“I Wish” by Stevie Wonder

"I Wish" kicked off Songs in the Key of Life, going out in late 1976 as the first single from Stevie Wonder's eighteenth album, and it plays like a block party. The music came to him on a summer Saturday in '76, the day of a Motown picnic: toothache and all, he had such a good time that he went straight on to Crystal Recording Studio, and the picnic's fun became the groove. The words came harder: he'd meant to take on bigger subjects but settled on his own childhood and teenage years and the wish to go back.

He wrote, arranged and produced it and plays Rhodes, synthesizer and drums (with Raymond Pounds), backed by Nathan Watts on bass and four horn players. It topped the Hot 100 and the soul chart and won him a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male.

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