As Stevie Wonder’s ‘Songs In the Key of Life’ Turns 50, Musicians Reflect on Its Impact: ‘An Actual Gift to Humanity’

It’s hard to believe Songs in the Key of Life was Stevie Wonder’s 18th studio album upon its release on Sept. 28, 1976.

However, the epic double LP — which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 the week after it arrived in stores — was almost never made.

In early 1975, Stevie was giving serious consideration to retiring from music at the age of 25 after a successful run of albums — Where I’m Coming From (1971), Music of My Mind (1972), Talking Book (1972), Innervisions (1973) and Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974) — had placed him in an upper echelon of artistry eons away from his earlier work as child star “Little” Stevie Wonder. According to author Zeth Lundy in his book 33 ⅓ about the album, Wonder’s plan was to relocate to Ghana on a humanitarian mission to assist children with disabilities, announcing the decision at a press conference in Los Angeles, citing his disillusionment of the United States and the music industry in general. There was even a farewell concert in the works to send Stevie off in grand fashion.

Motown Records owner Berry Gordy, however, wasn’t about to see his brightest star walk away from his career. In a Hail Mary effort to keep him stateside, Gordy offered Stevie a deal he couldn’t refuse: a contract for seven albums over seven years for a reported $37 million with full creative control going strictly to Wonder, according to Lundy’s book. At the time, it was said to be the biggest deal in music history.

What followed was a journey through Black life stretched across two records and one 7-inch, weaving together a tapestry of funk, jazz, soul, classical and fusion. About 130 people were involved in its creation, including such fellow visionaries as Herbie Hancock, George Benson, Minnie Riperton, Dorothy Ashby, Greg Phillinganes, Bobbi Humphrey and Michael Sembello.

“I came up with the title Songs in the Key of Life,” Wonder said in an archival clip featured on the Classic Albums DVD on Songs. “To me, that was a challenge to create an album relating to life, acknowledging it’s impossible to cover all of what life is about … I wanted it to be a representation of how and what I was feeling at that time.”

Propelled by such hits as “Isn’t She Lovely,” “I Wish” (No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100), “Another Star” (No. 32), “As” and “Sir Duke,” Songs In the Key of Life remained perched on the top spot of the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks. It also won four Grammys in 1977, including album of the year and best pop vocal performance, male. The album eventually became certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005, the same year it was inducted into the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress.

As Wonder prepares to embark on a national tour to perform Songs In the Key of Life in its entirety for its 50th anniversary, Billboard spoke with numerous artists from all over the proverbial radio dial to share their thoughts on the album and its impact on their lives. Here’s what they had to say:

• Adam Weiner, Low Cut Connie

  We know about Stevie’s melodic genius, his vocal genius and his genius in the studio, but let us speak of Stevie’s genius in terms of finding joy and love amongst the pain and trauma of life. On this album, moody ruminations on oppression and violence in modern America like “Village Ghetto Land” and “Pastime Paradise” sit comfortably next to exultant pieces like “I Wish” and “If It’s Magic.” “Isn’t She Lovely” and “As” are celebratory and joyful, while “Joy In My Own Tears” and “Ordinary Pain” remind us that that joy is hard to come by, and worth fighting for.

  The album explores such a range of feelings and is authentic and relatable at every turn. It’s one of the fullest and deepest musical representations of what it feels like to be a human on this planet day to day — it literally is a collection of Songs In the Key of Life.

• Alex Isley

  Songs In the Key of Life shaped me as a student at UCLA, as I was discovering myself as an artist. It informed my possibilities as a writer and musician. Songs is a timeless tapestry of the richest musical fabrics and entire color spectrum, a true love story with urgent messages to humanity, sweet nostalgia, agonizing heartbreak, the most beautiful declarations and documentation of just being and living. This album is an encyclopedia, a journal and a microscopic look into how beautiful, sorrowful and joyful life can be. And if I have to pick a favorite, “Summer Soft”!

