition (LP-Talking Book)' (Tamla Motown)
 * 09 April 2002: 'I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever) (LP-Talking Book)' (Tamla Motown)