Stevie Wonder Songs: 25 Top Tracks

Few artists are revered in every genre and corner of the music world as Stevie Wonder, who, on masterful albums from 1970’s Signed, Sealed & Delivered and 1973’s Innervisions through 1976’s Songs in the Key of Life and beyond, has dazzled listeners with his songwriting and musicianship as he experimented with soul, jazz, blues, rock, pop, reggae, country and more.

“If you make music in any way, you learned something from Stevie Wonder,” LL Cool J noted when the icon was honored by everyone from John Legend and Beyoncé to Lady Gaga and Andrea Bocelli at 2015’s Stevie Wonder: Songs In the Key of Life — An All-Star Grammy Salute ceremony. As Jamie Foxx noted that night, and many agreed, “Stevie Wonder has more talent in his braids than most artists out today.”

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His talents were evident from his preteen years. At 12, “Little Stevie” Wonder caught the ear of Berry Gordy in 1961, impressing the Motown founder with the vocal talents he displayed in his church choir and while singing on street corners. A hit on both R&B and pop radio due to his irresistible charm, harmonica playing and overall musical ability, Little Stevie was only destined to grow more talented — and beloved — through the decades.

In the 70s, he started to write and produce all of his own music, and the hits (as they say) just kept coming — as did the accolades. He’s won 25 Grammys and an Oscar, and he’s been awarded the Gershwin Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Library of Congress. He’s in the R&B Hall of Fame, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the artist’s activism and passion for social justice (his 1980 song “Happy Birthday" helped make Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthdate a federal holiday) has earned him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as recognition as a United Nations Messenger of Peace.

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“God has given me an incredible gift — the gift of music — and it’s a blessing that’s self-contained,” Wonder, now 74, has shared with Oprah Winfrey. “I can go anywhere in the world with absolutely nothing and I can still find a keyboard and play. No matter what, no one can take that away from me.” And no one can take away the joy that his songs bring to his fans’ hearts and minds.

“Music, at its essence, is what gives us memories. And the longer a song has existed in our lives, the more memories we have of it,” he’s shared. Choosing favorites from his collection becomes a near impossible task, however, and even he has a hard time narrowing down the field, noting his top picks change constantly based on the day. “When Duke Ellington was asked about his favorite song, he’d say, ‘I haven’t written it yet.’ I feel the same,” Wonder explained.

It’s no “wonder” then that we struggled when choosing the top Stevie Wonder songs for this list. As Paul Simon once said, Stevie Wonder “is the composer of his generation, a melody writer of such effortless virtuosity that he is virtually incomparable.” We tried to steer away from collaborations or duets to limit things somewhat, but there are still so many great tunes beyond this list, so please add your favorite Stevie Wonder songs to the guide below!

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25. “I Ain’t Gonna Stand for It” (1980): Stevie Wonder songs

“Don’t wanna cause nobody no bodily harm, but somebody’s been rubbin’ on my good luck charm.” Wonder co-wrote and sang this unique and entertaining hit (later covered by Eric Clapton), stepping into a country music persona to do so. “Part of my doing different songs and singing different ways is sort of becoming the character of the song. You have to be what you are in,” he explained to the Detroit Free Press.

24. “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday” (1969)

“I had a dream so did you. Life was warm and love was true.” This early hit, written by Ron Miller and Bryan Wells, hit No. 7 on the Billboard charts, and it proved so successful for Wonder that he even recorded an Italian version of it, titled “Solo Te, Solo Me, Solo Noi.”

23. “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” (1974): Stevie Wonder songs

“And we are sick and tired of hearing your song, tellin’ how you are gonna change right from wrong. ’Cause if you really want to hear our views, you haven’t done nothin’.” Richard Nixon resigned just days after this politically charged No. 1 hit, which featured the Jackson 5 on backing vocals, came out. “Even pointing a trembling finger at the leader of the free world, Wonder assembles this massive, honking, life-affirming funk jam,” Stereogum notes of the song’s catchiness, in spite of its heavy subject matter.

22. “That Girl” (1981)

“That girl thinks that she’s so bad, she’ll change my tears to joy from sad. She says she keeps the upper hand cause she can please her man.” Wonder’s harmonica playing truly shines on this track’s steady groove, but, as he told Musician magazine, he also played piano, drums, and synthesizers on it! “You just basically do it yourself,” he cooly noted of tackling that tall task.

