The No1 album in the US on this day, October 16th 1976, was Songs In The Key Of Life by Stevie Wonder. It would go on to be the 2nd largest selling album of 1977 behind Fleetwood Macs Rumours. Songs in the Key of Life is the eighteenth album by Stevie Wonder, released on September 28, 1976, by Motown Records. It was the culmination of his “classic period” albums. An ambitious double LP with a four-song bonus EP, Songs in the Key of Life became among the best-selling and most critically acclaimed albums of his career. In 2005, it was ranked No57 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and it was preserved into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, which called it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” By 1976, Stevie Wonder had become one of the most popular figures in R&B and pop music, not only in the US, but worldwide. Within a short space of time, the albums Talking Book, Innervisions and Fulfillingness’ First Finale were all back-to-back top five successes, with the latter two winning Grammy Award for Album of the Year, in 1974 and ’75, respectively. By the end of 1975, Wonder became serious about quitting the music industry and emigrating to Ghana to work with handicapped children. Wonder changed his decision, when he signed a new contract with Motown on August 5, 1975, thinking he was better off making the most of his career. At the time, rivals such as Arista and Epic were also interested in him. The contract was laid out as a seven-year, seven LP, $37 million deal and gave him full artistic control, making this the largest deal made with a recording star up to that point. From the beginning Stevie took a year off from the music market, with the idea for a double album to be released in 1976. There was huge anticipation for the new album which was initially scheduled for release around October 1975. Work on the new album continued into early 1976. The album was finally released on September 28, 1976 after a two-year wait, as a double LP album with a four track seven-inch EP titled A Something’s Extra (“Saturn”, “Ebony Eyes”, “All Day Sucker” and “Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call)”). As a perfectionist, Wonder spent long hours in the studio for almost every track he recorded. He was “not eating or sleeping, while everyone around him struggled to keep up”. According to himself, “If my flow is goin’, I keep on until I peak”. A total of 130 people worked on the album. There were legendary figures of R&B, soul and jazz music. Highly anticipated, the album surpassed all commercial expectations. It debuted at No1 on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart on October 8, 1976, becoming only the third album in history to achieve that feat and the first by an American artist (after British singer/composer Elton John’s albums Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy and Rock of the Westies, both in 1975). In Canada, the album achieved the same feat, entering at No1 on the RPM national albums chart on October 16. Songs in the Key of Life spent thirteen consecutive weeks at No1 in the US, eleven of those during 1976. It was the album with the most weeks at No1 during the year. In those eleven weeks, Songs in the Key of Life managed to block four other albums from reaching the top – in order, Boz Scaggs’s Silk Degrees, Earth, Wind & Fire’s Spirit, Led Zeppelin’s soundtrack for The Song Remains the Same and Rod Stewart’s A Night on the Town. On January 15, 1977, the album finally dropped to No2 behind Eagles’ Hotel California and the following week it fell to No4. On January 29 it returned to No1 for a fourteenth and final week. It spent a total of 35 weeks inside the top ten and 80 weeks on the Billboard albums chart. Songs in the Key of Life also saw longevity at No1 on the Billboard R&B/Black Albums chart, spending 20 non-consecutive weeks there. It was certified as a diamond album by the RIAA, for sales of 10 million copies in the US alone. It was the highest selling R&B/Soul album on the Billboard Year-End chart that same year. Songs in the Key of Life was also the most successful Stevie Wonder project in terms of singles. The lead-off, the upbeat “I Wish” was released in November 1976, over a month after the album was released. On January 15, 1977, it reached No1 on the Billboard R&B chart, where it spent five weeks at the top. Seven days after, it also reached No1 on the Billboard Hot 100, although it spent only one week at No1. The track became an international top-10 single, and also reached No5 in the UK. “I Wish” became one of Wonder’s standards and remained one of his most sampled songs. The follow-up, the jazzy “Sir Duke”, surpassed the commercial success of “I Wish”. It was released on March 1977 and also reached No1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (spending three weeks at the top starting on May 21) and the R&B Charts (for one week, starting on May 28). It also reached No2 in the UK, where it was kept off the top spot by the song “Free” by Deniece Williams, who had provided backing vocals on his album. As sales for the album began to decline during the second half of 1977, the two other singles from Songs in the Key of Life failed to achieve the commercial success of “I Wish” and “Sir Duke”. “Another Star” was released in August and reached only No32 on the Hot 100 (No18: R&B, and No29: UK) and “As” came out two months later, peaking at No36 on both the Pop and R&B Charts. Though not released as a single (because, even when Motown asked Wonder to release it, he refused to), “Isn’t She Lovely” received wide airplay and became one of Wonder’s more popular songs. On February 19, 1977, Wonder was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, an award that he had already won twice, in 1974 and 1975, for Innervisions and Fulfillingness’ First Finale. Since 1973, Stevie’s presence at the Grammy ceremonies had been consistent – he attended most of the ceremonies and also used to perform on stage. But in 1976, he did not attend as he was not nominated for any awards (as he had not released any new material during the past year). Paul Simon, who received the Grammy for Album of the Year in that occasion (for Still Crazy After All These Years) jokingly thanked Stevie “for not releasing an album” that year. A year after, Wonder was nominated for Songs in the Key of Life in that same category, and was widely favored by many critics to take the award. The other nominees were Breezin’ by George Benson, Chicago X by Chicago, Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs, and the other favorite, Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive!, which was also a huge critical and commercial success. Wonder was again absent from the ceremony, as he had developed an interest in visiting Africa. In February he traveled to Nigeria for two weeks, primarily to explore his musical heritage, as he put it. A satellite hook-up was arranged so that Stevie could be awarded his Grammys from across the sea. Bette Midler announced the results during the ceremony, and the audience was only able to see Wonder at a phone smiling and giving thanks. The video signal was poor and the audio inaudible. Andy Williams went on to make a public blunder when he asked the blind-since-birth Wonder, “Stevie, can you see us?” In all, Wonder won four out of seven nominations at the Grammys: Album of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Producer of the Year. It was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice’s critics poll. In 2001 VH1 named it the 7th greatest album of all time. In 2003, it was ranked No56 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Heres Sir Duke with a video honoring those that came before him musically.....Enjoy!
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 16:46:26 +0000
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