All about Stevie Wonder

Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950 as the third of six brothers and sisters to Calvin Judkins and Lula Mae Hardaway. The product of a premature birth, the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front, and an aborted growth spurt caused the retinas to detach.[7] The medical term for this condition is known as retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, and while it may have been exacerbated by the oxygen pumped into his incubator, this treatment was not the primary cause of his blindness.

When Wonder was four, his mother left his father and moved herself and her children to Detroit. Wonder’s mother eventually remarried and Wonder had his last name changed to Morris (the last name of his mother’s new husband), a name he has kept since. Wonder took up piano at age seven, and had mastered it by age nine. During his early childhood he was active in his church choir. He also taught himself to play the harmonica and the drums, and had mastered both by age ten. Wonder also learned to play the bass during his early years.

In 1961, at the age of eleven, Wonder was discovered singing outside a street corner by a relative of The Miracles’ Ronnie White, who was later introduced to Wonder. White brought Wonder and his mother to Motown Records. Impressed by the young musician, Motown CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown’s Tamla label with the name Little Stevie Wonder.Before signing, producer Mickey Stevenson gave Wonder his trademark name after remarking about him saying “that boy’s a wonder”. He then recorded the minor hit “I Call It Pretty Music, But the Old People Call It the Blues”, which was released in late 1961. Wonder released his first two albums, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie Wonder and Tribute to Uncle Ray, in 1962, to little success.