| Songs in the Key of Life | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 28, 1976 (1976-09-28) | |||
| Recorded | 1974–1976 | |||
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| Genre | ||||
| Length | 1:25:43 1:43:49 (includingA Something's Extra EP) | |||
| Label | Tamla | |||
| Producer | Stevie Wonder | |||
| Stevie Wonder chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Songs in the Key of Life | ||||
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Songs in the Key of Life is the eighteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter and musicianStevie Wonder. Adouble album, it was released on September 28, 1976, byTamla Records, a division ofMotown. It was recorded primarily at Crystal Sound studio inHollywood, with some sessions recorded at theRecord Plant in Hollywood, theRecord Plant inSausalito, andThe Hit Factory in New York City; final mixing was conducted at Crystal Sound.[5] The album has been regarded by music journalists as the culmination of Wonder's "classic period" of recording which began in 1972 withMusic of My Mind.[6]
By 1974, Wonder was one of the most successful figures inpopular music; his previous albumsMusic of My Mind,Talking Book (1972),Innervisions (1973), andFulfillingness' First Finale (1974) were all back-to-back critical successes. However, by March 1975, Wonder seriously considered quitting the music industry and emigrating toGhana to aid children with disabilities. When plans for afarewell concert had already begun, Wonder changed his mind and signed a new contract with Motown on August 5, 1975. This outlined a seven-year, seven-album deal, with full artistic control. This deal included $13 million upfront, a potential bonus of up to $20 million, 20% of the royalties, and ownership of the publishing rights. At the time, it was the biggest recording deal in history.[7]
Songs in the Key of Life was released as adouble LP with a four-song bonusEP. It debuted at number one on theBillboard 200 chart, becoming only the third album to achieve that feat, and the first by an American artist.[8] Both the lead single "I Wish" and follow-up single "Sir Duke" reached number one on theBillboard Hot 100. The album spent thirteen consecutive weeks at number one on theBillboard 200, becoming the album with the most weeks at number one during the year, and was the second-best-selling album of 1977 in the US. In 2005, the album was certifiedDiamond by theRecording Industry Association of America (RIAA), indicating sales of 5 million units for a double album.
The album wonAlbum of the Year at the19th Grammy Awards and is the best-selling and most critically acclaimed album of Wonder's career. It is now widely regarded as one of the greatest albums in the history of popular music, and many musicians have remarked on its influence on their own work. It was voted number 89 inColin Larkin'sAll Time Top 1000 Albums[9] and ranked number 4 onRolling Stone's 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[10] In 2002, the album was inducted into theGrammy Hall of Fame,[11] and in 2005 it was inducted into theNational Recording Registry by theLibrary of Congress, which deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
By 1976,Stevie Wonder had become one of the most popular figures in R&B and pop music, not only in the United States, but worldwide. Within a short space of time, the albumsTalking Book,Innervisions andFulfillingness' First Finale were all back-to-back-to-back top five successes, with the latter two winning theGrammy Award for Album of the Year in 1974 and 1975, respectively. In 1975, Wonder became serious about quitting the music industry and emigrating toGhana to work with handicapped children. He had expressed his anger with the way theU.S. government was running the country.[7][12] A farewell concert was being considered as the best way to bring down the curtain on his career. Wonder changed his mind and signed a new contract with Motown on August 5, 1975, thinking he was better off making the most of his career. At the time, rival labels such asArista andEpic were also interested in him. The contract was laid out as a seven-year, seven LP, $37 million deal ($216,210,884 in 2024 dollars)[13] and gave Wonder full artistic control, making this the largest deal made with a recording star up to that point.[7] Shortly after signing the contract, Wonder took a year off from music.[14]
There was huge anticipation for the new album, which was initially scheduled for release around October 1975. It was delayed on short notice when Wonder felt that further remixing was essential. According to him, Motown's marketing campaign decided to take advantage of the delay by producing "We're almost finished"T-shirts.[15] Work on the new album continued into early 1976. The working title wasLet's See Life the Way It Is,[16] before Wonder settled onSongs in the Key of Life. The title would represent the formula of a complex "key of life" and the proposals for indefinite success.[17] After a two-year wait, the album was released on September 28, 1976, as adouble LP plus a bonus7-inchEP titledA Something's Extra (featuring "Saturn", "Ebony Eyes", "All Day Sucker", and "Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call)"), and a 24-page lyric and credit booklet.[15][18]
