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Although he often accompanied his brothers on their escapades in the outside world, Stevie spent a lot of time listening to the radio and took every opportunity to explore whatever musical instrument crossed his path: a neighbor's piano, a toy harmonica given to him by a relative, a set of cardboard drums. Moving Stevie and his siblings-there would eventually be four brothers and one sister-to Detroit's east side ghetto, Stevie's mother Lula Hardaway was fiercely committed to her son's well-being, but had a hard time making ends meet. Board of Education decision put an end to legal segregation. Born prematurely and blinded by an excess of oxygen in his incubator, Stevie faced an outlook that was bleak, even by the standards of black America in the final years before the Brown vs. It was just another example of the mix of myth and reality, careful commercial calculation and untrammeled creativity that continues to define the work of the man born on in Saginaw, Michigan with the name of Steveland Morris. Never mind that Stevie was 13 at the time. It wasn't long before Stevie became the first artist to hold down the number one slots on the Hot 100, R&B and Album charts (for Little Stevie Wonder/ The 12 Year Old Genius/ Recorded Live). Once Berry Gordy heard the recording, chaos and all, Motown rushed "Fingertips, Part 2" to its network of D.J.s.
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If the recording engineer hadn't picked up the new band's frantic scramble to rescue the situation-you can hear bass player Larry Moses shouting "what key? what key?"-it would be tempting to pass the whole thing off as a bit of pre-packaged show-biz shtick invented by the same Motown PR crew that had previously floated an (utterly unfounded) rumor that Stevie was Brother Ray's illegitimate son. Creeping back out of the wings, he picked up right where he'd left off, lifting the audience to new heights of good-humored ecstasy. Already a popular live performer but without a hit record, the then "Little" Stevie Wonder was bringing his set to a close with a call-and-response rave-up modeled loosely on Ray Charles' "What'd I Say." As the MC called for a final round of applause and Mary Wells' back-up band took the stage, Stevie was preparing to embark on the path to the soul pantheon. It was 1963 and the youthful fireball was part of an all-star Motown revue at the Regal Theater in the heart of Chicago's South Side. There's simply too much there to boil down to a defining moment, but there's no question about the one that made the rest possible. By the time he spearheaded the successful drive to have Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday declared a national holiday, Wonder had surpassed the status of musical superstar and established himself, for better and sometimes worse, as a national icon.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG STEVIE WONDER SERIES
Motown), Wonder matured with his generation and towered over the music of the 1970s with a series of barrier-transcending albums as brilliant and penetrating as anything in the history of rock or soul. Starting out as the beloved and exasperating mascot of "Hitsville U.S.A." (a.k.a. It's almost impossible to single out the defining moment in a career as rich and varied as Stevie Wonder's. Happy Birthday to Stevie Wonder, born on May 13, 1950!