Stevie Wonder led the way again, releasing “Castles In The Sand”, co-written by Frank Wilson, Hal Davis, Marc Gordon and Mary O’Brien and produced by Davis and Gordon. That was followed up in May with “Hey Harmonica Man”, in September with “Happy Street”/ “Sad Boy” and with “Pretty Little Angel” in October. Two of the four made chart entries. “Castles In The Sand” reached number six on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and number sixty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. “Hey Harmonica Man” did better, reaching number five R&B and number twenty-nine on the Hot 100. The song was co-written by Lou Josie and Marty Cooper and produced by Davis and Gordon. Wonder’s fourth album, “Stevie At The Beach”, was issued in June.

Stevie Wonder was still looking for a big hit to replicate the impact of “Fingertips” from 1963. When “Kiss Me Baby”, co-written by Wonder and Clarence Paul and produced by Paul, failed to chart, Berry Gordy was worried at the lack of progress and also concerned that Wonder’s voice was breaking. The “Little Stevie Wonder” image was no longer appropriate. Live performances were still going well, however, so it was decided to release a single in August that would capture the excitement of his live performances on record. The songs chosen were “High Heel Sneakers”, a Blues song recorded by writer Tommy Tucker in 1964, and, for the B-side, “Funny How Time Slips Away”, a slow Willie Nelson ballad. On the face of it, both seem odd choices. On later pressings in the USA and on the UK release, the B-side was changed to “Music Talk”, co-written by Paul, Wonder and Ted Hull, who was Wonder’s tutor at Motown. It is much stronger. It should have been the A-side right from the start. The single charted to only number fifty-nine on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and number thirty on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. It started to become a possibility that Wonder would be dropped.

There was time remaining for one more 1965 release and it needed to be good! Clarence Paul and Sylvia Moy, who together were responsible for looking after Stevie Wonder’s development programme, took an idea that Wonder had been working on and started to write some lyrics around the idea of a rich girl who meets a poor boy and sees his real strengths through the obvious poverty. The result was “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”. Normally, a copy of each song that Wonder recorded was produced in braille for him to use in the studio. On this occasion, however, the braille copy wasn’t done, so Moy sang each line of the song to him. He didn’t miss one beat, according to Moy, and the song entered the charts in November and kept on climbing. In early 1966, the song peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and spent five weeks at the top of the Billboard R&B Singles chart. It was also popular in the UK, reaching number fourteen on the UK Official Pop Singles chart and later earning a silver disc from the BPI.

The studio band was led by Wonder on keyboards, with James Jamerson and Benny Benjamin driving the pounding beat. The punchy horn arrangement was the work of Johnny Allen and the Andantes set off Wonder’s funky vocal line with some softer soaring backing vocals. Once again, the Motown team had come up trumps when the pressure was on.
Stevie Wonder had a much busier year in 1966, as he tried to build on the success of his 1965 hit “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”. Tamla released two studio albums during the year, from which three singles were chosen, plus a Christmas single. The first single was a double-A-side issue featuring “Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby”, co-written by Cosby, Moy and Stevenson, which reached number twenty on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and number four on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. It was backed by “With a Child’s Heart”, co-written by the same team plus Vicki Basemore, which peaked at number eight on the Billboard R&B Singles chart.
The follow-up was an interesting choice: a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind”, which went to number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and reached number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. The B-side, “Ain’t That Asking For Trouble”, was co-written by Paul, Moy and Wonder, with Stevie Wonder playing harmonica on the recording.
The third single of the year was a song written by two White songwriters Bryan Wells and Ronald Miller, who had joined Motown and produced several hits for Stevie Wonder. It was entitled “A Place In The Sun”, with “Sylvia” on the B-side, co-written by the usual team of Cosby, Moy and Wonder. It peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and went to number three on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. It also sold well in Canada and the UK.
The extra work that had been put in certainly showed signs of paying off, as Stevie Wonder built up a strong fan base and grew in confidence. The changes in his vocal delivery as he matured didn’t present the problems that had been envisaged. On the contrary, he proved adept at singing a wider range of material that increased his popularity. By the end of the year, he was poised to move into the top division at Motown. He was still only a teenager!

