September 28, 1976: Stevie Wonder Releases "Songs In the Key of Life"

September 28, 1976, 50 years ago: Stevie Wonder releases Songs In the Key of Life, on the Motown subsidiary Tamla Records. It is usually considered his greatest album.

And that's saying something. Since releasing The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie, under the name "Little Stevie Wonder" at the age of 12 -- he was born in 1950 with the name Stevland Hardaway Judkins, but his legal name is Stevland Morris, for his mother's family -- with the Motown-billed nickname of "The 12-Year-Old Genius," he had a bunch of hit singles through the 1960s, and then moved on to making great albums, once he and Marvin Gaye were finally able to talk Motown boss Berry Gordy Jr. into letting them write and sing about social issues.

He released Where I'm Coming From in 1971, Music of My Mind and Talking Book in 1972, Innervisions (the title reflective of the fact that Stevie is blind) in 1973, and Fulfillingness' First Finale in 1974. The last 2 each won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

He wanted his next album to be a masterpiece, and he took his time to get it right. For 1975, the Grammy for Album of the Year went to Still Crazy After All These Years by Paul Simon. Accepting the award, Simon thanked a few people, adding, "I'd also like to thank Stevie Wonder, for not releasing an album this year." The line got more applause than laughter.

Through early 1976, Stevie would arrive in the recording studio wearing a T-shirt saying, "IT'S ALMOST FINISHED!" When Songs In the Key of Life was finished, it was everything he hoped it would be. The singles "I Wish" and "Sir Duke" hit Number 1 in early 1977. The latter was a tribute to jazz legends, name-checking, in order, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong (using his nickname, Satchmo), Duke Ellington ("the king of all, Sir Duke") and Ella Fitzgerald. It began with a line that could have been Stevie's motto: "Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand."

On February 2, 1975, while the album was in progress, Stevie's 1st child was born, a daughter named Aisha Morris. Her mother was Yolanda Simmons, a secretary at Motown. Stevie said of Aisha, "She was the one thing that I needed in my life and in my music for a long time." For her, Stevie wrote "Isn't She Lovely?", put her baby voice on the recording, and put the song on the album, and it also became a hit single.

As Simon seemed to be predicting, Songs In the Key of Life, like its 2 immediate predecessors, won the Grammy for Album of the Year. In total, Stevie has won 22 Grammys. Stevie, Simon, Frank Sinatra and Taylor Swift are the only people to have won the Grammy for Album of the Year as lead artist 3 times, but Stevie is the only one to do it 3 albums in a row.

While he was one of the most productive performers of the 1960s, '70s and '80s, and continues to perform into the 2020s, his last 3 albums of new material have been the soundtrack to the film Jungle Fever in 1991, Conversation Peace in 1995, and A Time to Love in 2005.

It seems unfair to have expected Stevie Wonder to keep up the pace he set between the ages of 12 and 37 -- 23 albums in 25 years -- but, like his contemporary and fellow keyboard (and harmonica) player Billy Joel, he seems content with being just a touring act in the back half of his life. In 2014, President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

His awards also include the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Michigan Walk of Fame in the State Capital of Lansing, a Messenger of Peace award from the United Nations, and an Academy Award for his 1984 Number 1 hit "I Just Called to Say I Love You," due to its inclusion in the film The Woman in Red, for which he wrote all the songs.

Stevie is currently married for the 3rd time, and has 9 children, with 5 different mothers. His daughter Aisha Morris has sung with him on recordings and tours, and his son Kailand Morris has drummed for him. 

October 16, 1992: The Bob Dylan Tribute Concert at The Garden

Left to right: Ron Wood, George Harrison,

Johnny Cash, Roger McGuinn, Bob Dylan

October 16, 1992, 30 years ago: "Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration" is held at Madison Square Garden in New York. Or, as one of the performers, Neil Young, put it, "This one's for you, Bob. Thanks for having Bobfest!" Actually, it was Columbia Records, Dylan's label the whole way, that put the show on.

And what a show it was. It may have been the greatest array of musical talent ever brought together for one show in one building. (Live Aid was 1 show, but in 2 stadiums on 2 continents, and I'm not sure it was a better show, anyway.) The house band consisted of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, with Jim Keltner and World's Most Dangerous Band member Anton Fig filling in for the late Al Jackson Jr. on drums, plus G.E. Smith of the Saturday Night Live Band. Kris Kristofferson, himself one of America's greatest songwriters, was master of ceremonies, and sang "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight."

John Mellencamp kicked it off with perhaps Dylan's greatest song, "Like a Rolling Stone." He also sang "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat."

One by one, some serious legends came, each playing a Dylan song or two:

* Stevie Wonder, singing the gospel-inflected version of "Blowin' in the Wind" that he hit with in 1966.

* Lou Reed, "Foot of Pride."

* June Carter and Johnny Cash, "It Ain't Me Babe."

* Willie Nelson, "What Was It You Wanted?"

* Johnny Winter, whose version of "Highway 61" was particularly blistering.

* Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, "Seven Days."

* Richie Havens, whose acoustic version of "Just Like a Woman" was epic.

* The Clancy Brothers, Greenwich Village folkie contemporaries of Dylan's, singing "When the Ship Comes In" with an Irish brogue.

* Neil Young, who blitzed through "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," and made absolutely nobody miss Jimi Hendrix with "All Along the Watchtower."

* Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, "I Shall Be Released."

* Eric Clapton, who did "Love Minus Zero"/"No Limit," then totally tore the place up with a bluesy rendition of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right."

* The O'Jays, "Emotionally Yours."

* The Band, "When I Paint My Masterpiece."

* George Harrison of the Beatles, "If Not For You" and "Absolutely Sweet Marie."

* Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, "License to Kill" and "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" (a.k.a. "Everybody Must Get Stoned").

* And Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, "Mr. Tambourine Man."

The younger generation got in on the act, too: Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready, with "Masters of War"; Tracy Chapman with "The Times, They Are A-Changin'," and a performance of "You Ain't Going Nowhere" by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shawn Colvin, and Johnny's daughter (and June's stepdaughter) Roseanne Cash.

Said younger generation included a performer who became the focus of the show's one moment of controversy: Mere days after singing Bob Marley's "War" and tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II on SNL, Sinead O'Connor tried to sing Dylan's "I Believe in You," but got booed off the stage.

Kristofferson, perhaps anticipating such a reaction, tried to introduce her by saying that, like Dylan, she stood for freedom, including freedom of speech. It was to no avail: Harder than Dylan was at Newport in 1965, she got booed. She walked off and cried on Kristofferson's shoulder, and a microphone picked up him saying to her, "Don't let the bastards get you down."

George Harrison introduced Bob, and the big question everybody had was, "What's Bob going to do?" Not because so many of his great songs had already been done, but because a Bob Dylan show is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're going to get. Was he going to walk on, wave, and then just walk off? Was he going to say something controversial? Was he not going to be understandable as he sang?

There was no issue with him: He sang, "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," he was totally understandable, and he was on his game. In turn, the 6 verses of "My Back Pages" were sung by McGuinn, Petty, Young, Clapton, Dylan and Harrison. Bob closed with "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and "Girl from the North Country."

I still have most of this concert from the WNEW-FM broadcast. To me, it sounds better than any other recording of it.