Tamla 240
Producer: Berry Gordy
Track listing: Fingertips / Soul Bongo / La La La La / (I’m Afraid) The Masquerade Is Over / Hallelujah I Love So / Drown in My Own Tears
August 24, 1963
1 week
When Little Stevie Wonder/The 12 Year Old Genius hit the peak in its seventh week on the Top LP’s chart, Wonder became the youngest artist ever to score a Number One album and only the second teenager, after Ricky Nelson, to top the chart. Little Stevie Wonder/The 12 Year Did Genius was also the first live album ever to reach Number One.
Some of the album may have been recorded while Wonder was 12, hence its title, but by the time it was released Wonder had celebrated his 13th birthday. And despite his triumph at that tender age, Wonder’s success was not immediate. His first album, 1962’s The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie, and his first three singles had all failed to chart, despite the fact Wonder was backed by ace session players, including Marvin Gaye on piano and drums.
Wonder was signed to the Motown subsidiary Tamla, after his cousin, Ronnie White of the Miracles, convinced a Motown talent scout to give the young musician a listen. It was Motown founder Berry Gordy who decided that Wonder should be recorded live, because despite his lack of chart success, the young musician was knocking out audiences with his live performances on Motown’s Motortown Revue showcases.
“It’s almost like that was another person,” Wonder says of his early success. “But I still remember the shows that we recorded. It was at the Apollo Theatre on a Saturday.” He also recorded at the Regal Theatre in Chicago; “Fingertips,” which would go on to become Wonder’s first charting single, was recorded there.
Motown opted to label Wonder “the 12-year-old genius” in an effort to align him with Ray Charles, who was also blind and often referred to as a “musical genius.” Wonder was flattered but a bit perplexed by the title. “I never thought of myself as a genius,” he says. “I couldn’t really relate to it. It was a nice compliment, but it wasn’t like I was saying, ‘Yes, I’m a genius.’ ”
The top-notch players who accompanied Wonder in the studio and on the road may have helped to keep him humble. “They all used to call me ‘hard-socks,'” says Wonder. “I was like their little son or something. When I did a good show, they would say it, but if it was messed up they wouldn’t say anything, so I knew that must not have been that good of a show that night.”
Although Wonder’s sidemen were all seasoned pros, sometimes they had a hard time keeping up with the multi-instrumentalist teen. At one point during “Fingertips,” which features Wonder on bongos and harmonica, bassist Larry Moses can be heard frantically shouting, “What key? What key?”
“They probably thought ‘Fingertips’ was cute,” Wonder says of his accompanists. “But they were more into the blues and jazz songs I would do. They used to like when I sang ‘Masquerade Is Over.’ They could better relate to that kind of song, because most of them were jazz musicians.”
Wonder’s young age also perplexed some of those who attended his performances. “I remember once I was playing the Apollo and I met this lady from England who said, ‘Isn’t it strange for a young lad to sing love songs to adults?’ I just said, ‘I don’t know. It’s fine to me.'”
It was also fine to the American public. On August 10, 1963, an edited version of the opening track, titled “Fingertips (Pt. II),” hit Number One on the singles chart. Two weeks later, Little Stevie Wonder/The 12 Year Old Genius joined it at the top, marking the beginning of a long career of chart dominance.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of August 24, 1963
1. Little Stevie Wonder/ The 12 Year Old Genius, Little Stevie Wonder
2. Trini Lopez at PJ’s, Trini Lopez
3. Days of Wine and Roses, Andy Williams
A. Moving, Peter, Paul & Mary
5. My Son, the Nut, Allan Sherman