• Danielle Ponder

  I think this is one of those albums that I listen to when I think, “How do you talk about love, how do you talk about justice, how do you talk about these things in a way that doesn’t feel preachy or phony.” It’s just so real and authentic, and I think that’s the greatest thing about his writing.

  When I think of a song like “As” — which is the greatest love song ever written — it doesn’t have this sappiness to it. I don’t know how he does it. I don’t know how he writes such a deep love song, and at the same time, you feel like you can dance to it. But lyrically, its saying the deepest, most profound statements. This is one of the albums that I gravitate to, and I wish I could write like Stevie Wonder.

• Darryl Jenifer, Bad Brains

  This album, Songs In the Key of Life, has a presence that was groundbreaking in recorded music. For some reason, it just felt different, sort of like when there was a different resolution on the TV. I could feel something strong about it, but during this time when I was young, I was into stuff like Return to Forever and Led Zeppelin. But I always knew there was something special about Stevie and this album in particular.

  Now this was in ‘76 and Stevie is a little bit older than he was when I first heard him, and you can tell he’s been peeping Donny Hathaway. He’s blind, so all the subliminal and sublime and cosmic energies that go with a person without sight, he’s absorbing these vibrations. And it went into this record, which is a perfect record. There’s nothing sonically, rhythmically, stylistically imperfect in this recording. In many ways, too. There’s diversity … and Stevie’s bass work is overlooked. Left-handed synth bass, jamming in the bass lines and approaches that he chose, was genius. And his drumming. This is an orb of positive spiritual energy, this record. I know this. I could feel it, and I’m deep into music as an unstudied guy.

• Dawn Richard

  Songs In the Key of Life is one of those records that taught artists like me that you don’t have to choose between experimentation and soul. Stevie Wonder could move through gospel, funk, jazz, pop, R&B and social commentary without ever losing the humanity at the center of the music. The musicianship is extraordinary, but what stays with me is the freedom of it.

  As a New Orleans artist, I’ve always understood music as a conversation between cultures, rhythms, generations and genres. Stevie showed us how expansive Black music could be, that our stories could be technically ambitious, politically aware, joyful, spiritual, strange, beautiful and still reach everybody. Fifty years later, Songs In the Key of Life still feels like permission to be limitless. That kind of freedom has deeply influenced how I approach my own work.

• Bridget Barkan, Scissor Sisters

  I have listened to this Stevie album as a meditation and prayer for years. Every song is a hymn and truly a musical consciousness I strive for. To create songs like “Love’s In Need of Love Today,” “Have a Talk With God” “Summer Soft” and “As,” there is no doubt that Stevie has had many talks with God to write like this. These songs have healed me time and time again. He is the benchmark for me — the lyrical honesty, prose, musical warmth and unpredictable orchestration and the message and love in every note. Thank you, Stevie.

• Fishbone

  “If there are seven wonders of the world, then Steveland Morris is undoubtedly the eighth. Songs In the Key of Life is a record that blossoms like a rare flower, passes through the stars like the rarest of comets and lands like a hummingbird, delicately drawing the nectar of invention. With every taste, it unfolds into a deeper understanding of the human experience.

  “Joy Inside My Tears,” “Pastime Paradise” and “Summer Soft” reveal layer after layer of perfection. But no song speaks more deeply to my soul than “If It’s Magic.” It asks some of the greatest questions ever posed to the human spirit. It cries out, beckoning us toward greater understanding and reminding us of the mystery and beauty that surround us.

  “It is, as its title suggests, Songs In the Key of Life.” — Chris Dowd

  “Songs In the Key of Life was one of the most listened to albums of my childhood and a very important part of my formative years. It had a positive effect on the way I sing soul music, which is the foundation of all the genres that make up Fishbone’s music. My favorite song from the album is ‘Joy Inside My Tears.’ I’ve always liked the descending line of verse and the short ascending resolve. The chorus has an elevated intro and the resting plank resolve.” — Angelo Moore

• Fergal Lawler, The Cranberries

  Stevie Wonder’s Songs In the Key of Life was the album that introduced me to this wonderful and inspiring artist. I remember hearing “Sir Duke,” “I Wish” and “Isn’t She Lovely” on the radio constantly. Years later, I saw a video of Stevie performing a stunning drum solo and was blown away. I had known him as a singer, songwriter and pianist but hadn’t realized he was also “a beast” behind the drum kit!

