Maps of Music

Hotter Than July (1980)

Where the lyrics of Hotter Than July take you, and where it was really made.

The sleeve of the original record was printed to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and to campaign for a national holiday, so the cover carries a message rather than a design.

Key places

Wonderland Studios, Los Angeles (1980)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — Wonder recorded most of Hotter than July at Wonderland Studios in Los Angeles, a studio he had recently acquired. The point is set at city-centre level, not at the building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Hotter than July is the nineteenth studio album by Stevie Wonder
• Released on 29 September 1980 by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records
• Wonder handled the writing, arranging and producing of the album
• Peaked at number three on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart
• Certified Platinum by the RIAA on 3 February 1981
• Wonder's most successful album in the UK, peaking at number two on the UK Albums Chart
• Produced four top-10 singles in the UK
• Music videos were made for the first, third and fourth singles
• Nominated for Favorite Soul/R&B Album at the 1982 American Music Awards

Background

• Preceded by Journey Through 'The Secret Life of Plants' (1979), which was a relative critical and commercial failure
• Only one single from that album, 'Send One Your Love', reached the top 5 of a Billboard chart
• That failure left Wonder struggling at the turn of the new decade
• Wonder believed Motown had not promoted that album very well and said so to the media
• Wonder was in demand as a guest on recordings by artists such as B.B. King, James Taylor, Quincy Jones and Smokey Robinson
• Lead-off single 'Master Blaster (Jammin')' was inspired by the reggae music of Bob Marley
• Wonder met Marley in 1979 after their performance at the Black Music Association in Philadelphia
• 'Happy Birthday' was written to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

Recording

• Most of the album was recorded in Los Angeles, California
• The recording studio was Wonderland Studios, which Wonder had recently acquired

Cover

• Both sides of the original sleeve are printed in a black-and-white semi-glossy photographic process
• One side features a large square portrait of King on a black background, with a passage of text written by Wonder
• The text calls for January 15 to become a national holiday
• The other side is a collage of five historical photos, including a riot, a peaceful march led by King and police confrontations
• The sleeve images contrast with the upbeat mood of most of the music

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Stevland Hardaway Morris, known as Stevie Wonder, was born May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan, and became blind shortly after birth.
• He signed with Motown's Tamla label at age 11 in 1961, receiving the name Little Stevie Wonder.
• His single "Fingertips" topped the Billboard Hot 100 when he was 13, the youngest solo artist ever to do so.

Career

• Music of My Mind and Talking Book (1972) marked the start of his classic period, moving away from the Motown sound toward synthesizer- and keyboard-driven music.
• Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life (1973–1976) won three consecutive Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, and he is the only artist to have done so.
• In the 1980s he campaigned to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday and scored several number-one hits, including "Ebony and Ivory" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You".
• He has sold more than 100 million records and won 25 Grammy Awards, the most by a male solo artist.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll voted the album eighth best of 1980
• Robert Christgau, creator of that poll, ranked it eighteenth on his own year-end list
• Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone said the album proved Wonder was still the most gifted pop muralist of his time
• Holden credited Wonder's evocative, unique synthesis of pop and African elements
• J. D. Considine in The New Rolling Stone Album Guide called the album buoyantly tuneful
• Considine said fans viewed it as a return to form after the commercial disappointment of Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants

Reappraisal

• Christgau's retrospective review said only Master Blaster and perhaps Happy Birthday were great Stevie on the album
• Christgau wrote that the pleasure with which Wonder performed the songs was evident in his free-floating melodicism and rolling overdrive
• Rob Theakston of AllMusic said solid songwriting, musicianship and production appear on most of the album
• Theakston said the album was not on the same tier as Innervisions or Songs in the Key of Life
• Theakston described the album as a portrait of an artist who still had the Midas touch but stood at the crossroads of an illustrious career
• Hanif Abdurraqib of Pitchfork described the album as one of seemingly endless abundance

Records

• Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart peak: number three
• UK Albums Chart peak: number two
• All four UK singles reached the top 10, with the first and fourth peaking at No. 2
• RIAA Platinum certification on 3 February 1981
• First Wonder album eligible to be certified Platinum by the RIAA

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Master Blaster was inspired by the reggae music of Bob Marley, whom Wonder met in 1979 after a performance at the Black Music Association in Philadelphia.
• Hotter than July was Wonder's first album eligible to be certified Platinum by the RIAA, because Motown sales records before 1977 were not audited after the category was introduced.
• Happy Birthday was written to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and to campaign for King's birthday to become a national holiday.
• The album was nominated for Favorite Soul/R&B Album at the 1982 American Music Awards.
• The sleeve of the original record carries a text by Wonder signed with a thumbprint serving as his signature.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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