With all the Stevie fans here, I was just curious as to when you actually became a fan. For me, I was very young. The first song I ever heard of Stevie's was "Uptight"--although I heard it about two years after it was released. I was at the ripe old age of about five years old. My best friend's aunt was a teen who would blast Motown 45 records all day long in her basement and when I heard "Uptight", I thought it was just the most infectious, danceable song ever. After that, it just seemed like I really liked everything that man put out. Same reaction I had with Prince. . .just really dug him from "Soft and Wet" on.

I've always enjoyed him. But it was this summer when I saw him perform a 3 hour show in his hometown that I knew I'd be a lifelong collector and admirer.

I got into Stevie when I receieved the Original Musiquarium I album on Christmas Day. I didn't know Stevie that well, but at that time, "That Girl" and "Ribbon In The Sky" was blazing up the R&B charts and radio stations played those two joints all the time. I put this entire album on a turntable and that was the day I was in musical bliss. As a child, I didn't even know this was a compilation, I thought it was a new "album". Silly me!
[Edited 2/24/08 18:18pm]

GangstaFam said:

same. he killed it.

I loved his 70's period...before he let his political views take over his music. I mean his views were always the a driving force in his music, but after songs in the key of life it just got too overbearing. I first got into him with Songs In The Key Of Life. IMO, this is an album that should be taught in every music class. Along with Sign O' The Times, of course.

I liked him in the 80s but didn't really understand what the big deal was, so I went and bought myself a 70s album to see if that was the real schitt, starting with this one:



I had an out of body experience during the segway from "Superwoman" into "Where Were You When I Needed You"

It's mostly a function of my age, but I became a fan when "I Just Called to Say I Love You" was released. That song was everywhere! I still enjoy it more than most Stevie fans.

Through Michael Jackson tbh. I heard him say in many interviews how Stevie Wonder is probably his biggest interviews and he learnt a lot about music by sitting in the Motown studios and watching Stevie work. Now, musically, I probably like Stevie more than Michael.

so what the fuss made me check out his 70s output and ive bought a time to love

I was born February 26, 1970 (*hint* *hint* *hint*) in Detroit, MI. Being a Stevie Wonder fan was a birthright! However, it wasn't until the Hotter Than July album in 1980 that I understood why!

I'm only 24, so my earliest recollection of Stevie was "I Just Called to Say I Loved You".

It wasn't until I was 17 or 18 when I bought "Innervisions" that I GOT IT!!!

From the opening bassline to "Too High", I was hooked!!!

No clue when, I just grew up with him because my dad likes/knows alot of black music.

It had to be 1988 or soemthing...
I looked at some old Motown record and said to my mom, "Why is this song called Fingertips Pt. 2?"

So she told me to put it on the record player if I wanted to hear it...










I was never the same again....

I became a fan in the early 70s.I remember hearing "Living For The City" alot in 1973.I was very young and that song really spooked me out It sounded really haunting and scary,but I liked it.

I was really young to- it was the song "Sir Duke" that I first remember hearing.

Cinnie said:

I had always dug Stevie's singles, but this is the landmark where a sizable difference in his style was full-blown. TALKING BOOK was already on the racks, but stores did good business stocking this and WHERE I"M COMING FROM.

I was probably about 6 or 7 years old and my aunt would always play
music when she came to town. She would have some albums and 45's.
She would always play the stevie wonder 45 superstition and that was the
start. Then when he came out with boogie rae woman i actually knew yeah
this is stevie. When he released songs in the key of life, my mom bought
the album and i became totally hooked on stevie.

SexyBeautifulOne said:

. . and an EARLY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you, my Detroit sista. Not only was being a Stevie fan a birthright--I happened to grow up on W. Boston, two blocks down from the Gordy mansion (I still live in the same house).

I blame my mum.

When I was very very young I thought that the song with the baby crying at the start was me and I can clearly remember an album cover that looked like the rings in a tree.

