Songs in the Key of Life cover

Songs in the Key of Life

Released

When it comes to R&B, the gold standard is indisputably Stevie Wonder. Maturing out of his teenage years, he started approaching deeper themes beginning on 1971’s Where I’m Coming From. The influence of his in-the-pocket, one-man-band musicianship on Songs in the Key of Life remains inescapable. From the joyous buoyancy of “Isn’t She Lovely” to the deep funk of “Sir Duke” to the melancholy of “Joy Inside My Tears” and the beauty of “Saturn,” the blueprint for so much of the R&B to come sprang from the creativity of Wonder in his mid-20s.

Miles Marshall Lewis

Recommended by

Suggestions
Fire cover

Fire

Ohio Players
Historicity cover

Historicity

Vijay Iyer Trio
Roxy Music cover

Roxy Music

Roxy Music
Shame, Shame, Shame cover

Shame, Shame, Shame

Shirley & Company
High Wire cover

High Wire

Ernie Isley
Testifyin’ cover

Testifyin’

Clarence Carter
Time Travel cover

Time Travel

Dave Douglas Quintet
Strike Them Hard Drag Them To Church cover

Strike Them Hard Drag Them To Church

Caroliner Rainbow Wire Thin Sheep Legs Baking Exhibit
This is PiL cover

This is PiL

Public Image Ltd