| "Fingertips" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Little Stevie Wonder | ||||
| from the album The 12 Year Old Genius | ||||
| A-side | "Fingertips – Part 1" | |||
| B-side | "Fingertips – Part 2" | |||
| Released | May 21, 1963 | |||
| Recorded | June 1962 | |||
| Venue | Regal Theater, Chicago | |||
| Genre | R&B, soul | |||
| Length |
| |||
| Label | Tamla T 54080 | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Clarence Paul, Henry Cosby | |||
| Producer(s) | Berry Gordy, Jr. | |||
| Stevie Wonder singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Fingertips" is a 1963 hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's then Tamla label. [1]
Written and composed by Wonder's mentors, Clarence Paul and Henry Cosby, "Fingertips" was originally a jazz instrumental recorded for Wonder's first studio album, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie. The live version of the song was recorded in 1963 during a Motortown Revue performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois. [2] Containing only a few stanzas of improvised lyrics, "Fingertips" is essentially an instrumental piece, meant to showcase Wonder's talents on the bongos and the harmonica.
The edit point that begins "Part 2" of "Fingertips" is when Wonder shouts "Everybody say 'yeah!'", initiating a call-and-response exchange with the audience. After a couple of sung verses, each followed by Wonder's brief harmonica playing (solos accompanied only by the audience's rhythmic clapping), [1] Wonder appears to bring things to a conclusion. On the night of the recording, Wonder, as usual started to leave the stage and the band went into the exit music, as musician and emcee Bill Murray (known professionally as Winehead Willie) [3] exhorted the crowd to "give him a hand"; however, Stevie unexpectedly changed his mind, returning to sing the "goodbye" encore. The other musicians were caught out, and the bass players had changed over to prepare for the next act on the bill, Mary Wells. [4] As Wonder moves into his impromptu encore, the new bass player, Joe Swift, having replaced Larry Moses, can be heard on the recording, yelling out: "What key? What key?" [1] [5]
The live version of "Fingertips" was released on May 21, 1963 as a two-part single, with Part 2 (with the encore) as the B-side. The 707 mono features "Sunset" and "Contract on Love". By August, the single B-side had reached the top of both the Billboard Pop Singles and R&B Singles charts. [6] "Fingertips" was Motown's second number-one pop hit (following The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman"), and launched the then 13-year-old Wonder to prominence. The single's success helped Wonder's live album, Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius , reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, making him the youngest artist to accomplish that feat.[ citation needed ] Because of Part 2's success, it would later feature on various compilation albums just as the full recording. In Canada the song reached number 6. [7]
Both the studio and live versions of the song featured drumming by Marvin Gaye, who had been playing drums for Wonder and other Motown artists and would become a big Motown star in his own right. [8]
The song is used in trailers for Jordan Peele’s movie Nope . [9] as well as in More American Graffiti.
Stevland Hardaway Morris, known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. One of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the 20th century, he is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include R&B, pop, soul, gospel, funk, and jazz. A virtual one-man band, Wonder's use of synthesizers and other electronic musical instruments during the 1970s reshaped the conventions of contemporary R&B. He also helped drive such genres into the album era, crafting his LPs as cohesive and consistent, in addition to socially conscious statements with complex compositions. Blind since shortly after his birth, Wonder was a child prodigy who signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11, where he was given the professional name Little Stevie Wonder.
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
Let's Get It On is the thirteenth studio album by the American soul singer, songwriter, and producer Marvin Gaye. It was released on August 28, 1973, by the Motown subsidiary label Tamla Records on LP.
The Andantes were an American female session group for the Motown record label during the 1960s. Composed of Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps, the group sang background vocals on numerous Motown recordings, including songs by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Jimmy Ruffin, Edwin Starr, the Supremes, the Marvelettes, Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers, among others. It is estimated they appeared on 20,000 recordings.
"Ain't That Peculiar" is a 1965 song recorded by American soul musician Marvin Gaye for the Tamla (Motown) label.
