Fingertips
"Fingertips" | ||||
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Single by Little Stevie Wonder | ||||
from the album The 12 Year Old Genius | ||||
A-side | "Fingertips – Part 1" | |||
B-side | "Fingertips – Part 2" | |||
Released | May 21, 1963 | |||
Recorded | June 1962 | |||
Venue | Regal Theater, Chicago | |||
Genre | R&B, soul | |||
Length |
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Label | Tamla T 54080 | |||
Songwriter(s) | Clarence Paul, Henry Cosby | |||
Producer(s) | Berry Gordy, Jr. | |||
Stevie Wonder singles chronology | ||||
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"Fingertips" is a 1963 hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's then Tamla label.[1]
Overview
Written and composed by Wonder's mentors, Clarence Paul and Henry Cosby, "Fingertips" was originally a jazz instrumental recorded for Wonder's first studio album, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie. The live version of the song was recorded in 1963 during a Motortown Revue performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois.[2] Containing only a few stanzas of improvised lyrics, "Fingertips" is essentially an instrumental piece, meant to showcase Wonder's talents on the bongos and the harmonica.
"Part 2"
The edit point that begins "Part 2" of "Fingertips" is when Wonder shouts "Everybody say 'yeah!'", initiating a call-and-response exchange with the audience. After a couple of sung verses, each followed by Wonder's brief harmonica playing (solos accompanied only by the audience's rhythmic clapping),[1] Wonder appears to bring things to a conclusion. On the night of the recording, Wonder, as usual started to leave the stage and the band went into the exit music, as musician and emcee Bill Murray (known professionally as Winehead Willie)[3] exhorted the crowd to "give him a hand"; however, Wonder unexpectedly changed his mind, returning to sing the "goodbye" encore. The other musicians were caught out, and the bass players had changed over to prepare for the next act on the bill, Mary Wells.[4] As Wonder moves into his impromptu encore, the new bass player, Joe Swift, having replaced Larry Moses, can be heard on the recording, yelling out: "What key? What key?"[1][5]
Release
The live version of "Fingertips" was released on May 21, 1963 as a two-part single, with Part 2 (with the encore) as the B-side. The 707 mono features "Sunset" and "Contract on Love". By August, the single B-side had reached the top of both the Billboard Pop Singles and R&B Singles charts.[6] "Fingertips" was Motown's second number-one pop hit (following The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman"), and launched the then 13-year-old Wonder to prominence. The single's success helped Wonder's live album, Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, making him the youngest artist to accomplish that feat.[citation needed] Because of Part 2's success, it would later feature on various compilation albums just as the full recording. In Canada the song reached number 6.[7]
Both the studio and live versions of the song featured drumming by Marvin Gaye, who had been playing drums for Wonder and other Motown artists and would become a big Motown star in his own right.[8]
Personnel
- Vocals, bongos, and harmonica by Little Stevie Wonder
- Drums by Marvin Gaye
- Bass by James Jamerson, Larry Moses, Joe Swift
- Horn Arrangement by Johnny Allen
- Recording engineer, Ron Steele Sr.
In popular culture
The song is used in trailers for Jordan Peele’s movie Nope.[9] as well as in More American Graffiti.
References
- ^ a b c Stevie Wonder interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
- ^ Semmes, C. (2 April 2006). The Regal Theater and Black Culture. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 187–. ISBN 978-1-4039-8330-5.
- ^ Posner, Gerald (April 2, 2009). "Battle of the Stars". Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power. Random House. p. 99. ISBN 9780307538628. Retrieved November 9, 2016 – via Google Books.
- ^ Sexton, Paul (June 22, 2019). "Stevie Wonder Makes Hot 100 Debut By His 'Fingertips'". udiscovermusic.
- ^ Tenley Williams (January 1, 2002). Stevie Wonder. Infobase Publishing. p. 28. ISBN 9781438122632.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004. Record Research. p. 803.
- ^ "CHUM Hit Parade - August 12, 1963".
- ^ MacDonald, Les (8 July 2010). The Day the Music Died. Xlibris Corporation. pp. 226–. ISBN 978-1-4691-1356-2.
- ^ Grobar, Matt (February 13, 2022). "Nope: Watch Super Bowl Ad". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
External links
- Little Stevie Wonder: Fingertips at Discogs (list of releases)
- v
- t
- e
- The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie
- Tribute to Uncle Ray
- With a Song in My Heart
- Stevie at the Beach
- Up-Tight
- Down to Earth
- I Was Made to Love Her
- Someday at Christmas
- Eivets Rednow
- For Once in My Life
- My Cherie Amour
- Signed, Sealed & Delivered
- Where I'm Coming From
- Music of My Mind
- Talking Book
- Innervisions
- Fulfillingness' First Finale
- Songs in the Key of Life
- Hotter than July
- In Square Circle
- Characters
- Conversation Peace
- A Time to Love
- Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius
- Stevie Wonder Live
- Live at the Talk of the Town
- Natural Wonder
- Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"
- The Woman in Red
- The Last Dragon
- Jungle Fever
- Looking Back
- Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I
- Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection
- At the Close of a Century
- The Definitive Collection
- The Complete Stevie Wonder
- "Fingertips"
- "Hey Harmonica Man"
- "Uptight (Everything's Alright)"
- "With a Child's Heart"
- "Blowin' in the Wind"
- "A Place in the Sun"
- "Someday at Christmas"
- "Hey Love"
- "I Was Made to Love Her"
- "I'm Wondering"
- "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day"
- "You Met Your Match"
- "Alfie"
- "For Once in My Life"
- "I Don't Know Why"
- "My Cherie Amour"
- "Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday"
- "Never Had a Dream Come True"
- "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours"
- "Heaven Help Us All"
- "We Can Work It Out"
- "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer"
- "If You Really Love Me"
- "What Christmas Means to Me"
- "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)"
- "Superstition"
- "You Are the Sunshine of My Life"
- "Higher Ground"
- "Living for the City"
- "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing"
- "He's Misstra Know-It-All"
- "You Haven't Done Nothin'"
- "Boogie On Reggae Woman"
- "I Wish"
- "Sir Duke"
- "Another Star"
- "As"
- "Pops, We Love You (A Tribute to Father)"
- "Send One Your Love"
- "Master Blaster (Jammin')"
- "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It"
- "Lately"
- "Happy Birthday"
- "That Girl"
- "Ebony and Ivory"
- "Do I Do"
- "Ribbon in the Sky"
- "Front Line"
- "I Just Called to Say I Love You"
- "Love Light in Flight"
- "Part-Time Lover"
- "That's What Friends Are For"
- "Go Home"
- "Overjoyed"
- "Stranger on the Shore of Love"
- "Skeletons"
- "You Will Know"
- "Get It"
- "Gotta Have You"
- "For Your Love"
- "So What the Fuss"
- "From the Bottom of My Heart"
- "All About the Love Again"
- "Faith"
- "Can't Put It in the Hands of Fate"
- "My Love"
- "How Come, How Long"
- "California Roll"
- "You and I (We Can Conquer the World)"
- "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)"
- "Golden Lady"
- "All in Love Is Fair"
- "They Won't Go When I Go"
- "Love's in Need of Love Today"
- "Knocks Me Off My Feet"
- "Pastime Paradise"
- "Isn't She Lovely"
- "Black Man"
- "We Are the World"
- "Just Good Friends"
- "Seasons of Love"
- "True to Your Heart"
- "Stop Trying to Be God"
- "It's a Shame"
- "Tears of a Clown"
- "Tell Me Something Good"
- "Uptown Festival"
- "Let's Get Serious"
- "You're Supposed to Keep Your Love for Me"
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