SONG OF THE DAY
“Knocks Me Off My Feet” by Stevie Wonder (Songs In The Keys Of Life, Tamla, 1976). Written by Stevie Wonder.
MY TAKE
Though I don’t generally celebrate the commercial holiday known as Valentine’s Day, I do celebrate and honor the loves in my life. My husband and I share this song as one of our many “our songs”, and my father introduced me to this song and this album when I was a kid and made me the music blogger that I am today. One love, gentlemen.
MY STEVIE WONDER TOP 10
- “I Wish” – Songs In The Key Of Life
- “Another Star” – Songs In The Key Of Life
- “Living For The City” – Innervisions
- “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” – Innervisions
- “Overjoyed” – In Square Circle
- “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” – Hotter Than July
- “Knocks Me Off My Feet” – Songs In The Key Of Life
- “I Was Made To Love Her” – [Tamla single]
- “Part-Time Lover” – In Square Circle
- “Sir Duke” – Songs In The Key Of Life
- “Boogie On Reggae Woman” – Fulfillingness’ First Finale
INTERESTING FACTS (a la wikipedia)
– Stevie Wonder plays Acoustic Piano, Fender Rhodes, Drums, Vocals, Synth Bass on the track.
– Songs in the Key of Life is his 18th album, released on Motown/ Tamla on September 28, 1976.
– It was the last of five consecutive albums widely hailed as his “classic period” along with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions and Fulfillingness’ First Finale.
– An ambitious double LP with a 4-song bonus EP, Songs in the Key of Life became among the best-selling and most critically acclaimed albums of his career.
– In 2003, the album was ranked #56 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
– By 1976 Stevie Wonder had become one of the most popular figures in R&B and pop music, not only in the United States 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 1975 respectively.
– By the end of 1975, Stevie Wonder became serious about quitting the music industry and to emigrate to Ghana working with handicapped children. Wonder had expressed his anger with the way that the United States Government was running the country. A farewell concert was being considered as the best way to bring down the curtain on his career.
– 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. 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 ever made with a recording star up to that point.
– Stevie took a year off from the music market, with a project 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.
– It was delayed on short notice when Wonder felt that further remixing was essential. According to Stevie Wonder, the marketing campaign at Motown decided to take advantage of the delay by producing “We’re almost finished” t-shirts.
– 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 entitled A Something’s Extra (“Saturn”, “Ebony Eyes”, “All Day Sucker” and “Easy Goin’ Evening (My Mama’s Call)”) and a 24-page lyric and credit booklet.
– The working title was Let’s see life the way it is.
– Recording sessions for the album were split between the Crystal Industries in Hollywood; The Record Plant, Los Angeles and Sausalito in California; and The Hit Factory in New York City. Sessions on the latter were particularly memorable, as it was the first album to be recorded at The Hit Factory.
– Wonder initially booked a three-day session with Germano and ended up working there for nine months. 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, but Wonder’s preeminence during the album was evident.
– Among the people present during the sessions, there were legendary figures of R&B, soul and jazz music – Herbie Hancock played Fender Rhodes on “As”, George Benson played electric guitar on “Another Star”, and Minnie Riperton and Deniece Williams added backing vocals on “Ordinary Pain”.
– Highly anticipated, the album surpassed all commercial expectations. Surprisingly, it debuted straight at #1 on the Billboard Album 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 Captain Fantastic and Rock of the Westies in 1975).
– The album spent thirteen consecutive weeks at #1. It 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 #2 behind Eagles’ Hotel California
– It spent a total of thirty-five weeks inside the Top Ten and eighty weeks on the Billboard albums chart.
– In all, Songs in the Key of Life became the second best-selling album of 1977 in the U.S., only behind Fleetwood Mac’s blockbuster Rumours, and it was certified as a Diamond album by the RIAA, for sales of ten million copies in the U.S. alone.
– Songs in the Key of Life was also the most successful Stevie Wonder project in terms of singles. “I Wish” reached spent five weeks at the top. “Sir Duke” also reached #1 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). “Another Star” reached #32 on the Hot 100 (#18 on the R&B charts). “As” peaked at #36 on both the Pop and R&B Charts. Though not released as a single (because, even when Motown requested Wonder to release it, Stevie refused to), “Isn’t She Lovely” received wide airplay and became one of Wonder’s more popular songs.
– At the time of release, reporters and music critics, and everyone who had worked on the album, traveled to Longview Farm, a recording studio in Massachusetts for a press preview of the album. Stevie received everybody, autographed copies of the album and gave interviews.
– Critical reception was positive. The album was viewed as a guided tour through a wide range of musical styles as well as the life and feelings of the artist. It included recollections of childhood, of first love and lost love. It contained songs about faith and love among all peoples and songs about social justice for the poor and downtrodden.
– On February 19, 1977, Wonder was nominated for seven Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, an award that he had already won twice. Paul Simon, who received the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1976, broke his winning streak and (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 absent from the ceremony, as he had developed an interest in visiting Africa. 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 Stevie 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, “Stevie, can you see us?”
– In all, Wonder won four out of seven nominations at the Grammys: Album of the Year, Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Male Rhythm and Blues Performer, and Producer of the Year.
– With time, the album became a standard, and it is considered Stevie Wonder’s signature album. Songs in the Key of Life is often cited as one of the greatest albums in popular music history.
– Many musicians have also remarked on the quality of the album and its influence on their own work. Elton John said in Rolling Stone “Let me put it this way: wherever I go in the world, I always take a copy of Songs in the Key of Life. For me, it’s the best album ever made, and I’m always left in awe after I listen to it.” In an interview with Ebony magazine, Michael Jackson stated Songs in the Key of Life is his favorite Stevie Wonder album. George Michael cited the album as his favorite of all time. Mariah Carey names the album as one of her favorites, and Whitney Houston has remarked on the influence of the album on her singing. During the photoshoot for her Whitney: The Greatest Hits, as its seen on its respective home video, the album was played throughout the photo sessions at Houston’s request.
– In September 2008, the album was voted the “Top Album of All Time” by the Yahoo! Music Playlist Blog, using a formula that combined 4 parameters – “Album Staying Power Value + Sales Value + Critical Rating Value + Grammy Award Value”.
VIDEO OF THE DAY
and Elliott Yamin’s version (my other favorite version of the song):
Great pick for the day!!