Talking Book

About

The most effective way to explain the importance of Stevie Wonder’s 1972 album <i>Talking Book</i> is by examining its two hit single, each of which became a modern classic. The first was “Superstition,” which Wonder had originally written for Jeff Beck, but wisely decided to record for himself, too. Over an impossibly funky snare groove of swung sixteenth note, Wonder coaxes a rhythmic croak out of his Hohner Clavinet D6, and then adds a Moog bassline, a horn chart, and a lyric about the vagaries of belief and rational thought that could, with some edit, date to the Enlightenment. (And, by the way, he wrote, played, and sang everything.) Four months after “Superstition” topped the pop chart, the same thing happened with “You Are the Sunshine of My Life,” a lullaby-sweet ballad with a lyrical sentiment that could’ve been drawn from the Great American Songbook, featuring a glimmering electric piano line and intricate backing harmonies that fit perfectly into the early blossoming of R&B’s quiet storm era. Here were the alpha and omega of Stevie Wonder, a hitmaker equally capable of algebraic funk and starry-eyed sweetness—someone who, like Michael Jackson, the nation had known since he was a soul prodigy. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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