In 1970, he married his first wife, a songwriter and former Motown secretary, Syreeta Wright. Never-before-seen footage of this performance opens up the 2021 documentary Summer of Soul, directed by Questlove. Wrapping up the decade, in 1969 Wonder performed a drum solo at the Harlem Cultural Festival. Although they were factors of his music across his six decade career, it was especially important and appreciated that Stevie Wonder’s music reflected the social climate and spoke of various facets of the Black experience, from love to loss, during this pivotal time in American History. Victories like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act were celebrated, all while the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. The ‘60s were a time of triumph and tragedy for the Black community. He went on to release several hits leading up to the ’70s, including “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” “For Once In My Life,” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours).” The latter song was the first that Wonder self-produced. In the early 1960s, Wonder’s voice had changed with his age, and Motown considered dropping him, but ultimately decided to give him another chance. It topped the Billboard charts when he was just 13, and he remains the youngest artist to ever have a number one song today.ĭROPPING THE “LITTLE” & OTHER POINTS OF INFLUENCE But a single released off of a subsequent live album, “Fingertips,” shot Wonder to fast fame. While he had one single that almost made the Billboard charts - “I Call it Pretty Music, But the Old People Call it Blues” -, the first two albums had little commercial success. Right away, he began working on two albums with producer and songwriter Clarence Paul. Berry Gordy packaged him with the stage name “Little Stevie Wonder.” White took Wonder to audition for Motown Records where CEO Berry Gordy recognized the immense talent of this young musical prodigy and signed him to a record deal, making him one of the youngest individual artists to ever do so. In 1961, when Wonder was 11, he sang an original song called “Lonely Boy” to Ronnie White of the Miracles. It was at this age that he first learned the piano, and by the age of 8, he was a soloist for the choir at the family’s church in Detroit, the Whitestone Baptist Church. When Wonder was four, his mother and father divorced and he and his four siblings moved to Detroit. He was born at six weeks premature, and was exposed to excess oxygen in his hospital incubator, which led to a condition where his retinas detached and he became blind. Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan on May 13th, 1950 to Lula Mae Hardaway and Calvin Judkins. Today, roughly six decades into his music career, Stevie Wonder remains one of the most influential soul singers of all time and he is still the youngest artist to have ever topped the Billboard charts. While first given the stage name “Little” Stevie Wonder, Stevland Hardaway (Judkins) Morris is anything but little. Continue reading to take a deep dive into Stevie Wonder’s incredible legacy - from his music career, which spans nearly three quarters of a century, to his activism efforts.īy Nora Onanian, Web Services Coordinator BIOGRAPHY Each week of Black History Month, we open the 88.9 Vault of Soul with profiles of iconic soul pioneers.
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