Wonder recorded the great majority of the album at Crystal Sounds in Hollywood, with Gary Olazabal and studio owner John Fischbach as engineers.[5] Some material was recorded at the Record Plant in Hollywood and the Record Plant in Sausalito. During a period when Crystal Sounds had a prior obligation to record another artist, the production team traveled to the Hit Factory in New York City to work for about six weeks, but only used one basic track from those sessions.[5][19] As a perfectionist, Wonder spent long hours in the studio for almost every track he recorded. He was "not eating or sleeping, while everyone around him struggled to keep up."[14] According to Wonder, "If my flow is goin', I keep on until I peak."[20] BassistNathan Watts remembered getting home at 3 am after very long hours in the studio, only to have Wonder phone to request him return immediately to help with "I Wish".[20]
A total of 130 people worked on the album, but Wonder's preeminence remains evident. Among the musicians who contributed were some legendary figures of R&B, soul, and jazz music:Herbie Hancock played Fender Rhodes on "As",George Benson played electric guitar on "Another Star", andMinnie Riperton andDeniece Williams added backing vocals on "Ordinary Pain".Michael Sembello is a prominent personality throughout the album, playing guitar on several tracks and also co-writing "Saturn" with Wonder. While Wonder wrote most of the songs on the album himself, some of the album's most socially-conscious songs had co-writers: Wonder wrote "Village Ghetto Land" and "Black Man" withGary Byrd, and he wrote "Have a Talk with God" with his brother Calvin Hardaway.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [21] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | A[22] |
| Encyclopedia of Popular Music |  [23] |
| The Great Rock Discography | 8/10[24] |
| MusicHound R&B | [25] |
| Pitchfork | 10/10[26] |
| Rolling Stone | [27] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [28] |
At the time of the album's release, reporters and music critics, and everyone who had worked on it, traveled toLong View Farm, a recording studio inMassachusetts, for a press preview. Everybody received autographed copies of the album and Wonder gave interviews. Critical reception was immediately positive. The album was viewed as a guided tour through a wide range of musical styles and the life and feelings of the artist. It included recollections of childhood, of first love and lost love. It contained songs about faith and love among all peoples and songs about social justice for the poor and downtrodden.[29] InThe Village Voice's annualPazz & Jop critics poll, it was voted as the best album of the year.
From 1973, Wonder's presence at theGrammy Awards ceremonies was consistent – he attended most of the ceremonies and also often performed on stage – but in 1976 he did not attend and was not nominated for any awards, as he had not released any new material during the previous year. WhenPaul Simon accepted the award forAlbum of the Year at the18th Grammy Awards (forStill Crazy After All These Years), he jokingly thanked Stevie for not releasing an album that year,[30] as Wonder had won the award at the two preceding ceremonies (forInnervisions andFulfillingness' First Finale).[18] When, a year later, Wonder was again nominated in the category forSongs in the Key of Life (which also received six other nominations), the album was seen as the favorite by many critics to take the award. The other nominees wereBreezin' byGeorge Benson,Chicago X byChicago,Silk Degrees byBoz Scaggs, and the other favorite,Peter Frampton’sFrampton Comes Alive!, which was also a huge critical and commercial success.
Wonder was again absent from the19th Grammy Awards ceremony, as he was visitingAfrica. In February 1977, he traveled toNigeria for two weeks, primarily to explore his musical heritage, as he put it. A satellite hook-up was arranged so he could accept his Grammys from across the sea, but whenBette Midler announced the results during the ceremony, the audience was only able to see Wonder at a phone smiling and giving thanks,[31] as the video signal was poor and the audio inaudible.Andy Williams went on to make a public blunder when he asked the blind-since-birth Wonder, "Stevie, can you see us?"[29] In all, Wonder won in four out of the seven categories in which he was nominated at the Grammys that year:Album of the Year,Producer of the Year,Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, andBest Male R&B Vocal Performance (for "I Wish").
