Released exactly 50 years ago, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life is often regarded as his crowning glory, and the last in his astonishing run of five great albums that began with 1972’s Music of my Mind.
Songs’ was originally released as a double album that also came with a bonus EP, called A Something’s Extra, but half a century later, Wonder has sprung a surprise by releasing another EP – again called Songs in the Key of Life – that features a further four unreleased songs that didn’t make the original release.
“We’ve lived with Songs in the Key of Life for 50 years, but there’s still more to hear,” says Wonder. “We didn’t add these songs to the album, but they were part of what I was feeling and discovering as we made it. They bring me back to that time in my life, and now they get to become part of yours.”
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The EP was personally curated by Wonder, and mixed for release by John Fischbach and Gary O Adante, Songs in the Key of Life’s original recording and mixing engineers. Adante was credited on the original LP as Gary Olazabal.
The four songs – It’s Easier, My Life Story of Love, I Can See the Sun In Late December and I’m Into Livin’ – sound typical of Wonder in his golden period, and will delight fans who may have thought that there was nothing more to hear from that time. The star wrote and produced on all the tracks, with former Supreme and Motown artist Susaye Greene co-writing the lyrics for My Life Story of Love.
Musicians to feature include Greg Phillinganes, Michael Sembello and Wonder’s longtime bassist Nathan Watts, while the funky I’m Into Livin’ has backing vocals by Shirley Brewer, Thelma Houston and Deniece Williams.
