Happy 45th Anniversary to Stevie Wonder’s eighteenth studio album Songs in the Key of Life, originally released September 28, 1976.
Magnum. Opus. In such an illustrious career filled with so many amazing and culture-shifting albums and songs, Songs in the Key of Life stands as Stevie Wonder’s most shining of moments. In a period when the prolific Wonder was wowing audiences and critics alike with his mid-seventies releases gobbling up Album of the Year GRAMMY Awards like they were going out of style, and fresh off renewing a landmark recording contract with Motown Records in 1974, everybody waited for what Wonder would materialize in the studio next.
But they would have to wait. Having come off an album-a-year release schedule in the lead-up to 1974’s contract renewal, Wonder took time off to assuage thoughts of retirement and draw on a renewed sense of creativity. As recordings began, slated release dates came and went as Wonder took his time shaping a double album (and a bonus four track EP) that reflected the promise of journey and discovery held in the title.
And deliver on that promise he did with an album that mixed childhood nostalgia with reflections on growing up, faith and spirituality, legacy, love and despair, and the social issues of the time.
Here, we get Stevie Wonder in all of his powers as songwriter, musician, and producer. Wonder takes the listener through a journey on the album that is revelatory and celebratory. He weaves classic soul and R&B with jazz and gospel (often all in one song) drawing inspiration from a wide range of influences. In doing so, he presents the listener with an expansive breadth of work that connects with your heart, soul, mind, and inner metronome.
The album mixes subdued moments with wild flourishes and shows so effortlessly how Wonder could pull from his influences, place jazz chords (you know, those really expensive ones) alongside a simple pop-driven singalong melody.
You get Stevie the humanist and spiritualist in soft brooding songs like album opener “Love’s in Need of Love Today” (which is as much a statement piece of the album’s intent as it is an honest reflection of the turmoil of the mid-seventies) with its meditative message for the world to tune in to. And he’s there in the laid-back call to see a higher power’s guidance in “Have a Talk with God” against looping electronic bleeps and bops.
And Stevie, the soulful lovestruck poet, is all over tracks like “Knocks Me Off My Feet” with its perfect arrangement and an easy-going feel and sweet (if whimsical) declaration of love in the constant refrain of “I don’t want to bore you with it / Oh but I love you, I love you, I love you.” And again, in the sparse lament “If It’s Magic,” Wonder’s vocals set ever so softly against a glittering harp.
And love’s celebration is most present in the hit, “Isn’t She Lovely,” where Wonder fashions a joyous ode to the birth of his daughter and does so against an R&B groove and touches of pop brilliance that is too good to resist.
Love (and the lack thereof) is also present in the mournful “Ordinary Pain” and the shifting sands of “Summer Soft” that makes heartbreak almost welcoming. The reflective “Joy Inside My Times” has your heart swelling, and the grooving back of forth “All Day Sucker” is oh so bittersweet.
Legacy and a longing for yesterday are also powerful through lines that thread their way through many of the highpoints in Songs. The most obvious is the childhood reminiscence in the funk of “I Wish,” which perfectly captures the carefree feelings of youth against a bouncing groove and skipping light touch synth line that hooks you from the first note.
With his hat tip tribute to the iconic Duke Ellington on “Sir Duke,” Wonder gets to salute an artist whose works and passing in 1974 had a significant impact on him. Reflecting on the legacy of jazz and its players, Wonder pays tribute to those who influenced him and the healing and transformative nature of music. He celebrates its genius in the scatting melodic and blasting brass and in the euphoric refrain, “You can feel it all oooooo-ver.”
There’s pure genius musicianship at play as the album shapeshifts from jazz fusion in “Contusion” to Afro-Cuban rhythms in “Another Star” and Latin arrangements in “Ngiculela - Es Una Historia - I Am Singing” that has Wonder relaying lyrics in Zulu, Spanish, and English as if bringing the world together in song and uniting them in melody.
Part of the brilliance held in Songs in the Key of Life is the way Wonder winds his way through standard songs like “Knocks Me Off My Feet” and then butts them up against a piece that is pure experimentation in “Pastime Paradise.” As the primary sample in Coolio’s 1995 smash “Gangsta’s Paradise,” the original combines tribal-influenced grooves with spiritual ones, as Wonder borrows from Hare Krishna musicians and his gospel roots, as well as cribbing a chord progression from Bach’s “Prelude No.2 in C minor. The track is also one of the first moments on record where synth strings are so expertly performed that many insist there are actual string players in place.
The social commentary of “Pastime Paradise” is sharped and steeled in the reportage of “Village Ghetto Land,” where Wonder presents the marginalized reality of the oppressed against a flourish of baroque-inspired strings contrasting the opulence of the melody against the poverty of the narrative.
And on “Black Man,” Wonder gives a history lesson on the achievements of all races and sexes (in sometimes dated racial references), which still opens the eyes to the ingenuity and accomplishments of minorities across all cultures and colors.
As the album plays, you find yourself marveling at the ease in which Wonder can switch between, or fuse together, different genres, whether doing so on the very poppy and Beatles-esque “Ebony Eyes” or the jazz-centric soul of “Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call)” or the epic almost prog-rock styling of “Saturn.”
Songs in the Key of Life is filled with so many shining moments, but the epicenter has to be the transformative “As.” With its soulful vocals, grooving funk rhythm, and gospel choral refrains, “As” is epic both in its run time and scope, but never does it falter or wear the listener out. With each passing bar, Wonder and co draw you further into the song and wrap you up in its splendor. As the ultimate declaration of undying love, “As” is a pure inspiration of musicianship, songcraft, and production.
Much has been made of the overwhelming number of musicians and artists on Songs in the Key of Life that features a lineup 130 deep. But there can be no doubt of the singular vision that reigns throughout. This is Stevie Wonder at his apex, creating truly timeless music. It should be no surprise that many of the chart-topping artists in the following decades—such as Michael Jackson, Prince, George Michael, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey—all lauded Songs in the Key of Life for the landmark recording it is. Wonder’s heart and soul is in every breath and bar of this album, and its influence will continue as long as musicians strive to inspire and push themselves. Or put another way, until the day that eight times eight times eight is four. You do the math.
LISTEN: