STEVIE WONDER – UK TOUR
I don’t think we were expecting to see Stevie Wonder on our UK shores so soon, but less than a week ago, an announcement hit social media like a tsunami. In fact, every other post on my Facebook page seemed to be the striking black and orange advert for the 50th anniversary of one of his most influential albums, “Songs In The Key Of Life”. First UK gig on 13th October is at Utilita Arena Birmingham, before hitting London’s 02 on 3rd November for a couple of nights; Manchester’s Co-op Live is next, then Glasgow OVO Hydro. Stevie flies to the UK from Europe and returns to America afterwards. Five UK dates in all at time of writing and this is probably a once-in-a-generation celebration of the 1976 album.
THE BUILD UP TO “SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE”
Here’s the back story to this incredible album, released in the year that Diana Ross topped the American singles chart with “Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To?)”, and Florence Ballard’s death, a tragedy that stunned Supremes’ fans to the very core. Stevie was particularly devastated with Flo’s sudden unexpected death because The Supremes had taken him to their hearts from his first day at Motown.
In the summer of 1975 advertisements for “Songs In The Key Of Life” graced the largest billboard in America, as it spanned one city block, overlooking 46th and Broadway in New York City. Unfortunately, the advertisement was premature. The album – Stevie’s first under his then-new $13 million Motown contract – wasn’t ready for release. However, Stevie had assured Motown it would be available on a certain date, so the record company went ahead and arranged a media preview for March 1976. That didn’t happen either because Stevie withdraw the master tapes insisting they needed further remixing.
Instead of complaining about the delay, Motown’s marketing department actually cashed in on it by distributing “We’re Almost Finished” T-shirts. Stevie noted at the time, “I knew when we did ‘I Wish’ I’d almost finished, so we did the T-shirts. My brother had another idea later and we started wearing T-shirts with track titles on them, like, we had one with ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ on it.”
London’s EMI/Motown office had been on alert of the master tapes arriving in time for 30th September release, with the artwork following. EMI’s factory in Hayes, Middlesex, worked non-stop to ensure simultaneous release with America, thereby stemming import sales, which severely stung the UK record industry on a regular basis. The British release would also celebrate Motown’s new label logo – a large ‘M’ placed against a pale-blue background, encircled in a dark blue edge.
Yay! “Songs In The Key Of Life” made its scheduled release date, but it did set a precedent for Stevie’s inability to deliver product on time. He shrugged this off in a 1976 interview: “It’s all about pleasing myself, not everybody and anybody, but myself. I’m the hardest person for me to please, and when I finally please myself, I know I have made something good.” He added that his public expected great music from him, something that didn’t bother him, but “they don’t understand that you can’t make good music overnight. I do the best I can no matter how long it takes.”
Now I’m journeying back to 1976, I was one of the lucky people to attend a press preview of the album which I had thought took place in EMI House, 20 Manchester Square, in that much-used reception room that played host to many events and impromptu performances.
However, upon re-looking at this, I discovered it was actually held at Abbey Road Studios. Hell’s bells! How could that have slipped my mind! We listened to the album while drinking wine, eating from laden plates of finger food and watching a slide show featuring Stevie. It’s such a huge privilege to sit in the most famous of all recording studios. Indeed, the second time was listening to the preview of “Hotter Than July” on 2nd September 1980 when Stevie was with us.
Sharon Davis with her special edition copy of “Songs In The Key Of Life”
Motown/EMI threw money at “Songs In The Key Of Life” with an individually named boxed set for attendees, which held the gatefold album, 24-page lyric booklet, bonus single (STME 2020) containing four tracks, “Saturn”, “Ebony Eyes”, “All Day Sucker” and “Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call)”, and exclusive press pack in bright blue folders prepared by then-Motown’s publicist Bob Fisher, RIP. Needless to say, I didn’t play that album, but blagged another to review in Blues & Soul.
Unlike the UK preview, “Songs In The Key Of Life” was presented to the American media in an event hosted by Stevie at a rustic farmhouse set in 145 acres in Massachusetts. Apparently, the rental for the day was $1,000, added to which were the huge expenses bill, like journalists being transported by jet to a small airport near the farm, where champagne and food delicacies were served all day.
Stevie in cowboy attire at US press preview of “Songs In The Key Of Life” at Longview Farm
The album was, of course, played continuously throughout the ranch house and in the studio where Stevie spent much of his time. Dressed in a cream-coloured cowboy suit with matching ten-gallon hat, he wore two cardboard album covers suspended from the gun belt around his waist. He told the attending press (which included David Nathan on behalf of Blues & Soul) that the album was a conglomeration of thoughts from his subconscious: “An idea to me is a farmed thought in the subconscious, the unknown and sometimes sought-for impossibilities, but when believed strong enough, can become a reality…So let it be that I shall like the idea of the song and use its words as my sight into the unknown.”
He also added that he believed God gave him the key in which to sing, and if it was a key that others could enjoy then so be it: “I gave my all, and all is the best I can do. I’ve never considered myself an orator nor a politician, only a person who is fortunate enough…to become an artist given a chance to express the way I feel and hopefully the feelings of many other people.”
“SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE” – THE MUSIC
So what of the music? Naturally, it was personal Stevie Wonder, as proven by “Isn’t She Lovely”, dedicated to Yolanda Simmons and their daughter Aisha. The track featured not his new baby’s gurgles, as we all thought, but those of a nearby infant in the same hospital ward. Don’t ask me why – ‘cos I don’t know!
