The 12-year-old Wonder had not only managed to break into the charts and pierce the top 10 but had seized the throne. That success came in the form of the single “Fingertips.”Īnother two-part affair, similar to his debut single release, this one differentiated itself from the first by skyrocketing to the top of the Hot 100 and R&B charts. Now 12 years old, Wonder was working on his appropriately named album The 12 Year Old Genius – Recorded Live, which also spawned Wonder’s first taste of chart success. The following year held the promise of success. These early albums and singles met with mixed success, never really gaining much traction, and Wonder’s name remained relatively unknown over the first year of his career. It never saw its destiny as a debut single fulfilled, however, as a last-minute replacement swooped in to take its place, a two-part double-sided feature of one of Berry Gordy’s songs, “I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It Blues.” Stevie Wonder | Tinseltown / A new, unique song was created with the intention of being Wonder’s debut single, a track named “Mother Thank You.” In this case, however, the first single that Wonder released wasn’t a feature from either of his first albums. Normally after the finalization of an album, or at some time during the creation, a single will be hand picked out of the song lineup to debut the artist’s work. With a year spent meticulously going through the album creation process, Tribute to Uncle Ray and The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie were finally finished production. Nobody could have expected an 11-year-old child to write an entire album as well as juggling growing up and attending to their academics. Not an unimaginable scenario, considering Wonder’s incredibly young age at the time. It started slow, however, with two of the first albums mainly consisting of covers or tracks where Paul was the sole writer. The signing with Motown, and the subsequent pairing with Paul, proved to be the beginnings of a decade of successful releases. 7xTTwO5KXS- HipSoulFunk February 23, 2021 Down below is just some of the talent on the label. Motown has had the greatest history of artists in terms of talent and classic makers in its roster.