21. “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” (1971): Stevie Wonder songs

“I never dreamed you’d leave in summer, but now I find myself all alone.” This heartbreaking track off his Where I’m Coming From album took on even deeper and sadder meaning when Wonder performed it in July 2009 at Michael Jackson’s memorial service. “This is a moment that I wished that I didn’t live to see come,” he said before honoring his friend. The near 20-seconds of the album version’s final, plaintive “Why didn’t you stay?” never fails to gut us.

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20. “Overjoyed” (1985)

“And maybe too, if you would believe, you too might be, overjoyed, overloved, over me.” The lyrics of this entry make you “feel like you are surrounded by light and love,” as SoulBounce put it. “In Stevie’s hands, an idea as typical as pining and planning for your true love is so overwhelmingly beautiful, it’s damn-near otherworldly.”

19. “Master Blaster (Jammin’)” (1980): Stevie Wonder songs

“They want us to join their fighting, but our answer today is to let all our worries, like the breeze through our fingers, slip away.” Wonder honors another legend, his friend Bob Marley, on this reggae tune in which he tries to will a world full of peace, including for Zimbabwe. “Now’s the time for celebration, ’cause we’ve only just begun,” he sings of “Master Blaster”’s master plan.

18. “Fingertips - Pt. 2” (1963)

“Everybody say ‘yeah!’” Yeah! This No. 1 hit on both the pop and R&B charts features Little Stevie Wonder masterfully playing the harmonica and leading a thrilling call-and-response session at a performance that was recorded at Chicago’s Regal Theater. The Motown label had called him their “12-year-old genius,” and nobody was going to argue with that after hearing this!

17. “As” (1977): Stevie Wonder songs

“Just as kindness knows no shame, know through all your joy and pain that I’ll be loving you always.” Though we noted that Wonder doesn’t like to name his favorite songs, this one seems to pop up a lot by him as being in the top tier. And who could disagree? The track clocks in at more than seven minutes on his Songs in the Key of Life album, but it was edited down to under four for airplay.

16. “Don’t You Worry ’Bout a Thing” (1974)

“Don’t you worry ’bout a thing, mama, ’cause I’ll be standing on the side when you check it out.” The spoken intro to this infectious Latin-influenced tune allowed Wonder to have some fun while exploring new worlds. “When I did the demo, I was just saying some things. You know, I didn’t speak Spanish,” he shared with NPR of the No. 2 hit on the R&B charts, noting how he loved to listen to music from various cultures on the radio while growing up in Michigan.

15. “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” (1970): Stevie Wonder songs

“Here I am baby! Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours!” This was the first song Wonder, then 20, was allowed to self-produce and he, well, delivered, incorporating an electric sitar, a sax, trumpets, and female backing vocals into the No. 1 Soul single, one of which he gave his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, a co-writing credit on. She “came up with some ideas on that one, too,” he told Blues & Soul magazine.

14. “Boogie On Reggae Woman” (1974)

“I like to see you boogie, right across the floor…” Wonder scored a Best R&B Vocal Performance Grammy for this suggestive, sexy offering. The Austin Chronicle describes it as “luscious funk,” and Wonder deftly balances the naughty with the nice on lines such as “I’d like to see both of us fall deeply in love, yeah. I’d like to see you in the raw, under the stars above.”

13. “Higher Ground” (1973): Stevie Wonder songs

“Lovers keep on lovin’. Believers keep on believin’.” The Red Hot Chili Peppers successfully gave this classic the rock treatment in 1989. When the band was on The Howard Stern Show in 2022, drummer Chad Smith said that when Wonder was asked if he liked their version, he once quipped, “I liked the publishing checks!” Bassist Flea added that Wonder, his musical “hero,” had “always been really generous of spirit, and kind and engaging” when they’ve met.

12. “I Was Made To Love Her” (1967)

“She’s been my inspiration, showed appreciation for the love I gave her through the years.” Penned when Wonder was just 16 about a sweetheart he’s called “my third girlfriend but my first love,” this early track showed the promise and talent that the young artist possessed. It’s another that his mother — who used to shoo him off long-distance calls with the young lady — helped her son to co-write.

11. “If You Really Love Me” (1971): Stevie Wonder songs

“You call my name… Ooh, so sweet!” Wonder’s then-wife and co-writer Syreeta Wright provides backing vocals on this buoyant tune. “I had fun doing that album with Syreeta,” the singer told The Guardian of their work together on his 1971 release Where I’m Coming From, which the newspaper notes was “a brave departure from the Motown sound, with forays into psychedelia, baroque pop and folk-inflected soul.”

10. “For Once in My Life” (1968)

“For once in my life, I have someone who needs me, someone I’ve needed so long.” Wonder duetted with Tony Bennett on this brilliant Ron Miller/Orlando Murden track for the crooner’s Duets: The Making of an American Classic album, and it earned the duo a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Wonder performed a special “duet” of it with archival footage of the late Bennett during the Grammys’ memorial segment earlier this year.

