Song · Stevie Wonder
“Living For the City” by Stevie Wonder
From the album Innervisions (1973)
“Living For the City” by Stevie Wonder appears on 9 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 2001 and 2023. It was first released in 1973 on the album Innervisions. Its best result is #190 on The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places. In the combined RockLists rankings it is #881 indie & aaa song of all time and #247 of the '70s.
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Stevie Wonder wrote, arranged and produced "Living for the City" for Innervisions in 1973, with Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff as associate producers, and it plays like a short novel with a groove. Its hero is a bright kid raised in Mississippi by parents who work themselves ragged for next to nothing, and who still can't outrun poverty and prejudice.
Then the music drops away. In the middle, Wonder stages a little radio play of street noise and voices: the young man steps off a bus in New York City, gets handed a package by a dealer, and the cops show up just as he's crossing the street with it. The single reached number 8 on the Hot 100 and topped the R&B chart. Rolling Stone later placed it at number 104 on its 2004 list of the greatest songs ever.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 237 | WFPK | WFPK 2001 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2000 |
| 2004 | 450 | WXPN | WXPN 885 All-Time Greatest Songs (2004) | 885 |
| 2012 | 755 | WXPN | WXPN 885 Greatest Rock Songs (2012) | 885 |
| 2018 | 826 | The Current | The Current's 893 Essential Songs | 892 |
| 2020 | 268 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2022 | 248 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '70s | 908 |
| 2022 | 354 | KEXP | KEXP Top Songs of the Last 50 Years (1972-2022) | 491 |
| 2023 | 363 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of All Time | 909 |
| 2023 | 190 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 800 Songs About Places | 800 |
Also listed as: Living for the City; Living For The City.
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