Songs in the Key of Wonder

[Bill Hart]

In spite of his considerable talents, a vast body of commercially successful recordings spanning the decades and enduring recognition from the time he first appeared on Motown’s Tamla roster as “Little Stevie Wonder” at the age of 11, I still think Stevie Wonder is vastly underrated as a composer and performer. His maturation as a gifted writer and musician not only helped redefine the sound of “soul” and popular music in the ’60s, but led to a period of deeper, more introspective music in the ’70s that resulted in a trilogy of genre-defying albums–records that remain a benchmark for modern music today. Among those, Songs in the Key of Life is not only the most ambitious, but unfolds as a rich, complex tapestry of ideas and themes that are timeless.

I had the honor of writing an essay about “Songs” for the National Recording Registry, which was inducted in 2005. The essay was just published by the Registry and can be found at: https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/...ey-of-Life.pdf

The essay is also republished here on The Vinyl Press.

Listening to the album today is a revelatory experience. Even if you think you know the album well (and it was played heavily at the time of release, along with a number of radio hit singles), there is so much here that is worth re-exploring. Perhaps I have matured as a listener as well. The contrasts between the funk and minor key melodies lend a grace to the album that keeps it moving. Far from being an exercise in self-indulgent excess, the two LP plus bonus EP set takes you on a voyage of melody, rhythm and instrumental prowess that seems too short when it ends. The production, discussed in more detail in the essay, is deft, with the right balance between spare and lush instrumentation. On the issue of pressings, I’ve usually found the Kendun masterings of Wonder’s records to sound the best on vinyl but “Songs,” as far as I know, was never mastered by Kendun. The copy I listened to while writing the essay is an early pressing and a good sounding one.

[MylesBAstor]

Stevie sure took the then fledgling synthesizer to a whole new level. Simply unprecedented.

Underappreciated? Yes I agree with you. What an enormous talent.

Innervisions remains my favorite, if for nothing else Stevie playing almost all the instruments on the album.

[Gusf]

Stevie Wonder is a house favorite here. He one of the few artists we all agree on. Though I don't think his albums sound as good as I would like, the music is fantastic. Very nice insight Bill.

[Bill Hart]

Stevie Wonder is a house favorite here. He one of the few artists we all agree on. Though I don't think his albums sound as good as I would like, the music is fantastic. Very nice insight Bill.

Gusf- thanks for the nice words. For Innervisions and Fulfillingness, try to find pressings with Kendun in the deadwax. These masterings sound better than the other Tamla copies I have heard, which often sound muffled or closed in. Unfortunately, Kendun did not master "Songs" as far as I can tell, but the early pressing I used for the piece--which I bought recently, since I could not find my old copy--sounded pretty good! (I gather Wonder has the true masters, which raises a whole other set of issues). The Musiquarium is pretty fantastic sounding- probably a really good source. Don't know if you have it. I have a promo copy-think it is a white label- and it is way better sounding than the standard issue Tamla copies of the original releases.

[Gusf]

Thanks Bill. I will check them out.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Another excellent piece of writing and analysis (opinion) Bill! I'm a huge fan of Stevie's work. The man should be a national treasure!

SITKOF gets a regular workout on my system, along with Talking Book and Original Musiquarium Volume One, which IMHO may be the best compilation album ever put out.

[Bill Hart]

Another excellent piece of writing and analysis (opinion) Bill! I'm a huge fan of Stevie's work. The man should be a national treasure!

SITKOF gets a regular workout on my system, along with Talking Book and Original Musiquarium Volume One, which IMHO may be the best compilation album ever put out.

John- when I get resettled, I'm going to buy a bunch of copies of Talking Book and listen to them. I had an old copy that wasn't great, the MoFi was an improvement, but I'm gonna try and find a better sounding copy if it is out there.... I Believe is a favorite on that record.

[Johnny Vinyl]

John- when I get resettled, I'm going to buy a bunch of copies of Talking Book and listen to them. I had an old copy that wasn't great, the MoFi was an improvement, but I'm gonna try and find a better sounding copy if it is out there.... I Believe is a favorite on that record.

Good luck with that! I say that only because in Canada there are 4 different label variants (2 from AMPEX and 2 from MOTOWN). My copy is a solid light blue Motown. The MOFI is a nice enough copy for sure, but I gotta believe better copies are out there. I also have a sealed copy of a 180g reissue that has a hype sticker, but no data on who released this. My search indicated this was likely a Scorpio pressing. This means that it was probably sourced from a CD. I don't think I'll bother with opening it.

PS: Playing my light blue Motown label copy now.......nice!

[JCOConnell]

my copy, don't remember the label, I think its a tamla, sounds like crap.

[Johnny Vinyl]

SITKOL or Talking Book?

[JCOConnell]

Sitkol

[kcin]

In spite of his considerable talents, a vast body of commercially successful recordings spanning the decades and enduring recognition from the time he first appeared on Motown’s Tamla roster as “Little Stevie Wonder” at the age of 11, I still think Stevie Wonder is vastly underrated as a composer and performer. His maturation as a gifted writer and musician not only helped redefine the sound of “soul” and popular music in the ’60s, but led to a period of deeper, more introspective music in the ’70s that resulted in a trilogy of genre-defying albums–records that remain a benchmark for modern music today. Among those, Songs in the Key of Life is not only the most ambitious, but unfolds as a rich, complex tapestry of ideas and themes that are timeless.

I had the honor of writing an essay about “Songs” for the National Recording Registry, which was inducted in 2005. The essay was just published by the Registry and can be found at: https://www.loc.gov/programs/static/...ey-of-Life.pdf

The essay is also republished here on The Vinyl Press.

Listening to the album today is a revelatory experience. Even if you think you know the album well (and it was played heavily at the time of release, along with a number of radio hit singles), there is so much here that is worth re-exploring. Perhaps I have matured as a listener as well. The contrasts between the funk and minor key melodies lend a grace to the album that keeps it moving. Far from being an exercise in self-indulgent excess, the two LP plus bonus EP set takes you on a voyage of melody, rhythm and instrumental prowess that seems too short when it ends. The production, discussed in more detail in the essay, is deft, with the right balance between spare and lush instrumentation. On the issue of pressings, I’ve usually found the Kendun masterings of Wonder’s records to sound the best on vinyl but “Songs,” as far as I know, was never mastered by Kendun. The copy I listened to while writing the essay is an early pressing and a good sounding one.

Great album and nice essay. Unfortunately, my 2 pressings sound like dreck. I'm sure one of them is Tamla.

[Joe Pittman]

Back in the old day's I tried to buy imports, so I only have one copy of SITKOL, it's a Motown French pressing 2C168-97900/1 (from 1976). Vinyl quality is OK, low surface noise and flat. Bass is good but not great. The highs are a bit closed-in and rolled off. I was wondering if anyone here has a copy and if so have they compared it to any of the other pressings.

Of all of the pressings out there, what is considered the best? This is an LP worthy of being reissued with absolute quality and performance as the objective.

[Johnny Vinyl]

Speakers Corner did this and its supposed to be pretty good, but it's long OOP. I've not been able to find any threads anywhere on the best version of this.

[jazdoc]

Great writeup Bill. I suspect SITHKOL is my most played record...