Hey, kids, we're back and this time here's a few little known facts about
"Higher Ground" by Stevie Wonder.
The lyrics deal with getting a second chance ("So darn glad he let me try it again") and making the most of it. Strangely, Wonder recorded it 3 months before he was almost killed on his way to a concert in a car accident. The accident put Wonder in a coma, and his road manager Ira Tucker Jr sang this to him in the hospital. When Wonder began moving his fingers in time with the song, it was clear he was going to recover. After leaving Motown Records, Wonder took control of his recordings and did most of the work on his songs. He did all the vocals on this and played all the instruments and had it tracked in three hours at Electricladyland studio. Engineers Malcom and Robert Margouleff did the synthesizer programming and helped put the song together. Wonder was a huge influence on The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who remade this with a more uptempo beat on their Mother's Milk album. They even thank him in the lyrics by adding the phrase "You know what Stevie says." Their version helped introduce many listeners to Wonder.
"Higher Ground" got as high as number 4 on the Billborad charts for the week of October 13, 1973. The number one song that week was "Half Breed" by Cher.
2 comments:
When I was in radio (and with our format) I always thought that Stevie Wonder's music was overlooked as well as some music published by Bread, The Commodores, Earth Wind and Fire and others who could, on occasion, really rock.
I really liked Bread. SHADDUP!
Commodores and EWF both have many songs on my Ipod.
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