Stevie Wonder ~ I Wish 1976 Funky Purrfection Version

Back in 1963, one of the biggest musical talents ever had his first #1 hit with “Fingertips (Part II) that spent three weeks at the top starting August 10 that year. Little Stevie Wonder was the second Motown artist to have a #1 hit but the first artist to have a recorded live single and he was only 12. He also had a #1 Album with “Little Stevie Wonder - the 12 Year Old Genius“ that contained the extended version of his breakout hit. It all started May 13, 1950 when Steveland Hardaway Judkins was born in Saginaw, Michigan to Calvin Judkins and Lula Hardaway. Born six weeks premature, he was placed in an incubator where the oxygen rich environment caused his retinas to detach due to its interference with the complete formation of his eyes. Mrs Hardaway then left Judkins a few years later and returned to her family using their surname, Morris as Stevie’s last name. The young child learned to play piano, drums and harmonica, eventually teaming up with another neighborhood kid to perform at parties. Lula then met Ronnie White of The Miracles (you know with Smokey Robinson!) and when White heard Stevie sing, took him straight to Berry Gordy who signed him to the Tamla label as Little Stevie Wonder at the age of 11. Assigned to work with house producer Clarence Paul, they completed two albums that flirted with the charts. On the second album, “The Jazz Soul Of Little Stevie“ was a studio version of “Fingertips“. Wonder then joined the travelling show that followed the “chitlin’ circuit“, so called because black artists were still being segregated from white establishments. His performance of “Fingertips“ became a seven minute opus due to his spontaneous encore that caught stage musicians by surprise as they were exiting the stage so the next artist could begin setting up. In a panic, the replacement bassist called out “What key, what key?“ and then jumped right into the star making performance. For single release, the song was divided in two parts. In the US, Part II contained those famous words and a star was born. After a few years of being molded in the Motown machine, Wonder wanted to do his own thing, a la Marvin Gaye but he was frustrated by the rolling Motown contract until he turned 21. Then he began turning out albums when HE felt they were ready. He continued to record now iconic albums and then he hit a two year fallow period while he worked on his 1976 opus. There was so much goodwill and demand for new Stevie Wonder music that when “Songs In The Key Of Life“ was released, it entered the Album chart at #1. Stevie spoke of how “I Wish“ came about at the annual Motown summer picnic while he suffered from “a really bad toothache“ but remembers he had a really great time there in spite of it. He recorded the supremely funky music track with dark lyrics that dealt with “the Wheel of 84“ and “going off to war“, but felt that the words did not reflect the fun sound of the music. He came up with a dummy lyric, “ I wish those days (clap) would (clap) come back once more (clap) and then decided to make the song about a man’s younger days when he was a “nappy headed little boy“. The finished tune was released December 4, 1976 and took only 7 weeks to hit the top on January 22, 1977. Stevie’s song knocked Leo Sayer’s “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing“ off the top and the following week, Rose Royce’s phenomenal “Car Wash“ knocked Stevie off the top. Good times and great music!