“For Once In My Life” by Stevie Wonder

Ron Miller and Orlando Murden wrote "For Once in My Life" as a slow ballad for Motown's Stein & Van Stock publishing company, and by the time Stevie Wonder got to it the song had been around since 1965. He flipped it: his version, recorded in 1967 with Henry Cosby producing, speeds it into an uptempo rush of pure elation, and it became the title track of his 1968 album For Once in My Life.

Issued on Motown's Tamla label, it went top three in both the US and the UK across late 1968 and early 1969, and it remains the version everybody knows.

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