60 Fun Facts About Stevie Wonder

In which Michigan city was Stevie Wonder born in 1950?

His family moved to Detroit when he was four, and he sang in the choir at Whitestone Baptist Church there.

What medical condition, linked to his premature birth, caused Stevie Wonder's blindness?

He was born six weeks early, and the oxygen-rich incubator air of the era contributed to the disease that detaches the retinas.

Which Motown label signed the 11-year-old Stevie Wonder in 1961?

A member of the Miracles took him and his mother to the audition, and Berry Gordy signed him on the spot.

Which member of the Miracles heard the young Stevie sing his own song and brought him to Motown?

The song he sang was his own composition 'Lonely Boy'; producer Clarence Paul then gave him the name Little Stevie Wonder.

What was Stevie Wonder's weekly stipend under his first Motown contract?

Because he was a minor, his royalties were held in trust until he turned 21, and Motown supplied a private tutor on tour.

Stevie Wonder's first hit, 'Fingertips', was recorded live at which Chicago venue?

The recording came from a Motortown Revue stop and was released on the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius.

How old was Stevie Wonder when 'Fingertips' hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?

That made him the youngest solo artist ever to top the chart, and the single was simultaneously No. 1 on the R&B chart, a first.

Which future Motown star played drums on 'Fingertips'?

He had been drumming for Wonder and other Motown acts before his own singing career took off.

On the live recording of 'Fingertips', a replacement bassist is heard shouting what during the encore?

The bassists had already swapped over for the next act, Mary Wells, when Wonder unexpectedly came back to sing.

Which Motown songwriter saved Stevie Wonder from being dropped, then co-wrote 'Uptight (Everything's Alright)'?

After the flop years, 'Uptight' relaunched him, and the 'Little' was dropped from his name at the same time.

Stevie Wonder co-wrote which song that became a No. 1 hit for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in 1970?

It had first appeared unnoticed as the last track on their 1967 LP Make It Happen before a 1970 single release made it a smash.

Wonder's 1968 instrumental album was released under what backwards pseudonym?

The mostly harmonica album barely registered; its single, a cover of 'Alfie', peaked at No. 66.

Which was Stevie Wonder's first-ever self-produced single?

Many of his earlier hits, including 'My Cherie Amour' and 'Uptight', were co-written with Henry Cosby.

Which former Motown secretary and songwriter did Stevie Wonder marry in 1970?

They divorced amicably in 1972 but kept working together; she co-wrote lyrics for Where I'm Coming From and sang on Conversation Peace.

Hearing which electronic group's album Zero Time got Wonder hooked on synthesizers around 1971?

He hired its two members, Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil, as associate producers, and their custom TONTO synth shaped his classic albums.

Wonder's unusually generous July 1971 Motown contract gave him what royalty rate?

He had let his first contract lapse on his 21st birthday and used a stack of new synthesizer recordings as leverage.

Which 1972 album is generally considered the first of Wonder's 'classic period'?

It peaked at only No. 21 but was the first fruit of his partnership with Margouleff and Cecil, and he spent that summer opening for a giant British rock band.

Which rock band did Stevie Wonder open for on their 1972 American tour?

The support slot helped his new synthesizer-driven music cross over to white rock audiences.

The famous riff on 'Superstition' was played on which instrument?

The song began as an improvisation over a drum beat a visiting British guitarist came up with in the studio, and that guitarist was promised his own version as payment.

Which guitarist was originally meant to release 'Superstition' before Wonder?

His version came out in March 1973 on the Beck, Bogert & Appice album, months after Wonder's had already gone to No. 1.

How many days after Innervisions came out was Wonder nearly killed in a car crash?

The rental car hit the back of a flatbed farm truck; he spent four days in a coma and permanently lost part of his sense of smell.

Which sense did Wonder partially lose as a result of his 1973 car accident?

He suffered a fractured skull and cerebral contusion; his sense of taste was also affected, but only temporarily.

Which 1976 Album of the Year winner thanked Wonder, 'who didn't make an album this year'?

Wonder had won the award at the two previous ceremonies and would win it again the following year, so the joke landed.

Songs in the Key of Life was the first album by an American artist to do what on the Billboard chart?

Only two Elton John albums had done it before, and Wonder's record stayed on top for 14 non-consecutive weeks.

Which song on Songs in the Key of Life was written about Wonder's newborn daughter Aisha?

He refused to shorten the six-minute track for a single, so it became an airplay-only hit.

Which singer kept 'Sir Duke' off No. 1 in the UK despite singing backing vocals on Wonder's album?

Her single 'Free' held the UK top spot; in the US, 'Sir Duke' spent three weeks at No. 1.

Wonder's 1975 Motown contract, then the largest deal ever for a recording star, was worth how much?

The seven-year, seven-album deal gave him full artistic control after he had seriously considered quitting music to move to Ghana.

Which 1979 soundtrack album was Wonder's first digital recording, made with the Melodian?

The mainly instrumental album accompanied a documentary about plants; he then used digital recording for everything that followed.

Wonder's single 'Happy Birthday' was a vehicle for his campaign to create which national holiday?

The song appeared on his 1980 album, his first to be certified platinum.

Which was Stevie Wonder's first platinum-certified album?

The 1980 record also gave the world 'Master Blaster (Jammin')' and the ballad 'Lately'.