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9. “Living for the City” (1973): Stevie Wonder songs

“His father works some days for 14 hours, and you can bet he barely makes a dollar. His mother goes to scrub the floors for many, and you’d best believe she hardly gets a penny.” Innervisions co-producer Robert Margouleff told Grammy.com that this song is “just a major recording for civil rights. At the time, only Marvin Gaye and Stevie were singing about this. Anybody can write about love, but when he writes about the political condition, it’s immeasurably powerful.” The song won a Grammy for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, while Innervisions took home Album of the Year, making Wonder the first Black artist to win that honor. “I hope that through my music, I have given the message of my people and of the world,” he said of the proud moment.

8. “My Cherie Amour” (1969)

“My Cherie amour, lovely as a summer day.” Who doesn’t la-la-la-la-la-love this classic? “Originally it was [titled] ‘Oh My Marsha’ but [co-writer] Sylvia Moy came and changed the words to ‘My Cherie Amour,’” Wonder revealed in Musician magazine, adding, “I had a girlfriend named Marsha. Well, we broke up, so it was a good thing they changed it.”

7. “Sir Duke” (1977): Stevie Wonder songs

“Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand.” If this No. 1 hit doesn’t put you in a great mood, nothing can. Inspired by Sir Duke Ellington, the brass-filled triumph pays homage to several other legends “that time will not allow us to forget,” such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller. A musical home run!

6. “I Wish” (1976)

“I wish those days could come back once more. Why did those days ever have to go?” This nostalgia-filled No. 1 hit won Wonder a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance. The artist told Oprah that the upbeat melody drove the lyrics, which, he said, were “going to be about some kind of crazy philosophical stuff, but that didn’t work with the song. So after a Motown picnic, we came back to the studio, and we were all sitting around the piano. We started talking about the different experiences we had growing up, like when I got a whipping for playing doctor with a girl.”

5. “Superstition” (1972): Stevie Wonder songs

“When you believe in things that you don’t understand, then you suffer. Superstition ain’t the way.” Wonder intended to give this song that he wrote to guitarist Jeff Beck, but Motown label head Berry Gordy smelled a hit — and he wasn’t wrong. This classic not only went to No. 1, but it also earned Wonder Grammy awards for Best Rhythm & Blues Song as well as Best R&B Vocal Performance.

4. “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” (1965)

“But it’s alright if my clothes aren’t new. Out of sight, because my heart is true.” This is the first official writing credit that Stevie, just 15 when he penned it, received in his long career. He’d perform it with the Rolling Stones in a medley along with their “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” when he toured with them in the early 70s. “One of the best things about ‘Uptight,’ quite apart from the killer hook…and that irresistible beat,” the Motown Junkies write, “is how it immediately positions Stevie in the Motown story, not just to answer the critics, not just as someone who can keep up, but as someone who — unexpectedly — turns out to be leading the way.”

3. “Isn’t She Lovely” (1976): Stevie Wonder songs

“I can’t believe what God has done. Through us he’s given life to one. But isn’t she lovely, made from love.” The artist got emotional with Oprah Winfrey when recalling the creative process for this stunner, penned for his first child, daughter Aisha Morris, whom he had with his then-partner Yolanda Simmons. “I remember writing ‘Isn’t She Lovely?’—I can almost cry right now thinking about it,” he said of the sentimental gem. “The sound of my daughter Aisha splashing in the bathtub created a picture. That was emotion stuck in a moment, and that can never, ever be taken away.”

2. “Do I Do” (1982)

“When I see you on the street, my whole body gets weak. When you're standing in a crowd, your love talks to me so loud.” This song, which received three Grammy nominations, is one of the artist’s most ambitious, according to Ultimate Classic Rock, which notes that “the 10-and-a-half-minute album version features a trumpet solo by Dizzy Gillespie, a rap by Wonder and an all-time great bass line by Nathan Watts.” The irresistible groove proves that any risks the singer took with the track were more than worth it.

1. “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” (1973): Stevie Wonder songs

“I feel like this is the beginning, though I’ve loved you for a million years.” Wonder’s No. 1 smash won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, and it was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2002. Billboard praised the “soft, haunting ballad” for its “rich orchestral backing,” and it features two backup singers — Jim Gilstrap and Lani Groves — on its opening lines. By the time Wonder joins in, “he’s off and flying,” Stereogum notes of this masterpiece, which they hail as “a majestic reverie.”