The Foote Files: Stevie Wonder As Little Stevie Wonder
(CBS11) - Before Steveland Morris became better known today as Stevie Wonder, he started off being called Little Stevie Wonder, and came out of the box with a #1 hit.
Born in Saginaw, Michigan on May 13, 1950 (by the way, the late country music star Lefty Frizzell had a top hit in 1964 called "Saginaw, Michigan"), he has been blind since birth. He signed with Berry Gordy's Motown Records in 1960 (at the age of 10) and did some backup work. It was Gordy, Jr. who coined the name "Little Stevie Wonder." By the summer of 1963, he released and charted his first song, "Fingertips-Pt 2." The actual physical record had "Fingertips-Pt.1" on the "A" side and "Fingertips-Pt.2" on the "B" side. FT Part 1 is more of an instrumental designed to show Wonder's talent on the bongos and harmonica. But Part 2 is the one that topped the charts.
The song was written by Clarence Paul and Henry Cosby, and produced by Berry Gordy, Jr. It was originally a jazz instrumental for Wonder's first studio album. Released May 21, 1963, it was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks and on the chart for twelve consecutive. Comedian Bill Murray can be heard saying, "give him a hand, folks." As this was recorded live, Murray thought it was over as Wonder had left the stage but ended up changing his mind and sang the "goodbye" encore. Oh the joys of live recordings!
Recorded on the Tamla label and running 3:09, the lyrics go like this:
Ev'rybody sing Yeah, Yeah, say Yeah,
Yeah, say Yeah, (yeah), yeah, (yeah), yeah, yeah, yeah.
Just a little bit of sou-ou-ou-ou-oul
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Clap your hands just a little bit louder
Clap your hands just a little bit louder
I know that I never got to hey yeah.
Ev'rybody had a good time.
So, if you want me to, if you want me to;
I'm gonna swing this song, yeah,
just-a one more time until I come back,
just-a one more time until I come back.
The version that I selected for your listening pleasure is one done through an older audio board that one might have seen at stations like KLIF/Dallas, WABC/New York, KHJ/Los Angeles, and WLS/Chicago. The sound is a rich one versus today's digital recording which unfortunately are thinly produced.
Turn up the volume…..LOUD!
