Stevie Wonder: From anger to admiration

Stevie Wonder on the cover of his 1985 album "In Square Circle".

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He may have been prolific in the decades leading up to and including the 1980s, but Stevie Wonder will always stand out for one song in my mind.

It was the day he took his harmonica and sang “That’s What Friends Are For” with Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight and Elton John, who collectively called themselves “Dionne and Friends”.

More than a great song, it raised funds and awareness of AIDS and AIDS research.

Last night, I saw Stevie Wonder on the Grammys, paying tribute to his old friend Tony Bennett, and it brought back some memories.

Memorable with McCartney
Even before I got into music, I had heard Stevie Wonder. It was 1982, and he teamed up with Paul McCartney on one of the best songs of the 1980s – “Ebony and Ivory”. More than just a touching, heartwarming song it made a powerful social statement on racial harmony. It went on to spend seven weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

That summer of 1982, my Mom, sister and I went for a trip to the Radium Hot Springs. We stopped, coincidentally, for pizza in Claresholm – the community I now live in – and I heard “Ebony and Ivory” playing on the radio.

Anger to inspiration and admiration
Stevie Wonder released a soundtrack album in 1984 for the movie “The Woman in Red”, starring Kelly LeBrock and Gene Wilder. The lead single “I Just Called to Say I Love You” came out just about the same time I started getting into music, so I recall hearing it on the radio all the time. I neither liked it or hated it, beyond it being a catchy tune. It ended up spending three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

“I Just Called to Say I Love You” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. I thought the song didn’t stand a chance against “Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)” by Phil Collins. I considered it one of the greatest songs for a long time and remains one of my personal top five.

I remember watching the Oscars and thinking something wasn’t right. First, Ann Reinking and not Phil Collins performed “Against All Odds (Take A Look at Me Now)” on the live broadcast. I later learned Collins had offered to perform it but was rebuffed. Then, when the winner was announced I was shocked that it was “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. I couldn’t believe it, and my first thought was that Americans selected an American singer and song over an English one. I was never really as mad at Stevie Wonder as I was at the academy. After all, Stevie Wonder didn’t make the selection, they did.

When Stevie Wonder accepted his Oscar, he said something, which meant nothing to me then, but does now. He dedicated the award to someone I had never heard of at that time. Neither had a large part of the world – Nelson Mandela. At the time, Mandela was sitting in jail in South Africa. He would lead a quiet revolution to dismantle the racist Apartheid system in his own country and become its duly elected President. Wikipedia reveals Wonder would be honoured by the United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid in 1985 for his stance against racism in South Africa.

The first time I heard his name was from the lips of Stevie Wonder. Four years later I would be marching in an anti-Apartheid rally.

My anger had turned into inspiration and admiration for Stevie Wonder.

USA for Africa
Hunger and famine ravaged Ethiopia and other parts of Africa in 1984 and 1985, motivating recording artists from around the world to record fundraising songs. The British group “Band Aid” started with “Do they Know It’s Christmas?” in December of 1984, and USA for Africa followed suit with “We Are the World”.

Stevie Wonder took part in that, singing part of the first verse. He starts by joining Lionel Richie in “When the world must come together as one” then sings the words “There are people dying”. He later teams with Bruce Springsteen on the chorus singing, “We are the world, we are the children, we are the ones who make a brighter day so let’s start giving, there’s a choice we’re making we’re saving our own lives, it’s true we make a better day just you and me, we are the world, we are the children…”

Stevie Wonder had a commitment to social justice and helping others, and that would keep on going.

School bus song
I picked up Stevie Wonder’s trail again in the Fall of 1985 when I was starting Grade 11. I was riding the school bus and the driver used to play 1090 CHEC on the radio, a rock and roll station. One day earlier in the school year, we are on our way to pick up Lynn Kruzceswki and it came on.

It had this familiar “Doot doot doot doot”, and sounded like Stevie Wonder. Sure enough it was, “Part-Time Lover” the first single from his new album “In Square Circle”. “Part-Time Lover” went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album would also produce “Overjoyed”, which peaked at number 24.

“In Square Circle” itself would peak at number five on the Billboard 200 album chart, and earn Stevie Wonder a Grammy for Best Male Rhythm and Blues Vocal Performance.

Friends
By the mid 1980s HIV and AIDS had become more well known, triggered in part by the death of Rock Hudson in 1985, and the news his death was from AIDS-related complications.

In 1986, another group of performers gathered to raise awareness and funds for AIDS and AIDS research.

Stevie Wonder joined Dionne Warwick, Elton John, and Gladys Knight to record “That’s What Friends Are For” as the group Dionne and Friends. In the music video, they genuinely look like four friends getting together to sing and enjoy each others’ company.

The song not only topped the Billboard Hot 100 but was the number-one single of 1986. It earned Grammys for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and for Song of the Year. It also raised more than $3 million for the American Foundation for AIDS Research.

The song is a stirring ballad that really touches the heart. Part of that is due to Wonder playing harmonica to start and end the song. He also sings the lines “Well, you came and opened me / And now there’s so much more I see” which really touches me, given Stevie Wonder is blind.

Pre-history
It was only later, over time, that I discovered how much Stevie Wonder had done before I met him in the 1980s. He had put out songs such as “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”; “Superstition”; “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”; “Higher Ground”; “Isn’t She Lovely”; “Sir Duke”; and so much more.

The years after
Stevie Wonder has kept on writing, recording and performing. He has won 25 Grammys and one Academy Award; was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1983 and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989; received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994; campaigned to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday into a national holiday; was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2009: and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.

At the Grammys, he sang a duet with the late Tony Bennett. He performed live on stage as a recording of Tony Bennett singing the other half of that duet played on the big screen.

Parting thoughts
I didn’t realize until I looked at Stevie Wonder’s career as a whole how much of a commitment to social justice he has. He is one of those celebrities who has used his platform for good.

He also plays one heck of a harmonica, and can truly sing a soulful ballad.

That is most evident for me in “That’s What Friends Are For”.