Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia - The Everybody Say YEAH! Edition
Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia
Slate Podcasts
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 March 2019
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When you think of Stevie Wonder’s legendary career, what chart-toppers come to mind? “Superstition,” right? Maybe “I Wish”? Okay, but what about the start of his career, on the Motown of the ’60s? You may not know that Wonder had only one Hot 100 No. 1 in his first decade—as “Little” Stevie Wonder—and it was truly exceptional, as in bizarre: a semi-improvised live recording of a “12 Year-Old Genius” refusing to leave a Chicago stage and say goodnight. Here’s the story of “Fingertips, Part 2,” and the years that launched a true pop icon. Wonder’s imperial run of classic, chart-topping, Grammy-dominating ’70s albums had their seeds in the joyous virtuosity, and fierce independence, on display in his very first hit.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening Ad-Free on Amazon Music. |
| 0:13.5 | Welcome to Hit Parade, a podcast of Pop Chart History from Slate magazine, about the hits from |
| 0:20.1 | coast to coast. I'm Chris Malanfi, |
| 0:22.9 | chart analyst, pop critic, and writer of Slate's Why is the song number one series. On today's |
| 0:29.1 | show, when I say the name Stevie Wonder, what songs leap to mind? I don't need to tell you that |
| 0:37.0 | wonder is a legend and his catalog of hits |
| 0:40.3 | is vast. Where do you even start? Well, if you're like me, I'm sure you think of this almost immediately. |
| 0:49.2 | Very superstitious, writing in on the wall |
| 0:57.0 | If you've been at a party or a wedding recently, I'll bet you've heard this. |
| 1:10.2 | Or maybe this. |
| 1:16.6 | They can feel in love by being like. |
| 1:21.6 | Okay, but what if I told you to limit yourself to Stevie Wonder in the 60s? |
| 1:28.2 | Then what do you think of? |
| 1:30.3 | Probably this. |
| 1:33.5 | Or this. |
| 1:37.3 | Or this. |
| 1:38.6 | Or even this. |
| 1:48.6 | But here's the other side. |
| 1:56.9 | But here's the thing. |
| 1:59.2 | Those last three songs I played, respectively, for once in my life, my Cherie Amor, and Uptite. |
| 2:07.3 | None of these 60s classics topped Billboard's Hot 100. |
| 2:12.6 | In fact, for his entire first decade as a recording artist, |
... |
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