Happy Birthday: Stevie Wonder

In my book, Stevie Wonder is the the greatest songwriter and composer of all time. Penning an extensive catalog of music that incorporates many different styles and genres, topping the U.S. music charts with more than 30 top 10 hits which won him 22 Grammy awards. A social and political activist, Wonder campaigned to get Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday declared a national holiday in 1980, composing "Happy Birthday" from his Hotter Than July album in tribute to Dr. King and was a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2009. Today we salute this living legend on his date of birth and wish to see him around for many years to come.

Other awards and recognition
1983: inducted to the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
1984: received an Academy Award for Best Song for "I Just Called to Say I Love You" from the movie The Woman in Red.
1989: inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1999: received the Polar Music Prize and Kennedy Center Honors.
2002: received the George and Ira Gershwin Lifetime Achievement Award at UCLA's Spring Sing. The same year, Wonder received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
2004: received the Billboard Century Award. Also in 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Rock and Roll Artists of All Time.
2006: was inducted, as one of the first inductees, into the Michigan Walk of Fame. The same year, Wonder received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
2008: Ranked at number five on "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists", making him as the third most successful male artist in the history of Billboard Hot 100 chart.
2009: Recipient of the second Gershwin Prize For Popular Song.
2009: Recipient of the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award. This special award underlines a popular artist’s extraordinary contribution to the musical world. The Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award is in bronze.
2009: Named a Messenger of Peace by the United Nations.

Happy Birthday: Gil Scott-Heron & Marvin Gaye

Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron
(April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011)
Widely considered as one of the forefathers and greatest influences to the world of Hip-Hop with his poetry that had the backings of African drumming, Soul, Jazz, Blues and Funk. His own term for himself was "bluesologist", which he defined as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues." His best known composition that is considered a critically acclaimed classic is The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. His works with multi-instrumentalist Brian Jackson include Free Will, Pieces of A Man and Winter In America, also gained heavy notoriety and considered classics by many.

Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here. "The Last Holiday", was also published, posthumously in January 2012.

GilScottHeron.net

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Marvin Gaye
(April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984)

Starting his career as a "doo-wop" artist, he later became a session drummer for Motown Records, before becoming the top selling solo artist of Tamla, a Motown subsidiary. He was crowned the "Prince of Motown" and also the "Prince of Soul". His work in the early and mid-1970s included the albums, What's Going On, Let's Get It On, and I Want You, which helped influence the quiet storm, urban adult contemporary, and slow jam genres. Here, My Dear, In Our Lifetime and Midnight Love would all be heavy influences for the more modern soul sound.

In 1982, during an interview for New Musical Express magazine, he's quoted as saying:

"I don't make records for pleasure. I did when I was a younger artist, but I don't today. I record so that I can feed people what they need, what they feel. Hopefully, I record so that I can help someone overcome a bad time."

Happy Birthday: Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder (born May 13, 1950 as Steveland Hardaway Judkins, later changed to Morris) is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist who signed with Motown Records' Tamla label at the age of eleven, after being discovered by Gerald White, brother of Ronnie White of The Miracles.

By age 13, Wonder had a major hit, "Fingertips (Pt. 2)", a 1963 single taken from a live recording of a Motor Town Revue performance, issued on the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. The song, featuring Wonder on vocals, bongos, and harmonica, and a young Marvin Gaye on drums, was a #1 hit on the U.S. pop and R&B charts and launched him into the public consciousness.

Wonder's songs are renowned for being quite difficult to sing. He has a very developed sense of harmony and uses many extended chords utilizing extensions such as 9ths, 11ths, 13ths, b5s, etc. in his compositions. Many of his melodies make abrupt, unpredictable changes. Many of his vocal melodies are also melismatic, meaning that a syllable is sung over several notes. Some of his best known and most frequently covered songs are played in keys which are more often found in jazz than in pop and rock. For example, "Superstition", "Higher Ground" and "I Wish" are in the key of E flat minor, and feature distinctive riffs in the E flat minor pentatonic scale (i.e. largely on the black notes of the keyboard).

