Stevie Wonder-Songs In The Key Of Life (1976)
Artist: Stevie Wonder
Title: Songs In The Key Of Life
Year of Release: 1976
Country and Year of Edition: US 1976
Sell Price: $9.99
Sell Date: 5/28/26
Condition: VG/VG
Discogs Last Sold: 3/13/26 VG+/no cover $6.99
Low: $2.00
Median: $6.99
Average: $8.24
High: $14.00
Current low price: $8.98 VG+/generic
Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 2 (one with only one volume)
Have/Want: 76/484
Where Sold: Fort Worth, TX
Time It Took To Sell: 3 years
Where and When Bought: ebay 8-track lot
Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A+
Sad To See It Go: No
Since this is being published on my birthday, I figured I regale you with a childhood memory of Stevie Wonder's Song In The Key Of Life. I used to take records out of the Worcester Public Library constantly as a kid. I often would walk from home to the library and back with my Dad. I was looking it up and I was shocked the distance was under a mile from my childhood home. It seemed longer! Must've been the hills that did it.
Anyway, my takeout haul one week, when I was 7 or so, included Songs In The Key of Life. When we walked from the library to Downtown Worcester outside Worcester Center to head up the hill toward home we hear in the distance a 70's in the 70's dressed hip verging on pimped out before I knew the meaning, 20 something Black guy, coming up to us excitedly yelling "Steeeeeevie Wondeeeer!!" So he walked up to us and asked my Dad if he dug Stevie Wonder? My Dad responded "that wasn't my choice, that was all David---ask him!" I think at the time, I saw the album all over the place and I was curious about it and wanted to hear it and I think that was the gist of what I told my new friend. I don't remember ever not knowing who Stevie Wonder was. I'm sure there were a couple dozen songs by him that made it to my brain first, but Songs In The Key Of Life was the first album I heard by him from taking it out of the library. I think that day my Dad was trying to have me communicate with people on the street you didn't know at a young age that approached you unexpectedly. Or maybe he felt he was gonna get hit up for money and wanted to deflect that request, although that was never stated to me later or asked at the time. I'm just thinking about the memory now since this record triggered the almost 50 year old recollection. So we chatted a little, waved goodbye and walked home to the guy joyously yelling "Steeeeevie Wondeeer" in the background. I never ran into him again, but sometimes when you make a connection like that, you run into that person all the time. To this day I get those street connections in NYC. You can't be so open you get played an "All Day Sucker, playing to give something to get nothing" that Stevie tells you about on the bonus record, but sometimes you give a little you get a little back and the world smiles. That balance makes friends on the street without getting hustled if you can play it right.
So here I am at 56 still listening to Songs In The Key Of Life. I bought my own copy of the record some point in the early 80's and lately have gotten one or the other tapes in various 8-track lots. One big problem with this 8-track at 50 is the tapes constantly break, so these two volumes that sold both were repair refurbish jobs. I already tested these out in the past year, but I threw it on again anyway to make sure both tapes were good, especially since I have other single volume copies floating around that were refurbished also.
One interesting thing is the RIAA didn't certify this until 2005 as Gold, Platinum and Diamond in one fell swoop. Motown had their own internal certifications and didn't submit to RIAA. It most certainly was Platinum in it's era, at least by 1977 were it was the second best selling album of the year by Billboard's charting standard.
The 8-track shuffles the track order with no fade out/ins over two tapes. The song "Village Ghetto Land" coming right after "Love's In Need Of Love Today" makes that song stand out even more. That might have grown to be my favorite although "Black Man" can't be denied with it's militant schoolchild reeducation camp. Stevie's team is gonna learn ya kids. The hits nobody can deny "Sir Duke," "As," "I Wish" and the first slap into the world for "Isn't She Lovely." "Pastime Paradise" was almost defiled when Coolio popularized it, purged of it's meaning into "Gangstas Paradise"
The bonus EP is incorporated into the ends of the second tapes track 3 and 4, so this makes "A Something Extra" incorporated into the main work. I didn't get to see Stevie's 2015 performance of this album at Madison Square Garden, but I was curious to see if the bonus EP made the cut. It did, but not at the end of the performance. Side 4 was the closer there but the early part of the side got switched around. The closers are still "As" and "Another World."
Until the dolphins fly and parrots live at sea.
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