Stevie was played over and over, we didn't have a tv in those days

NuPwr319 said:

Thank you!

AlexdeParis said:

Man, u must b my long lost twin? That's when I started to really like Stevie. I recorded a copy of the Woman In Red soundtrack on cassette from a friend and became hooked. It wasn't until I was in college that I really became a HUGE fan. I started collecting his cds and really began to appreciate Innervisions and Songs In The Key differently.

I remember being a child and being afraid to see him on television while promoting his 70s projects. I think it was because he was blind and I had never been exposed to a blind person.

My father then bought me the Stevie Wonder Anthology on 8-track.

It was a good collection, but Stevie hadn't reached a creative peak at the time and I didn't listen to it much. By the time I was in my early teens, I then ordered a copy of SITKOL from Columbia House and became a bigger fan.
[Edited 2/25/08 10:43am]

I got into stevie with "Hotter Than July" when it first came out, and then I worked my way backward.

Same here.

NuPwr319 said:

Same sentiment here regarding Uptight.

I heard the single Fingertips...



...from The 12 Year Old Genius album first.

Both songs have the vibe of making you want to jump out of your skin when you hear them.

Having grown up with them, those 60s singles (I Was Made To Love Her, I'm Wondering, Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day, You Met Your Match, etc.) still remain some of my favorites from his catalog.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

...



1972, I was about 6, and my dad brought Music Of My Mind home-- That was it!!! I was hooked!!! Obviously, his earlier stuff was on the radio at the time, Uptight, Fingertips, Hey Love, My Cherie Amour, If You Really Love Me, etc...but at that age, I didn't really have a name and face to go along with the songs yet. "Music...." blew my little mind wide open, lol!!





...

I grew up with Stevie. My folks used to play his music all the time, going back to "Fingertips".

I discovered Stevie around the same time I got into MJ.

My mom has always been a Stevie fan and had all of the albums from Music of My Mind" to "Hotter Than July" on vinyl and then we had In Square Circle and others on cassette

His music along with Michael's and Marvin's music was always there

Finally, I get this off my chest: I grew up with Stevie - hell, our music teacher in grade school had us singing along with Sir Duke...

But I never bought a Stevie album until I heard the song 'Fun Day' from the Jungle Fever soundtrack used in a camera commercial.

I've rounded out the collection thanks to the reissues.

Riding in the car with my dad, when I was little. He always had music playing (still does).

And, I was exposed to so much music in the mid-to-late 1970s just by riding in the car with him...

Stevie was but one of the artists ("You Are the Sunshine of my Life," for example).

Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
Billy Joel
Elton John
James Brown
the Four Tops
Marvin Gaye
Chuck Mangione

My goodness. I feel sorry for kids nowadays. I know I sound like a geezer, but it's the truth. That was a rich musical time, the Seventies.

So, he was a family constant. Anyway, one day, Dad brought home "Hotter than July," and I spun that thing for years, grooving to it. Probably right up until I bought "1999."

I rediscovered Stevie around my senior year in high school, when I heard "Boogie on, Reggae Woman" for the first time. I was drivin' my mom's car, heard that click on and was like, "I gotta tell Dad about this one!" I mentioned it to him later that day, "Dad, Stevie Wonder is so bad..."

He was like, "You knew that already..."

A musical came to my high school around the same time and performed one evening. The play was set to "Innervisions."

It was my first time hearing that album. I was too through. Hadn't known the depth of his genius. Had heard some of the songs, but hearing the cohesive album and seeing choreography inspired by it just blew. me. away.

In college, began buying his catalog in earnest.

.
[Edited 2/25/08 20:17pm]

the same way i got into prince, a spike lee movie. jungle fever, the whole sequence where wesley snipes is looking for his crackhead brother (sam jackson) and living for the city is in the background. that song. bought his greatest hits after that and have some other assorted stuff of his. not a huge fan, but i like him . had to have been in the early 2000s or so, i don't remember.
[Edited 2/26/08 1:22am]