100 Greatest Songs of the 70’s #19 Stevie Wonder – Superstition

Released: 1972

By 1972 the child prodigy once known as Little Stevie Wonder had developed a consciousness in line with much of America; the sessions for his Talking Book album were dictated by an artist who had no problem with confounding both his patrons and critics. In an interview with the Melody Maker’s Chris Welch after it’s release he was strident and bullish, confidently declaring “The boy is getting kinda MILITANT!, before going on to explain ‘Motown basically didn’t understand what I wanted to do at first..We as a people are not interested in ‘baby, baby’ songs anymore.’

Scoffing critics pointed to a track listing that included You Are The Sunshine of My Life and I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever) – neither particularly street tough – but in the studio an unruffled Wonder was now both architect and the multi-instrumentalist kernel of his ever broadening creative wingspan, along with a select group of fellow travelers.

One of the most unlikely of these was the temperamental former Yardbirds guitarist Jeff Beck, who came up with a rough drum outline for Superstition only for Wonder to then be Wonder and improvise almost everything else on the spot. Tamla supremo Berry Gordy smelled a hit, and although his protege had generously allowed Beck the opportunity to release the song first, his inevitable veto cleared the way for it to be that and much more. Motown’s militant had given us a blast of radical funk for the ages.