Wonder's 1982 No. 1 duet with Paul McCartney about racial harmony was called what?

The same year he released Original Musiquarium, a retrospective with four new songs including the ten-minute 'Do I Do' with Dizzy Gillespie.

Wonder wrote the lyrics to 'Stay Gold', the theme for which 1983 Francis Ford Coppola film?

The film adapted S. E. Hinton's novel, and the title nods to the Robert Frost poem quoted in the story.

'I Just Called to Say I Love You' won an Academy Award as the theme of which film?

Wonder accepted the Oscar in the name of Nelson Mandela and was promptly banned from South African radio by the apartheid government.

Which 1985 hit song by Chaka Khan features Stevie Wonder on harmonica alongside rapper Melle Mel?

The song was written by Prince; Wonder's harmonica also turned up on Eurythmics' 'There Must Be an Angel' around the same time.

On 'We Are the World', Stevie Wonder shared a featured duet passage with which artist?

The next year he joined another charity single, the AIDS benefit 'That's What Friends Are For'.

For which Spike Lee film did Stevie Wonder record a full soundtrack album in 1991?

Singles included 'Gotta Have You' and 'These Three Words'; he later contributed two songs to Lee's Bamboozled.

Wonder headlined the halftime show of which numbered Super Bowl in early 1999?

He had sung at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics closing ceremony a few years earlier and later played the Super Bowl XL pre-game show.

What was the title of Stevie Wonder's 2005 album, his first new studio release in ten years?

Its title track was a duet with India.Arie, and daughter Aisha sang on the record.

Wonder's 2006 duet with Tony Bennett, which won a Grammy, was a version of which of his own hits?

It earned Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, one of Wonder's 25 Grammys.

How many Grammy Awards has Stevie Wonder won, the most by any male solo artist?

He is one of only four acts to win Album of the Year three times as the main credited artist, and the only one to do it with three consecutive releases.

Wonder is the first act to top the Billboard Hot 100 in how many consecutive decades?

'Fingertips' in the 60s, 'Superstition' and others in the 70s, then the McCartney duet and 'Part-Time Lover' in the 80s sealed the record.

Which US president awarded Stevie Wonder the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014?

Five years earlier the United Nations had named him a Messenger of Peace.

Wonder's vanity label, launched in 2020, is named after which of his singles?

So What the Fuss Records went through Republic, and the two launch singles included 'Where Is Our Love Song', whose proceeds went to Feeding America.

On his 74th birthday in 2024, Stevie Wonder was granted citizenship of which country?

He first visited the country for Panafest in 1992 and said he decided within 18 hours that he would eventually move there.

Which Detroit street, his childhood street, was partly renamed in his honour in 2016?

The stretch between Woodward Avenue and Brush Street became 'Stevie Wonder Avenue', and Mayor Mike Duggan also handed him a key to the city.

Which inventor built the reading machine Wonder adopted in 1976 and later founded a synthesizer company?

The Kurzweil K250, unveiled in 1984, grew out of Wonder asking whether computer control could be applied to acoustic instrument sounds.

What organ transplant did Stevie Wonder announce at a 2019 Hyde Park concert and receive that December?

He made the announcement on stage in London in July and the procedure was carried out successfully in December 2019.

What was Stevie Wonder's surname at birth, before it was legally changed to Morris?

Morris was said to be an old family name; Hardaway was his mother Lula Mae's surname.

Which Motown producer gave the young singer the name 'Little Stevie Wonder'?

Paul then worked with him for a year on two albums and remained a mentor through the mid-1960s.

Where did Wonder enrol as a student after his 1962 debut album The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie?

The school is in Lansing, the state capital, about 90 miles from his Detroit home.

Which Bob Dylan song gave the teenage Wonder a mid-1960s hit, co-sung with his producer-mentor?

It sat alongside 'Uptight (Everything's Alright)' and 'With a Child's Heart' among his mid-decade hits.

Which Motown songwriter co-wrote 'My Cherie Amour' and 'I Was Made to Love Her' with Wonder?

The pair also collaborated on 'Uptight (Everything's Alright)'.

Which two musicians made up Tonto's Expanding Head Band, Wonder's synthesizer collaborators?

Their TONTO instrument combined an ARP 2600, Oberheim SEM and a Moog, and they won an engineering Grammy for Innervisions.

Wonder was the first Black musician to win which Grammy, taking it for three consecutive albums?

Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life all won it between 1974 and 1977.

Which 1974 single from Fulfillingness' First Finale reached No. 1 on the Hot 100?

'Boogie On Reggae Woman' from the same album made the top ten.

In whose name did Wonder accept his 1985 Academy Award, prompting a South African radio ban?

The UN Special Committee Against Apartheid honoured him on his 35th birthday that same year.

'Overjoyed' was first written for which earlier project before landing on In Square Circle?

He later performed it on Saturday Night Live as host, and Celine Dion covered it with him in 2013.

A 1992 trip to perform at Panafest in which country inspired many songs on Conversation Peace?

He said that after only 18 hours there he decided he would one day move permanently; he got citizenship in 2024.

Which fashion designer was Wonder married to from 2001 to 2015?

Their elder son Kailand sometimes plays drums on stage with his father.

How many children does Stevie Wonder have?

They were born to five women; son Mandla arrived on Wonder's own 55th birthday.