Maps of Music

Conversation Peace (1995)

Where the lyrics of Conversation Peace take you, and where it was really made.

Stevie Wonder wrote about 40 songs in 1993 during a six-week stay in Ghana, but the album that grew from them did not come out until March 1995.

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Conversation Peace: 22nd studio album by American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder
Released March 21, 1995 by Motown Records
First full-length non-soundtrack studio album since 1987's Characters
Hit singles: "For Your Love" (Grammy for Best R&B Male Vocal Performance) and the reggae-flavored "Tomorrow Robins Will Sing"
Reunited Wonder with Robert Margouleff, who had helped during his classic period from 1972 to 1974
Performed by Stevie Wonder, with guest artists where noted

Wonder wrote about 40 songs in 1993 after a six-week stay in Ghana, at the invitation of President Jerry John Rawlings
A number of those songs were eventually shaped into album form
Motown announced in August 1993 that the album would be released later that year
Wonder kept working on the album through 1994
Vibe magazine reported that the album had been in development "off and on" for at least the past four years when it came out in March 1995

Development ran far longer than the 1993 announcement suggested, so the album reached release only in March 1995

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.

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.

Rolling Stone (John Milward, 1995 review): four stars; the album is reminiscent of Wonder's classic albums, and its lean execution gives it a modern sound
Greg Kot (Chicago Tribune) and Jean Rosenbluth (Los Angeles Times): the style felt a bit too familiar and well-worn to be interesting
Robert Christgau (The Village Voice): gave it an "A−", noting that listeners may have heard all this before, but that doesn't mean it has worn out its welcome
Critics generally felt the album was a return to Wonder's classic period of the 1970s

Stephen Thomas Erlewine (AllMusic retrospective): two-and-a-half stars; felt the music was not contemporary enough to get radio play

US Billboard 200 debut: number 16, with 53,000 copies sold in the first week
Certified gold by the RIAA on June 14, 1995
As of October 2005, sales reached 361,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan

The outtake "Ms and Mr Little Ones" from these sessions was later released on Natural Wonder (1995).
The printed duration of track 6 on the Discogs release is 5:54.
Wonder reunited with Robert Margouleff, who had helped during his classic period from 1972 to 1974.
The Discogs release includes a 16-page booklet.