The first of the two studio albums was issued in May, taking its name from the 1965 single, “Up-Tight”. Included on the album are three recent Wonder singles, plus “Contract On Love” from 1962 and “Pretty Little Angel”, which he had recorded in 1964 but was never released. The producers also found room for “Music Talk”, the excellent B-side from 1965. The album peaked at number two on the Billboard Soul & R&B Albums chart and number thirty-three on the Billboard 200 Albums chart.
The contributions from various members of the Motown family are numerous! Stevie Wonder, as usual, provided lead and harmony vocals, plus harmonica, keyboards and percussion, making the sound distinctive. His mentor, Clarence Paul, sang co-lead vocal on “Blowin’ In The Wind” and Levi Stubbs did likewise on “Teach Me Tonight”, with the rest of the Four Tops singing backing vocals. The Andantes also sang backing vocals on half the tracks, with extra backing vocals provided by the Originals for “Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby” and by the Temptations for “Contract On Love”. The strings from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra can be heard on “Pretty Little Angel” and “With a Child’s Heart”. It couldn’t have been easy for Stevie Wonder to make a career in music, even with his prodigious talent, but the team around him was a very supportive one and each member facilitated Wonder’s development as a singer, songwriter, performer and musician. This certainly helps to explain Wonder’s loyalty to Motown.

The second album “Down to Earth” was issued in November. It is a mixture of Motown songs and covers of well-known hits. The covers include another Bob Dylan composition, “Mr. Tambourine Man”, Sonny Bono’s “Bang Bang” and Merle Travis’ “Sixteen Tons”. Ronald Miller provided two more songs, the hit single “A Place in the Sun”, co-written with Bryan Wells, and another co-written with Avery Vanderberg, the ballad “Down to Earth”. Sylvia Moy and Hank Cosby worked with Wonder on three of the songs, which are the strongest on the album, as they show most clearly the musical direction that Wonder was taking. However, the album only peaked at number ninety-two on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and number eight on the Billboard Soul & R&B Albums chart. Stevie Wonder was still exploring and learning, but he was getting closer to his iconic contribution to R&B music.
Stevie Wonder had another busy year in 1967. Tamla released two albums and three singles, which all made chart entries. The first single, “Travlin’ Man”, written by Bryan Wells and Ron Miller, was first issued at the end of December 1966 with later copies dated 1967. It is a ballad with a straightforward arrangement, not an obvious hit for Wonder, but it reached number thirty-two on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and number thirty-one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. The B-side is “Hey Love”, written by Wonder, Paul and Broadnax, which was taken from the 1966 album “Down To Earth”. It is more typical of a Stevie song.

Stevie Wonder 1967
Photo: Jack de Nijs: Dutch National Archive (Wikimedia Commons)
The follow-up was issued by Tamla in May. “I Was Made To Love Her” was co-written by Wonder, Hank Cosby, Sylvia Moy and Lula Mae Hardaway, Stevie Wonder’s mother, and produced by Cosby. The pulsating beat came courtesy of James Jamerson (bass), Benny Benjamin (drums) and Eddie Willis (guitar), with the Andantes providing backing vocals. Wonder played harmonica on the recording. It has become one of Wonder’s best-known songs, taking him to number two on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart, where it spent four non-consecutive weeks. It was also Wonder’s first top ten hit in the UK, reaching number five on the UK Official Pop Singles chart. The B-side “Hold Me” was taken from the “Up-Tight” album.

The hit song duly gave its name to the studio album that Tamla put out in August, which reached number forty-five on the Billboard 200 Albums chart and number seven on the Billboard R&B Albums chart. The album features some interesting covers, including Otis Redding’s “Respect”, James Brown’s “Please, Please, Please” from 1956 and Ray Charles’ “A Fool For You”, which was a number one R&B hit in 1955. Clarence Paul and Hank Cosby shared production duties.
The third single of the year, “I’m Wondering”, was released in September. It peaked at number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and number four on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. In the UK it reached number twenty-two on the UK Official Pop Singles chart.
The second album release came in November, with “Someday At Christmas”. Ron Miller provided half the songs (some in partnership with Bryan Wells or other songwriters), while some are more traditional. The most surprising inclusion is Stevie Wonder’s version of Schubert’s arrangement of “Ave Maria”. It is an extraordinary choice for a teenage R&B singer but he nailed it.
In this phase of his career Stevie Wonder is still clearly experimenting, trying out different styles and paying his dues with tributes to some of his favourite singers. He has achieved some excellent successes but has also made a number of songs that had only limited impact. His genius was obvious. It was only a matter of time before he would reach his peak.