Stevie Wonder Research Paper

Stevie Wonder was born on May 13, 1950. His real name was Stevland Hardaway Judkins. Stevland was born blind but loved to play music. He loved to play the harmonica, piano, and drums. All of these he taught himself to play before age 10. He was just 11 years old when he was discovered by Ronnie White of the Motown band the Miracles. Stevie first auditioned for founder of Motown Records, Berry Gordy Jr. Who then signed Stevland to a record deal and changed his name to Stevie Wonder. He released his first album, Little Stevie Wonder the 12-Year-Old Genius when he was 12 years’ old. His next album was Fingertips released in 1963, which is when he started studying classical piano. In 1966 he got rid of “Little” in his name, because he was now a young man. His first album produced under his new name was called “Uptight”.

He negotiated a new deal with Motown that meant that he had complete control over his records. This was not something that Gordy ever agreed to before with other musicians. In the 1970’s, Stevie had four outstanding albums; Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs in the Key of Life (1976). These albums included a some very popular singles, including “Living in the City”, “Boogie on a Reggae Woman” and “Isn’t She Lovely.” Steve earned 15 Grammy awards over the decade.

The 1980’s weren’t as successful for Stevie Wonder. He still had a collection of hits such as the single, “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. This single won Stevie an Academy Award. In 1982 he did a song with Paul McCartney called "Ebony and Ivory”. Which also became a number one single. Stevie was known to write about social issues. He started a movement to create a national holiday for Dr. Martian Luther King