At age 49, was youngest-ever recipient in 22-year history of annual Kennedy Center Honors given annually for lifetime contribution to arts and culture, presented by President Clinton in Wash DC, Dec. 5, 1999.
Awarded the Polar Music Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music Award, in 1999.
Recorded an instrumental jazz album under the name "Eivets Rednow" ("Stevie Wonder" spelled backwards).
At the age of 17 he performed with The Jimi Hendrix Experience playing drums at the BBC. (Jammin'/I was made to love her, BBC Sessions)
Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
The only member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to appear in a "Beach Party" film.
His first #1 hit was the half-improvised "Fingertips - Part 2", recorded live in concert (The first live pop single to ever reach #1). It topped the Pop Music and R&B charts in 1963 when Stevie Wonder was only 12. You can the hear the musicians struggling to keep up with the young vocalist and harmonica player as he improvises rhythm and blues riffs, and at one point in the recording a musician is heard shouting "What key? What key?"
Has won 21 Grammy awards (a record for most Grammy awards)
He was voted the 15th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.
"Little Stevie" Wonder grew up to not very little at all, as he stands over 6' feet tall.
In 1988, he announced his interest in running for mayor of Detroit in the 1992 election. However, he never followed through with a campaign.
His ex-wife, Syreeta, died of breast cancer in Los Angeles on July 5, 2004.
In his acceptance speech for the Oscar for Best Song in 1984, Wonder dedicated his award to imprisoned civil rights leader Nelson Mandela. The South African government promptly banned Wonder's music from the country.
He has 7 children. The last of these, Mandla Kadjaly Carl Stevland Morris, was born May 13, 2005. He was born on his 55th birthday and is his and Kai's first child. Mandla means "Powerful/Defiant" in Zulu. Kadjaly is Swahili for "Born from God"
In addition to his being blind, he also has loss of smell due to a 1973 car crash in North Carolina from which he also has a scar.
Shortly after reaching his 21st birthday in the spring of 1971, he became the first Motown Recording artist to gain complete artistic control of his records.
Collaborated on the 1985 smash hit "We Are the World" (USA for Africa)
His 1976 song "Isn't She Lovely" (from album "Songs in the Key of Life") was dedicated to then newborn daughter Aisha whose name and "baby sounds" can be heard on the track
Joined friends `Dionne Warwick' , `Gladys Knight' and `Elton John' on the 1986 chart-topper "That's What Friends Are For" from which the proceeds were donated to AIDS research. Also played harmonica on the recording
Oddly enough, two other vocalists introduced his 1973 smash hit "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (from album "Talking Book") before Wonder actually sang any lyrics. Respectively, these singers were James Gilstrap and Lani Groves
Played harmonica on `Chaka Khan' 's 1984 hit "I Feel For You"
Wrote "Superstition" originally for friend `Jeff Beck (I)' while completing his 1973 album "Talking Book." Though Beck had actually recorded the number in 1972, Motown rush-released Wonder's cut ahead of the album, and "Superstition" became his second number one hit in January 1973
Stevie Wonder Detailed Biography
When one is called upon to define musical genius, few would have any difficulty associating Stevie Wonders' creativity with the term. His ability to "see" the world's ugly inhabitants as well as the world's beautifulness and then transcribing what he has "seen" is nothing short of genius. My first contact with this genius was back in the early 70's. Even though I remembered such songs as "Fingertips", "Blowin' in the Wind" and "Sylvia", it wasn't until the release of Where I'm Coming From and Music of My Mind that I came to realize that in the embodiment of Stevie was exactly "where I was coming from". It was like he was writing words from my mind and putting them to music. Stevie represented, during that time period, my emotional self. He represented in the words that he wrote the human encounter's that I would make during the coming decades. These words as they related to his personal life, mirrored to some extent, my life. The struggle to live and love poetically prosed. His genius was the wave that I rode. It was the wave that many of us rode.
When he introduced the albums Talking Book and Innervisions, he rose the wave to another level. He was now speaking of the people's struggle to be free. To be treated as human beings. To be respected as human beings. He was articulating the ideologies of Malcolm, Gil, et al; through the genius of his writings.
I would be remiss if I did not mention another example of his genius. Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants which had to have been his most ambitious work ever, was not well received by the general populace, due in large part because it was off the beaten path. But Stevie knew where he was going, and so did I.. Journey was a preface to our current environmental predicament. It was eloquently phrased with reminders that we must stop taking the things that give us life for granted. Of the many albums that Stevie has produced over the many years, I have found that Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants was his best work ever.
