Songs in the Key of Life [Remaster] (CD - 1976)

Personnel includes: Stevie Wonder (vocals, harmonica, piano, keyboards); George Benson (guitar, background vocals); Michael Sembello (guitar); Peter Kleinow (steel guitar); Dorothy Ashby (harp); Bobbi Humphrey (flute); Hank Redd (alto & tenor saxophones); Trevor Lawrence (tenor saxophone); Jim Horn (saxophone); Raymond Maldonado (trumpet, percussion); Glen Ferris (trombone); Ronnie Foster (organ); Herbie Hancock, Gregory Phillinganes (keyboards); Eddie Brown (collinga); Nathan Watts (bass, percussion); Raymond Pounds (drums); Carmello Hungria Gracia (timbales); Renee Hardaway (percussion); Al Fann Theatrical Ensemble, Minnie Riperton, Deniece Williams, Syreeta Wright, West Angeles Church Of God Choir, Hare Krishna Singers (background vocals).

Recorded at the Hit Factory, New York, New York, The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California and The Record Plant, Sausalito, California.

This is a limited edition digipak.

Personnel includes: Stevie Wonder (vocals, harmonica, piano, keyboards); George Benson (guitar, background vocals); Michael Sembello (guitar); Peter Kleinow (steel guitar); Dorothy Ashby (harp); Bobbi Humphrey (flute); Hank Redd (alto & tenor saxophones); Trevor Lawrence (tenor saxophone); Jim Horn (saxophone); Raymond Maldonado (trumpet, percussion); Glen Ferris (trombone); Ronnie Foster (organ); Herbie Hancock, Gregory Phillinganes (keyboards); Eddie Brown (collinga); Nathan Watts (bass, percussion); Raymond Pounds (drums); Carmello Hungria Gracia (timbales); Renee Hardaway (percussion); Al Fann Theatrical Ensemble, Minnie Riperton, Deniece Williams, Syreeta Wright, West Angeles Church Of God Choir, Hare Krishna Singers (background vocals).

Recorded at the Hit Factory, New York, New York; The Record Plant, Los Angeles, California; The Record Plant, Sausalito, California. Includes liner notes by Stevie Wonder

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Songs in the Key of Life was Stevie Wonder's longest, most ambitious collection of songs, a two-LP (plus accompanying EP) set that -- just as the title promised -- touched on nearly every issue under the sun, and did it all with ambitious (even for him), wide-ranging arrangements and some of the best performances of Wonder's career. The opening "Love's in Need of Love Today" and "Have a Talk with God" are curiously subdued, but Stevie soon kicks into gear with "Village Ghetto Land," a fierce exposé of ghetto neglect set to a satirical Baroque synthesizer. Hot on its heels comes the torrid fusion jam "Contusion," a big, brassy hit tribute to the recently departed Duke Ellington in "Sir Duke," and (another hit, this one a Grammy winner as well) the bumping poem to his childhood, "I Wish." Though they didn't necessarily appear in order, Songs in the Key of Life contains nearly a full album on love and relationships, along with another full album on issues social and spiritual. Fans of the love album Talking Book can marvel that he sets the bar even higher here, with brilliant material like the tenderly cathartic and gloriously redemptive "Joy Inside My Tears," the two-part, smooth-and-rough "Ordinary Pain," the bitterly ironic "All Day Sucker," or another classic heartbreaker, "Summer Soft." Those inclined toward Stevie Wonder the social-issues artist had quite a few songs to focus on as well: "Black Man" was a Bicentennial school lesson on remembering the vastly different people who helped build America; "Pastime Paradise" examined the plight of those who live in the past and have little hope for the future; "Village Ghetto Land" brought listeners to a nightmare of urban wasteland; and "Saturn" found Stevie questioning his kinship with the rest of humanity and amusingly imagining paradise as a residency on a distant planet. If all this sounds overwhelming, it is; Stevie Wonder had talent to spare during the mid-'70s, and instead of letting the reserve trickle out during the rest of the decade, he let it all go with one massive burst. (His only subsequent record of the '70s was the similarly gargantuan but largely instrumental soundtrack Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants.) ~ John Bush

SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE is a milestone in Stevland Morris' career and a masterwork of American popular music. Released in 1976, this double LP spent 14 of its 80 charting weeks at number one. From his sharp commentaries on American social history and pro-peace supplications to some of his most intimate professions of love, witness Stevie Wonder at a prolific point in his career, casting his music further beyond R&B, funk, and disco than ever before.

Present here are some of Stevie's greatest hits in their original context: the widely-sampled horn swirls of "Sir Duke," comical baby-noise-laced jamming of "Isn't She Lovely" and fiercely poetic declaration of "As" still shine as brightly as ever. Perhaps less well-known are tunes like, "Joy Inside My Tears," a slow, entrancing, synth-vamp on love's redemptive powers, or the fast-grooving funkout, "Black Man," a compelling salute to America's pioneers of color. The keyboard sounds are as varied as ever, the bass as waggish as Bootsy, the arrangements a consummate preparation of melody and harmony. KEY OF LIFE is an inspired work in which Stevie marvels at life's unexpected miracles. minimize