Maps of Music

Music of My Mind (1972)

Where the lyrics of Music of My Mind take you, and where it was really made.

Stevie Wonder's first album with full artistic control leaned heavily on a custom TONTO synthesizer run by two outside associate producers.

Key places

Recording at Electric Lady Studios (1972)

Recording site Electric Lady Studios — The album's recording is credited to Electric Lady Studios in New York City. The point marks the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording credited to Crystal Industries (1972)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — Recording is credited to Crystal Industries in Los Angeles. The point sits at the city center, not at the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Music of My Mind is the fourteenth studio album by Stevie Wonder
• Released March 3, 1972 by Tamla Records
• First album under a new Motown contract that gave Wonder full artistic control over his music
• Associate producers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff used their custom TONTO synthesizer
• Charted at No. 21 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart
• Modern critics generally regard it as the first album of Wonder's "classic period"

Background

• Wonder became interested in synthesizers after hearing the music of the electronic group Tonto's Expanding Head Band
• He was inspired after meeting the group's members, Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, in May 1971
• Cecil and Margouleff went on to collaborate with Wonder on his next three albums

Recording

• Wonder began using ARP and Moog synthesizers
• Margouleff and Cecil associate produced, engineered, and handled Moog programming for the album
• Wonder produced the album and played nearly all instruments himself
• Art Baron played trombone on "Love Having You Around"
• Howard "Buzz" Feiten played guitar on "Superwoman"
• Joan DeCola and Rick Rowe are credited with recording

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

• Contemporary critics viewed the album as Wonder's final step into artistic maturity
• Rolling Stone: Vince Aletti said it showed the ambitious use of Wonder's newfound artistic control and his maturity as a songwriter, though he found some studio and vocal effects gimmicky and self-indulgent
• Creem: Robert Christgau said that, like Ray Charles, Wonder transcended aesthetic sensibilities on the album, which featured "some of the most musical synthesizer improvisations yet"
• Creem: Christgau felt the individual songs were not as impressive as the "one-man album" concept
• Cash Box: particularly praised the Moog synthesizer work on the single "Keep on Running"
• Sounds: Penny Valentine viewed the record as a milestone in modern music and a culmination of soul music's creative maturity

Reappraisal

• Voted number 645 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000)
• Rolling Stone ranked it number 285 on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and number 350 on the 2020 edition
• Re-released in the UK in 2008 to coincide with Wonder's European tour

Records

• Charted at number 6 on the Billboard R&B chart
• Charted at number 21 on the Billboard pop chart
• Achieved success with both black and white audiences in the United States

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The songs "Sweet Little Girl" and "Evil" are heard prominently at the start and end of the Atlanta episode "Teddy Perkins".
• Wonder produced the album and played all instruments except the trombone and the guitar parts credited to others.
• Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums ranked it number 645 in its third edition.
• The album was re-released in the UK in 2008 to coincide with Wonder's European tour.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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