  His positivity and integrity have always been at the forefront, and he has influenced many, many musicians and singers. This whole album is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago — a timeless masterpiece.

• George Benson

  We were friends, and then one day, he asked me to come to the studio where he was, and I accepted because I wanted to see what he was doing. I was very interested in seeing how he worked and what kind of equipment he used. So while I was there, I was listening to the songs for his new album … and he played me lots of songs and they were all masterpieces. But none of those songs got on that album. I was shocked that I didn’t see any of those wonderful titles on the final album, but I remember them like it was yesterday.

  But I was wondering what he had in mind for me. I was listening to all this music and loving all of it. Then he said, ‘I got a song, man, that I think you’ll like. I want you to sing on this for me.” I said, “I hope it ain’t no duet thing.” [Laughs] I didn’t want to try and mess this cat’s record up. But he played it for me and gave me quite an interesting part. I didn’t know I was going to be, but I knew it was going to be something different because he is a guy who thinks outside the box all the time anyway. And so I happened to get a good one, out of all those incredible songs that he had on that album. It wasn’t a big part, but it was interesting and joyful to listen to, and inspiring.

  Editor’s note: Benson appears on the track “Another Star.”

• Gregg Alexander, New Radicals

  I was 6 when I first heard “Sir Duke,” and that’s my favorite song on this record. And it was a time when there was still a monoculture where no matter where you went, you heard the same thing. I was growing up in Detroit when that song was on the radio, and my mom specifically loved “Sir Duke” and would blast it and hum along whenever it was played. There are so many fascinating things about this song. Lyrically it’s about the power of music, and sonically, those horns make you feel like you’re in the room with them. When I listen to it today, it’s astonishing to me how truly musical it is.

• Henry Rollins

  When Songs In the Key of Life was out, I was in high school, like ninth grade, 10th grade. And because that record had so many radio-friendly songs, I felt like I went to school with that album. There might be some deep album tracks I didn’t hear at the time, but being an avid FM radio listener — which I was with my little clock radio I used to get up in the morning — I largely spent my young teenage life through graduation with Stevie Wonder, because Songs In the Key of Life just kept sitting on the Billboard charts; it just never left because it’s so good.

  There are those artists who were always with you and become part of your DNA, because the hits kept coming. That’s Stevie Wonder for me. As I got older, I heard different songs and different albums, and as a grown-up, it occurred to me that he’s as brilliant as any musician there’s ever been. Miles Davis. Duke Ellington. Stevie Wonder is there. He’s as good as it gets.

• Ishmael “Butterfly” Butler, Digable Planets/Shabazz Palaces

  That dude is just a marvel, man. Back then, that was the vibe: You had to come with this comprehensive thing. It was rare, it was going to be released on a certain day. There wasn’t a deluge of albums of this nature to listen to. It was highly anticipated. So cats were going into the creation of it with that in mind: People are going to put this on and listen to it all the way through and get lost in the crescendos and the different sequencing of the record. That’s how you’d digest the thing back in those days.

  That run of albums Stevie had leading up to Songs In the Key of Life in addition to Songs were things that I would listen to over and over and over again. It must be in my chromosomes at this point in my life, like a part of me that I can’t even see. It’s hard to comprehend how deep this music goes for me. It’s guided my life, my romance, my creativity, playing music for girlfriends, sending friends mixtapes. Stevie, man. It just doesn’t get any deeper and wider than him.

• James Atkin, EMF

  Over 20 years ago, at a party at my house, I gave a girl a copy of Songs In the Key of Life. She told me that “As” was her favorite song of all time, but she didn’t own a copy of the album.

