[For Beginners] Songs in the Key of Love: A Collection of Stevie Wonder’s Masterpieces

LatelyStevie Wonder

Lately

Woven together with a gentle piano tone, the song is about a sorrowful parting.

You could call it a wistful piano ballad, but the real highlight is the final chorus.

On the second repeat of the hook, he boldly modulates up by a whole two and a half steps—a daring shift.

It’s a feat that would be impossible with half-baked taste or half-baked vocal ability, yet he pulls it off with ease.

Doesn’t this track showcase his genius to the fullest?

OverjoyedStevie Wonder

Overjoyed

This song, included on the 1985 album “In Square Circle,” was later released as a single.

Above all, it’s the incredibly beautiful, instantly memorable melody that leaves a strong impression.

If I recall correctly, it was also used in an Onward commercial.

Although this track is counted among his exquisite love ballads, the romance in the lyrics hasn’t actually been fulfilled yet.

All I DoStevie Wonder

All I Do

A track from the 1980 album “Hotter than July.” It has a questioning, enigmatic melody line that you can’t forget once you’ve heard it.

The lyrics, too, feel like they’re watching to see how you’ll react, and that addictive quality makes you want to listen again and again.

SunshineStevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder You Are The Sunshine Of My Life

This is another song Stevie Wonder dedicated to his wife.

I feel like songs by Black artists often use very straightforward expressions, which makes them very easy to understand.

“You are the sunshine of my life”—if a woman hears that she’s the sunshine of someone’s life, she’d simply be happy, right?

All About The Love AgainStevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder – All About The Love Again

A track released as a single by Stevie Wonder in 2009.

The original was written for the 2008 presidential election.

It was performed at President Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2010.

Send one your loveStevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder – Send one your love (1979)

It’s a gentle song that softly gives a nudge to someone hesitant to fall in love.

Stevie always gives us the gift of words.

I think it’s up to those of us who receive them to consider how we can cherish them as our own.

I WishStevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder – I wish

A funky number with a groovin’ saxophone sound.

Lady Gaga sang it powerfully at a tribute concert, and it seems she, too, was influenced by Stevie Wonder from a young age.

Will Smith’s arrangement was cool and added great flavor, and I felt that Stevie’s songs possess something absolute and unchanging that can shine in any era and in any way depending on the performer.

I think I now understand why people never stop covering his music.