Highly anticipated, the album surpassed all commercial expectations. It debuted at number 1 on theBillboard Pop Albums Chart on October 8, 1976, becoming only the third album in history to achieve that feat (after British singer/composerElton John's albumsCaptain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy andRock of the Westies, both from 1975), and the first by an American artist. InCanada, it achieved the same feat, entering theRPM national albums chart at number one on October 16.[32] The album spent thirteen consecutive weeks at number one in the US, eleven of which were in 1976, making it the album with the most weeks at number one during that year. During those eleven weeks,Songs in the Key of Life managed to block four other albums from reaching the top:Boz Scaggs’sSilk Degrees,Earth, Wind & Fire'sSpirit,Led Zeppelin'ssoundtrack forThe Song Remains the Same andRod Stewart'sA Night on the Town.[33] On January 15, 1977, the album finally dropped to number two behindEagles'Hotel California, and it fell to number four the following week, but on January 29 it returned to the top for a fourteenth and final week. By the end of its run, it had spent 35 weeks inside the top ten of theBillboard albums chart and was on the chart for a total of 80 weeks. The album also saw longevity atop theBillboardR&B/Black Albums chart, spending 20 non-consecutive weeks at number one.
The album became the second-best selling album of 1977 in the US (behind onlyFleetwood Mac's blockbusterRumours), and was the highest selling R&B/Soul album on theBillboard Year-End chart that same year.[34] It was certifiedDiamond by theRIAA in 2005, indicating sales of 5 million copies in the US alone (though a Diamond certification is awarded for sales of 10 million units, the RIAA counts each individual record or disc included with an album as a separate unit).[35]
Songs in the Key of Life was also the most successful of Wonder's albums in terms of singles, the first of which, the upbeat "I Wish", was released in November 1976, more than a month after the album was released. On January 15, 1977, the song reached number one on theBillboard R&B chart, where it spent five weeks. Seven days after, it also reached the summit of theBillboard Hot 100, although it spent only one week at number one. The track became an international top 10 single, and reached number five in the UK. "I Wish" became one of Wonder's standards and remains one of his most sampled songs. The follow-up single, the jazzy "Sir Duke", was released in March 1977 and surpassed the commercial success of "I Wish". It also reached number one on theBillboard Hot 100 (where it spent three weeks, starting on May 21) and the R&B chart (for one week, starting on May 28), but it reached number two in the UK, where it was kept from the top spot by the song "Free" byDeniece Williams, who provided backing vocals on Wonder's album.
Released during the second half of 1977, as sales for the album began to decline, the last two singles fromSongs in the Key of Life failed to match the success of "I Wish" and "Sir Duke". "Another Star" was released in August and reached number 32 on the Hot 100 (number 18 on the R&B chart, and number 29 in the UK), and "As" came out two months later, peaking at number 36 on both the Pop and R&B charts. Though not released as a single, "Isn't She Lovely" received wide radio airplay and became one of Wonder's most popular songs.David Parton's cover of the song, recorded and released soon after Wonder's album, gave him a top 10 hit in the UK in early 1977.
Over time,Songs in the Key of Life became a standard, and it is considered Wonder's signature album, even by Wonder himself: "Of all the albums," he toldQ magazine for their April 1995 issue, "Songs in the Key of Life I'm most happy about. 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." It has been cited as one of the greatest albums in popular music history. For example, in 2001, theTV networkVH1 named it the seventh greatest album of all time; in 2003, it was ranked number 56 onRolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time (it was number 57 on the 2012 version of the list,[36] and number 4 on the 2020 edition);[10] it was included in the book1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die;[37] and in April 2008, it was voted the "Top Album of All Time" by theYahoo! Music Playlist Blog, using a formula that combined four parameters – "Album Staying Power Value + Sales Value + Critical Rating Value + Grammy Award Value".[38]
Many musicians have remarked on the quality of the album and its influence on their own work.Elton John said, in his notes about Wonder forRolling Stone's 2003 list of "The Immortals – The Greatest Artists of All Time" (in which Wonder was ranked number 15): "Let me put it this way: wherever I go in the world, I always take a copy ofSongs in the Key of Life. For me, it's the best album ever made, and I'm always left in awe after I listen to it."[39]In an interview withEbony magazine,Michael Jackson calledSongs in the Key of Life his favorite Stevie Wonder album.Kanye West, in a 2005 interview withClash, remarked: "I'm not trying to compete with what's out there now. I'm really trying to compete withInnervisions andSongs in the Key of Life. It sounds musically blasphemous to say something like that, but why not set that as your bar?"[40]George Michael cited the album as his favorite of all time.[41] He released a live recording of "Love's in Need of Love Today" as a B-side to "Father Figure" in 1987 and performed the song on hisFaith tour the next year, performed "Village Ghetto Land" at theNelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute in 1988, covered "Pastime Paradise" and "Knocks Me Off My Feet" on his 1991Cover to Cover tour, and (withMary J. Blige) had a hit single in 1999 with a cover of "As".