  Fast forward 20 years, and that girl became my wife. We’ve now been married for 20 years, have two grown-up boys, and that very same copy of Songs In the Key of Life has now been passed on to one of our sons.

  From a party at my house, to our family, and now to the next generation, Songs In the Key of Life has been part of our story for over two decades. It’s a truly special album that transcends time and generations.

• Jim James, My Morning Jacket

  Stevie Wonder is like the light of the sun — without his music and energy, we would all surely perish! I covered “Love’s In Need of Love Today” with The Sachal Ensemble back in 2016, and it was one of the most joyous songs I’ve ever enjoyed singing, as its light and power radiated through me, and arguably the greatest album opener of all time.

  I remember hearing “Isn’t She Lovely” at the store with my mom as a kid, and delighting in the joy of the love of family expressed in that song. I remember hearing “As” in my 20s and feeling so inspired by its divine architecture … it is still something I look up to and aspire towards, a landmark recording that has defined and become one of the main mirrors that reflects just what is possible when someone gathers a great community around themselves and holds nothing back.

  Songs In the Key of Life has always been there and will always be there for as long as humans roam the earth. We will need its healing messages of love, community, family and social consciousness.

• Joyce Wrice

  My dad loved Songs In the Key of Life, and thankfully, I grew up around a father and mother who love soul music and had great years for timeless music that will deeply move you, and it’s very unique and distinct. So thankfully, my parents introduced me to Stevie Wonder. Especially with the world being so discouraging, I like to start my day with some positivity and encouragement — something meditative and therapeutic. And from the voice to the lyrics to the message, Songs In the Key of Life is at the top of my playlist.

• Kiefer, Fathers

  Being a keyboard player, Stevie Wonder is really special as a composer, as a songwriter, as an arranger, as a producer. He’s probably the most multi-hyphenated talented musicmaker there’s been. One of the things that he represents is a holistic, all-encompassing mastery of Black music, whether its soul, funk, jazz — his jazz harmony is respected at the highest level — and hitting on all categories: the rhythm, the harmony, the melody.

  And I think if Stevie Wonder is one of the most holistic, well-rounded artists of all time, this is his most well-rounded album. You have stuff that is more pop-sensible; you got “Contusion,” which sounds like some early Return to Forever B-side, and then you have “As,” which has Herbie [Hancock] on it. And then the topics range from political to romantic to cosmic — he’s just hitting on every possible subject as well. So it’s a super, all-encompassing album, which, as the title suggests, was the goal.

• Laila!

  One of my earliest memories in music is being in band in elementary school and learning “Sir Duke” on the trumpet. I remember loving that song so much and how joyous it was, how different the melody and harmony was and just how funky and alive it felt. That being one of my earliest memories of loving a certain song has definitely been impactful for me in that it opened my eyes to soul and funk at an early age. It’s such a classic album, Songs In the Key of Life, and I am grateful to be able to listen to something so colorful from that age.

• Lalah Hathaway

  A lot of times now, if I’m talking to someone younger than me, I’ll ask them if they have Songs in the Key of Life. And they’re like, “Oh, that came out before I was born.” That’s their reason for not exploring music, because the music that they have now traps them in this two-minute, 250-Hz (blast) through their earbuds through the phone that they have no commitment to listen to forever. That’s a whole different animal than listening to Songs In the Key of Life, which took a whole different evaluation on how people create music. And that’s why it’s so important; it’s like a book that every kid should read. It taught me so much about math and language and English and poetry and social justice. There’s so many things I wish our kids now had the time to engage in.

• Lenny Kaye, The Patti Smith Group

  When I listen to Songs In the Key of Life, I don’t feel the individual songs so much as this entire world that it creates when you enter into it. It’s a remarkable achievement, especially coming on the heels of those incredible four albums that preceded it. And of course, with Stevie going through that horrible car accident right after Innervisions, it’s almost like he found a certain sense of resurrection.

  I have to say if I only had Talking Book or Fulfillingness’ First Finale, I would have been happy. But then to have this double album emerge from this man’s consciousness, the breadth of the amount of music it contains, the sense of resurrection it seems to offer to the listener, it really is quite stunning.

