Smorgasbord Music Column – William Price King Meets Music Legends – #Jazz #Soul #Stevie Wonder – 1980s

It is nine years since William Price King joined Smorgasbord to share music across the genres. We continue in 2023 with series sharing the lives and music of some of the great names in music over the last century

Welcome to the new series of musical legends and now we explore the life and music of the incredible Stevie Wonder, whose songs have played a massive role in our lives for the last fifty years..

Music Legends Stevie Wonder – 1980s

We are now in the 80s and not only will we share some of his outstanding music over the next couple of decades.

Hotter Than July (1980) became Wonder’s first platinum-selling single album. The album included “I Ain’t Gonna Stand for It,” and the sentimental ballad, “Lately”. Wonder wrote “Master Blaster Jammin’” as an ode to reggae icon Bob Marley. The song has a reggae feel and was number one on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart for seven weeks, reaching #5 on Billboard’s Pop Singles Chart and #2 on the UK Singles Chart.

Stevie Wonder, a social activist, campaigned to have the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrated as a holiday in the US. The song, “Happy Birthday,” from the album was written for the cause. The song was a big hit in the US and peaked at #2 in the UK. Wonder performed this song in a medley at the Diamond Jubilee Concert in London for the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

“Ebony and Ivory,” a duet by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, was a #1 hit in the US and the UK in 1982. This song is about the ebony (black) and ivory (white) keys on a piano with overtones dealing with integration and racial harmony on a human level. In 2013, Billboard Magazine ranked this song as the 69th biggest hit of all time on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

That same year Wonder also released his greatest hits compilation Original Musiquarium I, which featured the No. 1 R&B/top 5 pop single “That Girl,” as well as additional hits “Ribbon in the Sky” and “Do I Do,” featuring jazz great, Dizzy Gillespie.

“I Just Called to Say I Love You,” written by Stevie Wonder, is from the 1984 Gene Wilder film The Woman in Red. This song won both a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar for Best Original Song and was a number one hit in both the US and the UK.arXter 

Like so much of Wonder’s work, the song appealed to a wide audience, paving the way for it to become Motown’s biggest international hit of all time. The single also won Wonder an Academy Award for Best Song. Wonder accepted the award in the name of Nelson Mandela and was subsequently banned from all South African radio by the Government of South Africa.

In the latter half of the 1980s Stevie Wonder released two more albums. Square Circle, in 1985, which featured the historic track “Part-Time Lover,” the first song to ever reach No. 1 on the pop, R&B, adult contemporary and dance charts. This was followed in 1987 by the album Characters featuring two No. 1 R&B hits—”Skeletons” and “You Will Know.”

Stevie Wonder was also a part of the iconic “We Are The World,” the African Famine Relief video/recording, and the AID’s inspired “That’s What Friends Are For.” And to round the decade off, he collaborated with Michael Jackson with “Get It” and with Julio Iglesias “My Love”. As a final honour of the 1980s he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.

To finish off the post today “Part Time Lover” and we look forward to seeing you again next week with the next part of the Stevie Wonder story.

Buy the music of Stevie Wonder: Amazon

Additional sources: Wikipedia

William Price King is an American jazz singer, crooner, and composer.

His interest in music began at an early age when he studied piano and clarinet in high school. At Morehouse College in Atlanta where he grew up, he sang in the Glee Club and studied classical music. After graduation he went off to the Yale School of Music where he earned a Masters degree. From there he journeyed to New York where he created a jazz trio ‘Au Naturel’ which performed in some of the hottest venues in Manhattan including gigs on Broadway and the famous ‘Rainbow Room.’ These gigs opened doors for performances in Montreal and a European tour.

While touring Europe he met a lovely French lady, Jeanne Maïstre, who, a year later became his wife. King left the group ‘Au Naturel’ and settled in the south of France where he started a new life on the French Riviera, opening his own music school – the “Price King Ecole Internationale de Chant.” He has had the pleasure over the years of seeing many of his students excel as singers on a professional level, and some going on to become national celebrities. He continues to coach young singers today, in his spare time.

Blog– IMPROVISATION – William Price King on Tumblr – Buy William’s music: William Price King iTunes – Facebook – William Price King – Twitter – @wpkofficial
Regular Venue – Cave Wilson

 

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