“Higher Ground” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers put their own spin on Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" for Mother's Milk, their 1989 album, and turned a soul classic into a full-body workout. Wonder wrote the song and first cut it on his 1973 album Innervisions; the Chili Peppers kept his tune and his words and cranked up everything else.

The lineup is Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante on guitar and Chad Smith on drums, and they play it like a dare. Flea's bass is the star, a slapping, popping riff that grabs the song by the collar from the first second, while Frusciante slashes funky chords over it and Smith hits like a boxer. Anthony Kiedis barks and bounces through the lead vocal, and a crowd of backing singers throws in a gospel-sized chorus.

Michael Beinhorn produced it, with Garth Richardson engineering and Dave Jerden and Richardson on the mix, and the result is punchy, tight and loud: funk-rock with the brakes cut, respectful of the original and not remotely polite about it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.