STEVIE WONDERBy Hannah Haag

EARLY LIFE Born on May 13, 1950

in Saginaw Michigan

Born premature and lost his eye sight

By the age of 10 Stevie taught himself how to play the harmonica, piano, and drums.

DISCOVERY

Age 11 Ronnie White discovered little Stevie

Had an audition with Berry Gordy, the Motown founder.

His harmonica playing won his audience over.

Started getting called Stevie “A Little Wonder”

FIRST BIG BREAK

1962 released first album “Little Stevie Wonder the 12 year Old Genius”

In 1963 Stevie released Fingertips Part 2 which took the public by storm.

SONGWRITING

Hits include Uptight, With A Child’s Heart, Blowing In The Wind, The Miracles, Tears Of A Clown.

Bigger hits were Signed Sealed Delivered I’m Yours, For Once In My Life, and I was Made to Love Her.

CONTRACT EXPIRES Contract with Motown expires.

Branches off and makes two albums of his own.

Wrote songs that pertained more to life.

Song “You Haven’t Done Nothing” threw punch at Richard Nixon.

In 1972 Berry Gordy signed Stevie with a $13 million contract with Motown records.

1973 CAR ACCIDENT August 6, 1973 Stevie was in

a collision with a flatbed truck that sent him into a coma.

The Jackson 5 visited Wonder the day after the accident.

At a concert in November 2008 Stevie thanked God as well as the Doctors who saved his life in 1973.

TRIUMPHS

Stevie Wonder has won a record breaking 25 Grammys in his career.

Youngest person to be honored by Kennedy Center.

First blind person to receive an Academy Award with the song “I just called to say I love you”.

In 2008 when Obama won the presidency, Stevie performed the song “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”.

“Isn’t She Lovely”

Song off of the 1976 album Key of Life

Wrote this song to celebrate the birth of his daughter Aisha.

Gregory Phillinganes played the keyboard and all other instruments were played by Stevie Wonder himself.

LISTENING GUIDE

0:00- Intro starts with piano and drums right on the first beat of the measure we know right away its in a major chord.

0:08- Verse 1 the dynamics have built from the introduction.

0:40-Verse 2 1:13-Interlude1:45-Verse 3 begins and then Stevie plays

harmonica, music fades3:19-Ending

“For Once In My Life” Composed by R. Miller and O.

Murden and produced by Henry Cosby.

Stevie was quoted saying “Even though it was a ballad and I loved it as that, I felt the tune could be done in the form of rejoicing in meeting someone who needed me. I was excited and recorded it that way”.

The Funk Brothers helped Stevie with the music.

LISTENING GUIDE

0:00- Introduction goes for 6 measures in a major chord

0:17- Verse 1 begins with guitar, tambourine, and drums making a full sound

0:34- Verse 20:52- Verse 3 background singers have joined

Stevie.2:07- Verse 3 repeated2:24- Verse 42:53- Ending

“Superstition” First single taken from the

album Talking Book in 1972.

“When you believe in things you don’t understand then you suffer”.

Steve Madaio- trumpet, Trevor Laurence- saxophone other instruments- Stevie Wonder.

LISTENING GUIDE0:00-Intro has drum pickup line and is joined by a clavinet.

0:20-Verse 1 shows song is in major chord. Lines 1 and 2 rhyme and lines 3 and 4 rhyme.

1:00- Chorus begins and has building effect.

1:19-Verse 2 begins

2:00- Chorus repeats here.

2:38- Verse 3 starts again but is building up more with more ad libs by Stevie.

3:17- Chorus

3:40-Outro was purely music with the trumpet playing a descending scale over and over while clavinet and drums play same funky beat.

“Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours”

In 1970 made the album Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours.

composed by Stevie Wonder, Lee Garrett,, Syreeta Wright, Lula Mae Hardaway.

The Funk Brothers helped Stevie with the music.

LISTENING GUIDE0:00- Intro shows us it’s a duple/metered song. Stevie

screams the words “hey” a few times before verse starts.0:08- Verse 1 starts with the rithym really steady. Guitar and

piano play as trumpet joins in. Form is ABC0:43- Chorus begins, trumpet stands out and background

vocals join in.1:01- Add-on with more of a talkative section1:12- Verse 21:46- Chorus is same as before2:02- Add-on another talkative sing-song voice but with a

few different words.2:11- Outro the main phrase of the song are sang over and

over as song fades out.2:41- Ending

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Striano, Bruno. Winberg, Thomas. Gould, Kenny. Haraguchi, Makoto. Richardson, Pete. Bertrand, Joachim. Glowacki, Piotr. http://www.steviewonder.org.uk/bio/biography.html

2012 A&E Television Networks. http://biography.com/people/stevie-wonder-9536078