• Meshell Ndegeocello

  Just the title [of the album] alone is so thought-provoking and gives a clear intention that definitely changed how I listen to music. I was always a big fan. It’s funny, I think early in my career, I was always excited about Prince, but let’s talk about why the beginning of Songs In the Key of Life is probably where Prince got the introduction for his first album, For You. Think about that a cappella beginning harmony — it just brings you into a vocal state of mind, a certain sort of mental clarity. Let’s talk about how Songs in the Key of Life opened up my mind to the music of Africa, South America and the structures that occupy European classical music — it was so different and exciting. It’s a life-changing album in terms of what you’re exposed to, emotionally and spiritually. I could go song by song, but I’ll just start there: It is the blueprint for my understanding of the concept album, more so than any other. People probably cite David Bowie, but as a person of color, I have to say that’s my first true concept record.

  Songs In the Key of Life is also one of the records that gave cohesion to my life, in the sense that it was popular R&B music, yet, you know, “Have a Talk With God” — it was still something. My mother enjoyed it as well, so it was something that brought unity to the household listening experience, especially being a person of color. And it’s my favorite Herbie Hancock experience, it has Michael Sembello, it has some of the greatest arrangements ever conceived — it shows profound orchestration craft. I could go on forever. I realized it’s on Songs in the Key of Life that you first experience TONTO, during “Village Ghetto Land.” The strings and the sounds Stevie Wonder brings to life, he becomes his own orchestra — pretty incredible. And the classical overtones — that was a first for me on an R&B album.

  Also, “Black Man” — that was like a history lesson. It was so life-affirming, again, being a person of color. Life is a life-changing experience in song. I think it’s the greatest record ever made. I’ll say it. That can be my quote: Songs in the Key of Life is the greatest record ever made. .. It’s the greatest, it is the North Star, it is Saturn. It is transcendent. It’s just an endless exchange of positivity, love, musical excellence, songwriting excellence. It’s the greatest record ever made in my lifetime.

• Richie Kotzen, Smith/Kotzen

  Songs In the Key of Life showed me that great musicianship and great songwriting don’t have to exist in separate worlds. You can have incredible players, deep harmony and sophisticated arrangements and still make music that connects immediately with people. That’s probably the biggest way Stevie’s music got into my system and stayed there.

• Rico Nasty

  I loooooove Songs In the Key of Life because there’s so much freedom in it … you can go from a song like “Sir Duke” to “Village Ghetto Land” and it’s two completely different worlds but it all still feels like Stevie, and I’ve always connected with that kind of freedom just making what feels good and not putting yourself in a box.

• Robert Glasper

  When I was younger, I appreciated it musically. But as I got older, I understood on a deeper level things that Stevie was writing about as a grown person with kids. “Love’s In Need of Love Today,” I’ve always heard that my whole life. But now that you see what is going on in the world today, you really realize that love is in need of love on so many levels. I’ve only played that song one time in my life, and it was in 2012 the day of the Sandy Hook shootings. The Sandy Hook shootings happened in the morning, and I just so happened to have a Stevie Wonder tribute that I was doing with my band that night. We ended up at soundcheck adding “Love’s In Need of Love Today” because of the shooting. And at the time, my son was 4 years old, and he was in the front row of the concert. When I looked at him when he started playing it, I couldn’t stop crying. I could barely play it.

  Also, my friend Jimmy Greene, his daughter Ana, she was killed in that. And, man, that song hit me so hard — and when you hear what Stevie is saying, mixed with what was going on that day, it totally hits you different. Especially when you’re a grown person who has gone through stuff. That song, in particular, hits so different for me since playing it that night.

• Rufus Wainwright

  Songs in the Key of Life is essentially about the eternal power of love. Boy, do we need that message now, perhaps more than ever.

• Samara Joy

  My first introduction to SITKOL was “Knocks Me Off My Feet” in middle school. My mom is the biggest Stevie fan and she shared her love of his music with me. This album means so much to so many people, and it’s a reminder for artists to, first and foremost, make music that you love and believe in. Fifty years later, that message still holds true.

