The working title was Let's See Life the Way It Is, before Wonder settled on Songs in the Key of Life. Work on the new album continued into early 1976. According to him, Motown's marketing campaign decided to take advantage of the delay by producing "We're almost finished" T-shirts. It was delayed on short notice when Wonder felt that further remixing was essential. There was huge anticipation for the new album, which was initially scheduled for release around October 1975. Shortly after signing the contract, Wonder took a year off from music.
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The contract was laid out as a seven-year, seven LP, $37 million deal ($201,223,253 in 2022 dollars ) and gave Wonder full artistic control, making this the largest deal made with a recording star up to that point.
At the time, rival labels such as Arista and Epic were also interested in him. Wonder changed his mind and signed a new contract with Motown on August 5, 1975, thinking he was better off making the most of his career. A farewell concert was being considered as the best way to bring down the curtain on his career. He had expressed his anger with the way the U.S. In 1975, Wonder became serious about quitting the music industry and emigrating to Ghana to work with handicapped children.
Within a short space of time, the albums Talking Book, Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale were all back-to-back-to-back top five successes, with the latter two winning the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 19, respectively. In 2002, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2005 it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress, which deemed it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".īy 1976, Stevie Wonder had become one of the most popular figures in R&B and pop music, not only in the U.S., but worldwide. It was voted number 89 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums and ranked number 4 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Widely regarded as his magnum opus and one of the greatest albums in the history of recorded music, many musicians have remarked on the quality of the album and its influence on their own work indeed, some notable musicians have named it as the greatest album of all time. The album won Album of the Year at the 19th Grammy Awards and is the best-selling and most critically acclaimed album of Wonder's career. In 2005, the album was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), indicating sales of 5 million units for a double album. The album spent thirteen consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, becoming the album with the most weeks at number one during the year, and was the second best-selling album of 1977 in the US. Both the lead single " I Wish" and follow-up single " Sir Duke" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It debuted at number one on the Billboard Pop Albums Chart, becoming only the third album to achieve that feat, and the first by an American artist. Songs in the Key of Life was released as a double LP with a four-song bonus EP. At the time, it was the biggest recording deal in history. This outlined a seven-year, seven-album, $37 million deal with full artistic control. When plans for a farewell concert had already begun, Wonder changed his mind and signed a new contract with Motown on August 5, 1975. However, by the end of 1975, Wonder seriously considered quitting the music industry and emigrating to Ghana to aid children with disabilities. īy 1974, Wonder was one of the most successful figures in popular music his previous albums Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fulfillingness' First Finale were all back-to-back critical successes. The album has been regarded by music journalists as the culmination of Wonder's "classic period" of recording. It was recorded primarily at Crystal Sound studio in Hollywood, with some sessions recorded at the Record Plant in Hollywood, the Record Plant in Sausalito, and The Hit Factory in New York City final mixing was conducted at Crystal Sound. A double album, it was released on September 28, 1976, by Tamla Records, a division of Motown. Songs in the Key of Life is the eighteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter and musician Stevie Wonder.
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