Talking Book

The album that marked the start of Stevie Wonder's classic period, blending soul, funk, and pioneering synthesizer work.

Talking Book is the fifteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter, and musician Stevie Wonder, released on October 27, 1972, by Tamla, a subsidiary of Motown Records. This album and Music of My Mind, released earlier the same year, are generally considered to mark the start of Wonder's "classic period." The sound of the album is sharply defined by Wonder's use of keyboards and synthesizers.

Quick Facts

Artist

Stevie Wonder

Released

27 October 1972

Recorded

May–July 1972

Studio

Electric Lady, New York City
Crystal Sound, Hollywood
Record Plant, Los Angeles
AIR, London

Genre

Progressive soul
funk
soul
rock
jazz

Label

Tamla

Producer

Stevie Wonder
Robert Margouleff (assoc.)
Malcolm Cecil (assoc.)

Lore & Background

Much of the material on Talking Book was recorded at the same time as that on Music of My Mind. As the album saw Wonder enjoying more artistic freedom from Motown and relying less on Motown's head Berry Gordy for musical direction and expression, it is often seen as the beginning of his transition from a youthful prodigy into an independent and experimental artist. Speaking of the album in 2000, Wonder said: "It wasn't so much that I wanted to say anything except where I wanted to just express various many things that I felt—the political point of view that I have, the social point of view that I have, the passions, emotion and love that I felt, compassion, the fun of love that I felt, the whole thing in the beginning with a joyful love and then the pain of love." The sound of the album is sharply defined by Wonder's keyboard work, especially synthesizers. While the synthesizers give a funky edge to tracks like "Maybe Your Baby", the Hohner Clavinet embellishments on "Big Brother" evoke a six-string acoustic guitar, and the note-bending harmonica work on several tracks touches on some folk and blues influences. Wonder's use of the Clavinet Model C on "Superstition" is widely regarded as one of the definitive tracks featuring the instrument. Wonder played the majority of the instruments on the album himself, but he received some support from such guest musicians as Jeff Beck, Ray Parker Jr., David Sanborn, and Buzz Feiten.

Reader's Guide

Released after Wonder toured with the Rolling Stones in 1972, Talking Book became a major hit, peaking at number three on the Billboard Pop Albums chart in February 1973, and became the first album by Wonder to reach the top of the Top R&B Albums chart, where it remained for three weeks. The popular appeal of the recording helped destroy the myth that R&B artists were incapable of creating music that could be appreciated by rock audiences, and marked a unique period for R&B artists (especially Motown artists). Wonder won three awards for Talking Book at the 1974 Grammys: Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "You Are the Sunshine of My Life", and both Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song for "Superstition". Incidentally, at the same ceremony, Wonder's next album, Innervisions, won Album of the Year, and Talking Book's associate producers, Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, won the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical award for their work on that album. Talking Book has appeared in professional rankings of the greatest albums of all time. It was voted number 322 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). In 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it number 90 on the magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time; it maintained that ranking on the 2012 version of the list, and was number 59 on the 2020 edition. It was the first album purchased by former US president Barack Obama.

Track listing

Side one

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	You Are the Sunshine of My Life		2:58
2	Maybe Your Baby		6:45
3	You and I (We Can Conquer the World)		4:39
4	Tuesday Heartbreak		3:09
5	You've Got It Bad Girl	Wonder, Yvonne Wright	4:55
Total length			22:13

Side two

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Superstition		4:26
2	Big Brother		3:35
3	Blame It on the Sun	Wonder, Syreeta Wright	3:28
4	Lookin' for Another Pure Love	Wonder, S. Wright	4:45
5	I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)	Wonder, Y. Wright	4:48
Total length			21:16