For you, there might be another song

Stevie Wonder - 'Another Star' (Songs In The Key of Life - 1976)

You wait over fifty entries for a Stevie Wonder album, and then you get two in quick succession!

In 1975 Stevie Wonder was considering quitting the music industry and emigrating to Ghana to work with disabled children - in the most excellent way possible - I am glad he didn’t. Instead, despite some other labels sniffing around, he re-signed with Tamala Motown on a massive seven-album deal, and the first of those albums was Songs In The Key of Life, the culmination of his golden run that spanned most of the seventies. People can argue if this album is his magnum opus or not, but very few would say that he ever came close to topping this double LP¹ afterwards².

The album went on to have two number one singles, ‘I Wish’ and ‘Sir Duke’, spent thirteen weeks at the top of the charts in the USA and was the best selling album of 1977 (it was released in Sept ‘76). It also won The Grammy for best album, Wonder’s third in four years and the third successive album to garner the award. The previous year, Paul Simon thanked Wonder for not releasing an album in 1975 from the winner’s podium, which meant the field was clear for other artists! In Rolling Stone’s most recent Top 500 albums of all time, it came in at #4, beating every album by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. This is likely to push it up the Acclaimed Music rankings when they are updated to higher than the #45 slot it resides now.

It’s an album that artists like Elton John, George Michael, Kanye West, Mary J Blige, Mariah Carey, Prince, Micheal Jackson and Whitney Houston have spoken very highly of. I think the reason those acts regard it so well is first, you can see the influence it had on Prince and Jackson as they went on to dominate pop in the following decade and secondly, it takes a lifetime of musical styles and a lifetime of love, loss and feelings from Wonder.

It has tributes to jazz musicians, songs about Wonder’s faith, songs with a scope as large as planets and, like on Innervisions, continues to speak of social justice for the marginalised in society. But the last two songs touch on more familiar territory for popular music in love. ‘As’ is a beautiful song about devotion and adoration, whether between partners or humanity as a whole. It does give more weight to ‘Another Star’ as a break-up song with the juxtaposition. Especially when you think of this line in ‘As’.

“Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky
Until the ocean covers every mountain high
Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea
Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream
Always”

The comparison makes the closer more bittersweet and even more heartbroken. It is an explicit lyric, but the kitchen sink is thrown at the production, with all hands to the pump to sustain the Afro-Cuban rhythms of the song and the extended coda is quite a distraction from the subject matter. There is guitar playing and scatting towards the end from George Benson and nine other guests on various instruments.³

The song featured as the theme tune to the BBC's TV coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil; the first time Wonder had approved such usage. It is also, following the corporation’s selections for 1990, 1994 and 1998, a brilliant choice that captures the spirit of the country and the tournament.

I think most listeners would not come to this Latin infused disco song with its irresistible dance-ability and peg it as a heartbreak song. It is far too joyous and laden with hooks to mask the meaning on a surface listen. Despite the “la la la” chorus, there is in the lyrics a straightforward story about someone who has gone through a break-up. They had found their true love, their '“star”, but were then heartbroken, and while our heart-breaker could get over our protagonist and find “another star”, our singer is not so sure that they could be happy with another. The knock-on of this is they can no longer appreciate the love they once had together.

We don’t, of course, get closure on whether they will find another star themselves. Instead, the Latin rhythms keep us moving as Bobbi Humphrey sees us out with the flute along with Benson.

Next week: James Brown and Massive Attack

1. It was a Double LP and an EP, like a joey in Kangaroo’s pouch with some extra music.

2. I like Hotter Than July, but it’s not better than this.

3. Benson is one of around 130 guest musicians/engineers/producers on the record.