Wonder played a large role in bringing synthesizers to the forefront of popular music. He developed many new textures and sounds never heard before. In 1981, Wonder became the first owner of an E-mu Emulator. With the soundtrack album Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants (1979), featured in the film The Secret Life of Plants. Mostly instrumental, the album was composed using the Computer Music Melodian, an early sampler. Wonder toured briefly in support of the album, and used a Fairlight CMI sampler on stage.

Stevie Wonder has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and received twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2008, Billboard magazine released a list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's fiftieth anniversary, with Wonder at number five. Between 1983 and 2009, Wonder has also won numerous other awards and received recognition.

StevieWonder.net

Happy Birthday: Marvin Gaye

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., known to the world as Marvin Gaye, who is one of the greatest vocalists of the 20th century. Many don't know that outside of his smooth four octave voice and "tickling the ivory", he started out as a session drummer for Motown.

For many, Here, My Dear is considered a classic, although it failed commercially. At first it received ill reviews until re-examined later. It was supposed to be an attempt at making a "lazy album" due to the unrepairable circumstances surrounding his first marriage to Anna Gordy, the sister of Motown/Tamla mogul Berry Gordy. With the advice of Curtis Shaw, Marvin's attorney, it was agreed that Marvin would give half the royalties for the album to Anna for alimony and child support for their only son Marvin III. However, while recording the album, Marvin's emotions took over the music.

One of my favorite tunes from the album is "Is That Enough", which talks about the divorce court precedings and having to pay attorney fees.

Happy Birthday: Smokey Robinson & Seal

William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is a R&B and Soul singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy. Robinson's consistent commercial success and creative contributions to the label have earned him the title "King of Motown."

As an original member of Motown Records' first vocal group The Miracles and as a solo artist, Robinson delivered many U.S. and U.K. Top 40 hits for Motown between 1960 and 1987. He also served as the company's vice president from 1961 to 1988.

Smokey Robinson began a low-key solo career while concentrating on his duties as vice president of Motown, releasing his first solo LP, Smokey, in 1973. His first hit single, "Sweet Harmony" (1973), was dedicated to The Miracles. In 1975, Robinson's solo career took off with the success of the number one R&B hit "Baby That's Backatcha". Robinson's 1976 single "Quiet Storm" and its accompanying album typified a genre of smooth, slow R&B that has spawned late-night radio shows called "quiet storm". Other Robinson solo hits include "Cruisin'" (1979), "Being With You" (a U.K. number-one hit) (1981), "Tell Me Tomorrow" (1982), and "Ebony Eyes", a duet with labelmate Rick James (1983). He also recorded the soundtrack to the film Big Time (1977).

SmokeyRobinson.com



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Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel (born February 19, 1963 in Paddington, London, England), known simply as Seal, is a Soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. His name, Olusegun, means "God is victorious".

A recipient of BRIT, MTV and Grammy Awards, Seal is known for his numerous international hits; perhaps best known is "Kiss from A Rose" which appeared in the soundtrack to the 1995 Batman film Batman Forever and won him three Grammy Awards.

Seal contributed vocals to a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" for the 2010 Herbie Hancock album, The Imagine Project along with P!nk, India.Arie, Jeff Beck, Konono N°1, Oumou Sangare and others.

SEAL.com

Happy 60th: Stevie Wonder

If you ask the question of who is the greatest song writer to ever live, my answer will be Stevie Wonder. With a music career spanning more than 45 years, scoring 16 studio albums that featured some of the best musical talents, having recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and won twenty-two Grammy Awards, the most ever won by a solo artist.

Although Mr. Wonder is blind, his s creativity to write and compose can naturally amaze listeners. If you listen closely to his compositions, he will take you on a journey to make you see deeper than what the eyes normally see. I'm gratefully thankful to live in the time of this amazing artist, and hope that he's around for many, many more years to come.