Stevie gave specific instructions that the song should never be released as a single: it was too personal and because it couldn’t be edited. So what happened? Pye Records signing David Parton thought otherwise and re-recorded an edited version to hit the top four in the UK chart during January 1977. Motown spat feathers – they knew the original (which attracted more radio play than any of the other album tracks) would have given Stevie the number one single he deserved, but acknowledged, with a smile, that as an album track it sold more elpees. Oh, that old marketing ploy!
Written by Stevie following a Saturday Motown picnic, “I Wish” was the first-lifted single in December 1976. It topped the US chart and peaked in the UK top five. The singer’s tribute to Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and others, “Sir Duke” was next; this pop-flavoured slice of peer dedication marked his second US number one in May ’77 and UK top two, prevented from reaching the top by ex-Wonderlove member, Deniece Williams with “Free”. A rather mediocre track by comparison, “Another Star” (with George Benson on support vocals) followed during August ’77. This title broke his chart-topping run by struggling into the US top forty, and UK top thirty, not what artist or Motown expected. An edited version of “As” was issued simultaneously in the US and UK in the November, representing the final extracted single.
Of the other tracks, well, it was difficult (and still is) to finger the best. “Pastime Paradise” with its ‘segregation, dispensation, mutilation’ set against an uncomfortable eerie, spine-curdling chant and wail sequence from the West Angeles Church Of God Choir and Hare Krishna vocalists, contrasted vividly with the desperate appeal of the beautiful “Love’s In Need Of Love Today”.
“Have A Talk With God” was not an option when life was tough, he said, and “Joy Inside My Tears”, with support vocals from Susaye Greene, was typical of his tenderness. Caught between the two strongest emotions – love and hate – the Syreeta-influenced “Knocks Me Off My Feet” attempted to present a balance against a strong melody, while the prominent harp in “If It’s Magic” continued the love theme found in most of the tracks. “Ordinary Pain”, tipped by many as the album’s highlight, told of a broken relationship from the viewpoint of the man and the woman (Shirley Brewer). Ex-Wonderlove singers Lynda Laurence, Syreeta, Sundray Tucker, Minnie Riperton joined Deniece to add their voices to this extraordinary track.
And then we have a couple of powerful, ‘smack in the face’ titles. New York DJ Gary Byrd provided the lyrics for “Village Ghetto Land” and “Black Man”. The two had first met to work on a trio of Gary’s songs, and when Stevie needed a lyricist he knew who to ask. Recalled Gary, “Stevie called me and had me listen to a track over the phone. It was to be ‘Village Ghetto Land’ and it sounded more like a composition by Bach or Beethoven. Stevie told me he wanted it to be about all kinds of ghettos…the day I finished it I let him hear it over the phone and he told me he needed another verse and would call back in another fifteen minutes for it!”
Of “Black Man,” Gary explained the song wasn’t just about a black man but rather the contributions that people had made to the world we live in, like a documentary. It took four weeks of research using the staff of his GB company, and the help of Harlem’s Al Fann Theatrical Ensemble in the teacher/student vocal sequences on the completed track.
With a Zulu translation, “Ngiculela” leading into “Es Una Historia – I Am Singing”, Stevie signified the international flavour of the album that held no barriers. Indeed, “Songs In The Key Of Life” was the musical marathon promised in the advertising: a comfortable, unprecedented monument that was certainly worth the wait. And rightly so, it zoomed into the US album chart at number one, and peaked at number two in the UK.
Being such an awesome package, it came as no surprise when it scooped four Grammy Awards – Best Album, Best Producer, Best Pop Vocal Performance, Best R&B Vocal Performance for “I Wish”. Since the album’s initial release, it has been certified diamond status, selling more than ten million copies. After this upcoming 2026 tour, methinks more sales will be added to this remarkable achievement.
“Of all the albums, ‘Songs In The Key Of Life’ is the one I’m most happy about,” Stevie told Q magazine in 1995. “Just the time, being alive then. To be a father and then letting go and letting God give me the energy and strength I needed.”
STEVIE IN CONCERT
Stevie will be singing the above tracks on his 50th Anniversary tour this year, his first full tour since his 2024 “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” series of US concerts. By the way, this 2026 tour won’t be the first time he’s performed “Songs In The Key Of Life” in its entirety, as late 2013, he performed it at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, at his 18th annual “House Full Of Toys” benefit concert. On stage with him were several of the singers and musicians featured on the original album. Then from this gig, he set off to play selected dates across the US and Canada to celebrate the 38th anniversary of the album’s release.
JANIE BRADFORD
I can’t let this moment pass without mentioning a much-loved and respected lady, Janie Bradford, who died on 21 August. A key figure in Motown’s early days where she started out as a receptionist but soon showed her true colours as a talented composer by co-writing “Money (That’s What I Want)”. This led to her writing for Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, ‘Little’ Stevie Wonder, among others.
Berry Gordy said of her passing that she was one of the special group he believed was the original Motown family, “the unsung heroes who believed in the dream before anyone knew what Motown would become. She was one of the people who helped make Motown what it became.”
Janie’s commitment to others didn’t end when she left the company, as Berry continued: “Through her Heroes & Legends Scholarship Fund, which she founded in the nineties, she spent decades helping deserving young people pursue their dreams, while celebrating so many of the people who helped build our musical community. Her annual gatherings always felt like old home week because Janie kept that wonderful sense of family alive.”
Shortly before her passing, this innovative lady was inducted into the Women Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, and over the years was awarded numerous honours and commendations. Janie died at the Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles after a lengthy illness. She was eighty seven years old.
Sharon Davis
LINK TO PURCHASE STEVIE WONDER’S SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE
