![]() ![]() Stevie Wonder was unable to control the springs of his creativity during that decade. If its titular concern - life - doesn't exactly allow for rigid focus, it's still a fiercely inspired collection of songs and one of the definitive soul records of the 1970s. He paid tribute to Duke Ellington (and Count Basie, Glen Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald) on the chart-topping “Sir Duke,” spiking his funk with insistent (and insistently memorable) horns and punctuating his verses with a high-flying chorus. Like all double albums, Songs in the Key of Life is imperfect but audacious. Wonder packed the album with so many highlights, it’s hard to choose which to call out. READ MORE: If It's Magic: Five Beautiful Stevie Wonder Ballads Spread across two LPs and a 7” "A Something's Extra" EP, Songs in the Key of Life was a sprawling collection on which Wonder expressed himself across multiple genres – there were moments of pop, R&B, gospel, funk, world and electronic music, each one a brilliant distillation of Wonder’s muse in the language of that style. 28 of that year, the record was the culmination of Wonder’s early ‘70s output and an outpouring of his prodigious creative power, and is named by many as perhaps the greatest album of the decade, if not one of the greatest of all time. What cannot be denied is on what album the genre truly peaked – Wonder’s 1976 magnum opus Songs in the Key of Life. You certainly can feel it all over.One can argue which album or albums marked the true beginning of 1970s progressive soul was it Sly & The Family Stone's Stand!? Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? War's The World is a Ghetto? Stevie Wonder's Talking Book? He paid tribute to Duke Ellington (and Count Basie, Glen Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald) on the chart-topping “Sir Duke,” spiking his funk with insistent (and insistently memorable) horns and punctuating his verses with a high-flying chorus. ![]() 'Songs in the Key of Life' was one of the most wildly anticipated album of the 70s and went on to win five Grammy awards. One can argue which album or albums marked the true beginning of 1970s progressive soul was it Sly & The Family Stone's Stand!? Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? War's The World is a Ghetto? Stevie Wonder's Talking Book? Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life. ![]()
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