Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder was blind from birth, signed to Motown at eleven, and a hitmaker at thirteen (“Fingertips, Pt. 2,” 1963 — recorded live). For the rest of the 1960s he was Little Stevie Wonder, producing reliable Motown product. Then, at twenty-one, he renegotiated his contract and took complete artistic control — beginning one of the most sustained creative runs in popular music history.

Between 1972 and 1976 he released five albums that define the synthesis of Black American music at its most ambitious: Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973), Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974), Songs in the Key of Life (1976), and the electronic exploration of Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (1979). Playing nearly every instrument himself on synthesizers, clavinet, harmonica and drums, he folded soul, funk, jazz, reggae, classical influences and social commentary — “Living for the City,” “Higher Ground,” “Happy Birthday” (a campaign for Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday) — into a coherent artistic vision.

“Superstition” (1972), with its clavinet riff and driving funk groove, is the pivot-point: Motown’s prodigy become the most complete musician of the soul era.