Maps of Music

I Was Made to Love Her (1967)

Where the lyrics of I Was Made to Love Her take you, and where it was really made.

Stevie Wonder was 17 when this seventh studio album came out, and only its title track was released as a single.

Key places

Recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. (1967)

Recording site Hitsville U.S.A. Studio A — The album was recorded at Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit, with sessions noted for June and August 1967 at the Motown studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• I Was Made to Love Her: seventh studio album by American musician Stevie Wonder
• Recorded at Hitsville U.S.A., Detroit
• Released August 28, 1967 under Tamla Records, a Motown subsidiary
• Twelve tracks; four of them are Wonder's own original works
• The title track is the only single released from the album

Background

• Wonder was already a confirmed artist at 17, after the hits Fingertips (1962) and Uptight (1966)
• Most of the album is made up of cover versions
• Covers include Otis Redding's Respect, James Brown's Please, Please, Please, and Smokey Robinson's My Girl
• The title track was made for Wonder's girlfriend Angie, and Wonder reportedly said he wrote it in about ten minutes

Recording

• Sessions took place at the Motown studio in Detroit in June and August 1967
• Producer: Henry Cosby
• Eddie Willis plays guitar on the title track
• All other instruments were played by the Funk Brothers
• Stevie Wonder sings lead and plays harmonica, piano, organ, clavinet, drums and percussion
• The Andantes sing backing vocals; James Jamerson plays bass; Benny Benjamin plays drums

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · ja.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

• Italian Wikipedia gives the release date as 27 August 1967, one day earlier than the 28 August date in the English article
• The original issue came on a yellow twin-globes label
• Labels carry the notice Motown Record Corp. © 1967 with a Detroit address
• The track listing has twelve songs, and side one opens with the title track
• Side two opens with Baby Don't You Do It and closes with Every Time I See You I Go Wild
• Japanese Wikipedia lists the title track at 2:37, while the English article lists it at 2:36
• The album was released in the same year Wonder had recorded much of his Motown material as a teenager

Sources: www.discogs.com · it.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The title track is the only song released as a single from this album, according to the French article
• Wonder wrote the title track for his girlfriend Angie, a story Japanese Wikipedia also records
• Japanese Wikipedia says four of the twelve tracks are Wonder's own originals, and the rest are mostly covers
• Discogs lists catalog number S-279 on the labels
• The album credits Eddie Willis on guitar for the title track only

Sources: fr.wikipedia.org · ja.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · en.wikipedia.org

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