Stevie Wonder was long overdue a second #1 hit. His first had been 10 years earlier at age 13, and he had been blocked twice at #2 since. Even outside of that iconic songs like 'My Cherie Amour' and 'Signed Sealed Delivered' missed the #1 spot. Stevie Wonder 'arrived' in '73 and for the next couple of years become the first R&B artist to score such mammoth success on both the singles and albums charts. Stevie Wonder's peak in the 70's is arguably what paved the way for the mega success of artists like Prince and Michael Jackson later on.
It must've been mind-blowing enough for those who'd watched happy-go-lucky Little Stevie Wonder grow up to see him on the cover of Talking Book in cornrows and afghan. Then they put the record on and whoa! I'm sure the music wasn't a total surprise to those who'd heard his previous few albums - you can definitely hear where he's heading. But wow! The guy was just 22 years old and just getting started on a five-year streak of some of the greatest music in pop history.
Looking at the original chart reprint, I notice that "Your Mama Don't Dance" is credited to Ken Loggins and Jim Messina. Sure enough, that's what the label says: Interestingly, my search brought up labels of the same single where he's billed as Kenny. There must be a story there.
Billboard often showed chart entries based on their original release label copy, such as here. (In 1973, Billboard's registry of several Capitol and sublabel releases even passed off PRO- cat. #'s as the stock cat. #.)
Every element of "Superstition" is amazing, but focus on those squawking horns chiding along with Stevie - "yeah man, superstition ain't the way!". He really did establish a signature horn sound over the course of things. It's one of a kind, no matter how many tried to bite it. On the Original Musiquarium I compilation there's a brilliant segue from "Superstition" into "You Haven't Done Nothin'", another chiding song with a lot of the same DNA ... but we'll get to that one down the road.
I would put that at ten years. Can't forget his hits from 1979 and 1980. He didn't do quite as well in 1981, but came back strong in 1982. We'll get to all of those as time rolls on. There is a story. Kenny Loggins was signed to Columbia as a solo artist. He was always supposed to be a solo pop artist. What they did after they signed him was assign him Jim Messina as the staff producer. It turned out that the duo sounded so good together that they became Loggins and Messina. But, the partnership didn't last too long. Creative differences destroyed the pairing. Jim Messina always leaned toward country music, and that's not where Loggins wanted to be.
And, there was nothing Berry Gordy could do about it! It was all in Stevie's renegotiated contract. At some point, there was allegedly an added clause inserted into that contract that if Berry Gordy ever sold the label, he would leave. Stevie wanted to be on a Black-owned label. Believe it or not, I was unaware of this song until my sister bought this 45 in early 1973 right after New Years Day. But, I played the hell out of it. To me, it was his new sound, and everyone I knew, and I mean everyone loved this song! It was an instant classic.
"Superstition" is one those recordings where the songwriting, groove, and instrumentation help to create something magical that still sounds vibrant 45 years later.
Yes -- in a singles / Top 40 sense. Which -- as you say --- is the theme of this thread. If you put LPs in the mix (especially those -- from any time -- that have been purchased in the last 35 years), I'd imagine Joni was substantially more successful than Carly. It's that way in my collection. But that's outside the scope of the thread.
Interesting how there were two songs (Temptations and Dr. Hook), rather close together in time, with some variant of "Rollin' Stone/Rolling Stone" in the title (and said phase referring to two completely different things). I only remember hearing the Dr. Hook one at that time. I never heard the Temptations song until the oft-mentioned "History of Rock and Roll" radio shows. I can see that the Temptations one was a little too edgy for the stations I was hearing then (in 1972-73).
It's interesting how picking the most dominant artist for each decade is pretty easy for the fifties (Elvis), the sixties (Beatles), and the eighties (Michael). But it's not quite so clear cut for the seventies. You can make an argument for Stevie Wonder, Elton John, and perhaps Led Zeppelin. Maybe a couple of others. But there was no clearly defined "center" to the popular music of the decade. "Superstition" and Talking Book are Exhibit A in Stevie Wonder's case. The single is one of the finest works of his rich career -- pulsating, biting, lyrically relevant, and at the same time catchy and accessible. The instrumentation is groundbreaking (has a clavinet ever been featured so prominently in a pop song?) Stevie's vocals are his most assertive to date. It's just a perfect record at every level, and it's the point where his dominance of the pop music scene began in earnest. Good thing he held his ground in his Motown contract renegotiaiton. Everyone's victory.
Yes. Billy Preston had a hit earlier that same year with "Outa Space," and Stevie himself started using one around 1968 with "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day." That definitely sounds like a clavinet on Sam & Dave's "I Thank You" (also from '68).
Radio was playing this in Australia but they were shamed into playing a local version by The Bootleg Family Band Elvis must have also liked the song, he did it in a medley on his live Memphis album.
Superstition. I'm always disappointed by the dull thump of the drums but exhilarated by the rest of the song. The synth is like Baba O'Reilly, it seems like a loop but it actually changed a lot during the song.
Yeah, I'm not sure exactly why, but 70s pop drums were almost always totally dead sounding. They must have wanted them that way cause you really have to make an effort to make them this lifeless.
You really notice the dead sounding drums on Superstition when it's on Motown compilations. Compare the drum sound to something like Get Ready or Going to a Go Go. The cardboard box Eddie Cochran used on Summertime Blues had more life in it.
I always liked that "Superstition" was so lyrically unique. Even today I can't really think of another song that uses this as its subject. It mixes really straightforward ideas like "when you believe in things that you don't understand you suffer" with impressionistic lines like: Thirteen nth old baby, broke the lookin' glass Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past The clavinet riff and overall groove are so strong, I don't really even need to comment on them. It's a given. I have no excuse for this, but until I looked up the lyrics today, I thought that the lyric "very superstitious" was actually "There is superstition."
Has there ever been a lyric more profound than "when you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer"? Also, is it too early in the year to pick the best #1 of 1973?
73 was quite the stellar year for Stevie. Seems everything he touched turned to gold for the next several years, his only real flop around this time was this little ditty he wrote and produced for The Supremes.
That's Brian Cadd. He'd been having hits here since the 60s. People were well used to his voice by 1973. He even wrote a Jesus rocker.
Big part of how that record sounds is the use of Trident studios. I think our host calls it a “steely” sound and I’d agree. The Sonics of that studio suit this track perfectly.
Speaking of "steely" - it was around this time that we were hearing the first chart hit of a group called Steely Dan, with this edit of a number: Their biggest hit will come in a bit . . .
I remember when this record came out...I bought it immediately, with it being so cool and all that! Never seen a U.K. copy of the single before. Also bought the follow up "Show Biz Kids".