Many R&B singers have praised the album:Mariah Carey generally names it as one of her favorites, andWhitney Houston remarked on its influence on her singing (at Houston's request, the album was played throughout the photo sessions for her compilation albumWhitney: The Greatest Hits, as can be seen on thehome video release that accompanied that album). Its importance has also been recognized byheavy metal musicians, with singerPhil Anselmo describing a live performance ofSongs in the Key of Life as "a living, breathing miracle".[42]
The album's tracks have provided numeroussamples for rap and hip-hop artists. "Pastime Paradise" was reworked byCoolio as "Gangsta's Paradise" in 1995. That same year,smooth jazz artistNajee recorded a cover album titledNajee Plays Songs from the Key of Life, which is based entirely on Wonder's album. In 1999,Will Smith used "I Wish" as the base for his US number-one single "Wild Wild West" (Smith's song repeated the main melody of "I Wish" as a riff and re-formed some of Wonder's lyrics).
In December 2013, Wonder did a live concert performance of the entire album at theNokia Theater in Los Angeles. The event was his 18th annual House Full of Toys Benefit Concert, and featured some of the singers and musicians who are featured on the original album, as well as several from the contemporary music scene.[43] Then, in November 2014, Wonder began performing the entire album in aseries of concert dates in the US and Canada. The start of the tour coincided with the 38th anniversary of the release ofSongs in the Key of Life.[44][45]
All tracks are written byStevie Wonder, unless otherwise noted.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Love's in Need of Love Today" | 7:06 | |
| 2. | "Have a Talk with God" |
| 2:42 |
| 3. | "Village Ghetto Land" |
| 3:25 |
| 4. | "Contusion" (instrumental) | 3:46 | |
| 5. | "Sir Duke" | 3:52 | |
| Total length: | 20:51 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "I Wish" | 4:12 |
| 2. | "Knocks Me Off My Feet" | 3:36 |
| 3. | "Pastime Paradise" | 3:27 |
| 4. | "Summer Soft" | 4:14 |
| 5. | "Ordinary Pain" | 6:16 |
| Total length: | 21:45 | |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Isn't She Lovely" | 6:34 | |
| 2. | "Joy Inside My Tears" | 6:30 | |
| 3. | "Black Man" |
| 8:27 |
| Total length: | 21:31 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Ngiculela – Es Una Historia – I Am Singing" (translation by Thoko Mdalose Hall, Raymond Maldonado) | 3:48 |
| 2. | "If It's Magic" | 3:12 |
| 3. | "As" | 7:08 |
| 4. | "Another Star" | 8:28 |
| Total length: | 22:16 | |
Original LP editions included a bonus 7-inch EP, titledA Something's Extra, containing four bonus tracks. These songs were later included as bonus tracks on CD and streaming versions of the album.
Initial CD reissues (1984 to 1997) have a slightly altered running order, with two bonus tracks per disc. Disc one ends with "Saturn" and "Ebony Eyes", while disc two ends with "All Day Sucker" and "Easy Goin' Evening". CD reissues from 2000 to the present day now contain all four bonus tracks at the end of disc two, thus reverting to the original running order of the 1976 2×LP+7-inch first edition issue.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Saturn" |
| 4:54 |
| 2. | "Ebony Eyes" | 4:11 | |
| Total length: | 9:05 | ||
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "All Day Sucker" | 5:06 |
| 2. | "Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call)" (instrumental) | 3:55 |
| Total length: | 9:01 | |
Credits adapted fromSongs in the Key of Life liner notes.[46]
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[67] | Platinum | 50,000^ |
| Canada (Music Canada)[68] | 2× Platinum | 200,000^ |
| France (SNEP)[69] | Gold | 100,000* |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[70] | Platinum | 300,000^ |
| United States (RIAA)[71] | Diamond | 5,000,000^ |
* Sales figures based on certification alone. | ||
Wonder is deeply in his own zone [onSongs in the Key of Life], crafting these rich and textured soul-jazz meditations...