"Hitch Hike" is a 1962 song by Marvin Gaye, released on the Tamla label. Another song Gaye co-wrote.
"Can I Get a Witness" is a song composed by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland and produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier as a non-album single for American recording vocalist Marvin Gaye, who issued the record on Motown's Tamla imprint in September 1963.
"Distant Lover" is the sixth song issued on singer Marvin Gaye's 1973 album, Let's Get It On and the B-side of the second single from that album, "Come Get to This". A live recording was issued as a single in 1974. The live version of the song was Gaye's most successful single during the three-year gap between Let's Get It On and his following 1976 album, I Want You.
"Uptight (Everything's Alright)" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder for the Tamla (Motown) label. One of his most popular early singles, "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" was the first hit single that Wonder himself co-wrote.
Frederick Earl "Shorty" Long was an American soul singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer for Motown's Soul Records imprint. He was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in 1980.
Where I'm Coming From is the 13th studio album by Stevie Wonder. The album was released by Motown Records on April 9, 1971 and peaked on the Billboard Pop Albums at #62, and on the Billboard R&B Albums Chart at #7. All nine songs were written by Wonder and Motown singer-songwriter Syreeta Wright, his first wife. It was the last album produced under his first contract with Motown Records. Including live albums, this is Stevie Wonder's fifteenth album overall, and thirteenth studio album.
"For Once in My Life" is a song written by Ron Miller and Orlando Murden for Motown Records' Stein & Van Stock publishing company, and first recorded in 1965.
"Boogie On Reggae Woman" is a 1974 funk song by American Motown artist Stevie Wonder, released as the second single from his seventeenth studio album, Fulfillingness' First Finale, issued that same year. Despite the song's title, its style is firmly funk/R&B and neither boogie nor reggae. It continued Wonder's successful Top Ten streak on the pop charts, reaching number three and also spent two weeks at number one on the soul charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 26 song for 1975. At the 17th Grammy Awards, Stevie Wonder won the Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male for this song.
The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie is the debut studio album by Little Stevie Wonder, released in September 1962 on the Tamla Motown label.
Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius is the first live album by Little Stevie Wonder. The album was released on the Tamla record label in May 1963, the same month as the single release of "Fingertips". "Fingertips" topped both the Billboard Hot 100 chart and the R&B Singles chart, and Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius topped the Billboard 200, all of which happened in 1963. This is the last album to use the "Little" in Stevie Wonder's name. Starting with the next album, he would go by the name of just "Stevie Wonder." Wonder was the second and youngest solo artist to chart on the Billboard Top LPs under the age of 18. He was only 13 years old when that occurred.
"Beechwood 4-5789" is a song written by Marvin Gaye, William "Mickey" Stevenson and George Gordy. It was a 1962 hit single for the Motown girl group The Marvelettes on Motown's Tamla subsidiary record label. The song became a hit again when it was covered by the pop duo The Carpenters in 1982.
Looking Back, also later known as Anthology, is a triple LP anthology by American soul musician Stevie Wonder, released in 1977 on Motown Records. Since its release in 12-inch triple LP format, it has not been reissued and is considered a limited edition. The album chronicles 40 songs from Wonder's first Motown period, which precedes the classic period of his critically acclaimed albums.
One to One is the third studio album released by American R&B singer and songwriter Syreeta Wright in February 1977 by Motown. It serves as her first album Wright released where former husband Stevie Wonder did not oversee most of its production, instead only being involved with the song "Harmour Love", which was released as a single.
"Pops, We Love You " is a 1978 single recorded and released by Motown stars Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder, as a tribute to Berry "Pops" Gordy Sr. who had died that year from cancer.
Billboard year-end top 50 R&B singles of 1963 is the year-end chart compiled by Billboard magazine ranking the top rhythm and blues singles of 1963. The list was based on charts from the January 6 through the November 23 issues.