• Sango

  Growing up in Michigan, Stevie Wonder has always been a staple. This album is a Black American keystone and even greater — an American musical cornerstone. It’s clear as day in the album title. Stevie stepped aside to let people know that life itself is worth living, and these are the songs to remind you of that. Black people have been through everything in the history of America, and you can only get this kind of depth from somebody who has experienced so much history. Stevie has always been hands on with every generation when it comes to music, and he has touched everybody. Having this album not be a North Star in our culture is criminal. It is one of the ultimate pillars of soul music and Black music as a whole.

• Saul Williams

  Imagine a contemporary “R&B” album without a drop of braggadocio, not an ounce of “Black Capitalism,” nothing but concern for humanity, a celebration of life that centers neither the party nor the listener as consumer — an unapologetic Blackness that makes no attempt to appeal to a “demographic” rather purely to the heart of the matter (and a heart that goes well beyond romantic love, that is steeped in a love of his people, their history and their future). It almost feels that these are the songs Stevie catches himself singing as he’s putting fresh dirt in pots and tending to sprouting seeds, like literally working in his garden.

  Songs In the Key of Life is a walk through wisdom. Like many life-changing albums, it is an actual gift to humanity. That we are so far removed, so filled with racial capitalist collusion and delusion that contemporary music itself pays the cost and drags us deeper into its commodified trap is depressing AF — what I mean is SITKOL is a touchstone that clarifies the mess we have become (as is evidenced by our taste).

• Tank, Tank and the Bangas

  He was so young when he made this album. I couldn’t imagine making this much change at that age with an album like Songs In the Key of Life. He’s influenced me a lot, especially in my singing. If anyone ever asks me who my favorite artists are, Stevie is always, always, always at the top.

  Just the way that he wrote and he would have so many subjects he would touch upon. I don’t do it purposely, but I’m not the type of writer who only sings about love. There’s a lot of singers who only sing about relationships. But we just touch on so much, just like Songs does with songs like “As,” “Village Ghetto Land,” “Sir Duke” and “Love’s In Need of Love Today.” I like that he was always writing about different things about the world around him. I like that Stevie is that type of writer. And “As,” I don’t know anybody who could write a song like that.

• Tracy Bonham

  I was 9 years old when Songs In the Key of Life came out and I convinced my mother to let me have a turntable in my bedroom so I could play this album on repeat and sing along with Stevie’s beautiful voice. It might be surprising to some, but Stevie became my first vocal coach as I absorbed his tone and timbre and rich harmonies and tried to emulate his inflections and vibrato at the end of his notes.

  I grew up in Eugene, Ore., studying European classical music, but this album took me to a different dimension where I could travel in my mind. Eugene in the 1970s was not Detroit in the 1970s and, with the sounds and images that Stevie projected, I was transported to a world where darkness and light could exist at the same time. Pain and joy could exist. He showed me the underbelly of humanity with stories of racism and bigotry while expressing his love for all humanity. This was an education that I would never have gotten from any school. Not from my family. Not from my teachers. My ability to see darkness and know that it only exists because there is an absence of light, an absence of love, is because of Stevie and this beautiful album. It has been my desert island album my entire life.

  Meeting Stevie has always been on my bucket list and, when I attended the Grammys in 1997, I had the pleasure of meeting him. I tried to describe to him the way I was feeling in his presence with tears rolling down my face. He just pulled me close, held my hand, and said, “Stop your damn crying.”

• Valerie June

  Fifty years after its release, Songs In the Key of Life still feels expansive, fearless and astonishingly alive. It is a testament to Stevie Wonder’s extraordinary genius and to his enduring belief in our shared humanity. These songs remind us that music can bridge divides, lift spirits, tell the truth and illuminate who we are, where we’ve been and what we might yet become.

  Fifty years later, the message still resonates: There is more that unites us than divides us — and love remains one of our most powerful forces for change.