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Tamla T 54080 (AA)/(A), May 1963
(2 pressings)
b/w Fingertips (Part 1)
(Written by Henry (Hank) Cosby and Clarence Paul)
Oriole CBA 1853 (A) – August 1963
b/w Fingertips (Part 1)
(Released in the UK under license through Oriole Records)
When people think of Fingertips, this, Part 2, is what they usually mean. It’s the more direct, visceral, and thoroughly enjoyable of the two parts, but it wasn’t originally even intended as an A-side, never mind the million-selling number one pop hit it became – a success which must have exceeded Motown’s wildest dreams, however much Berry Gordy would later claim to have had faith in the boy Wonder’s chart future.
I’m unsure if there’s ever been such a weird number one pop hit as this. A live recording (and an incomplete one, at that, covering the last three minutes of the performance started on Part 1, but not picking up where Part 1 left off) by a blind multi-instrumentalist and harmonica virtuoso nobody in America had previously heard of (Stevie’s first three singles prior to this breakthrough had failed to chart), which comes to a complete halt with a glaring mistake and a few seconds of “dead air” right smack in the middle of it. Yet in the summer of 1963, the American record buying public couldn’t get enough of it.
There’s a simple enough explanation, of course. It’s fantastic.
Let me start off by explaining what the heck this record is, because although it seems obvious to me just from listening to it, much of the Internet seems to have got it wrong, so some background might help. This is a live recording from a multi-artist Motown show at the Regal Theater in Chicago, in March of 1963. Crucially, these were so tightly managed that the same group of backing musicians didn’t do the whole night (since there wasn’t really enough time for all those rehearsals) – so different artists would be assigned different backing players.
Fingertips, as featured on both sides of this single, was the lengthy set-closer for Stevie’s segment of one of these shows, and here he’s already way over his time slot. (The full length performance – not featured on the tie-in album, Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, as the version of Fingertips included as the opening track there is just the two sides of this single clumsily bodged together – apparently ran for something like nine or ten minutes.)
However, the new arrangement of Fingertips Stevie was using to close his live appearances – now built around the band belting out an absolutely killer horn riff and smashing on the drums while Wonder set about whaling on his harmonica and thrashing around the stage like a crazy person – is absolutely tearing up the crowd, so much that the increasingly-impatient stage manager (waiting ever more anxiously to introduce the next act, usually stated to be the Marvelettes) is reluctant to haul him off the stage, Oscars-style.
Stevie knows this, and starts taking liberties, dragging the song out to an absurd length, seeing how far he can take it – even interpolating a bit of Mary Had A Little Lamb to the amusement of the audience – while the band, clearly loving it, back him up and egg him on. You get the feeling they’d have happily kept playing for twenty minutes, while Stevie gets ever more energetic and the crowd gets ever wilder.
When he breaks out an apparent ending at 1:25 (enough to fool the stage manager, not listening to what Stevie’s singing – he explicitly says he’s “gonna sing this song one more time when I come back” – beyond the fact he ends with “…so goodbye!”) and walks off stage, Stevie’s musicians are quickly hustled off the stage. The MC signals to the orchestra to strike up the transition music, and ushers the next band on, ready for the Marvelettes’ set, already running late. No footage of this particular performance exists (it would be invaluable), but video for other Motortown Revue shows available on YouTube illustrate this process, showing the artists and a few musicians rushing off stage and the next lot arriving and setting up while this exact same music is played to cover the transition, all taking place within about 30 seconds.
Here, everyone’s in the middle of doing this, when Stevie suddenly appears again stage left, causing the orchestra to abruptly stop as the house lights focus back on Stevie again, as he starts up solo on his harmonica. Some of Stevie’s band are able to hurry back out and resume their positions (some of them probably didn’t leave in the first place, having paid attention to what Stevie was planning to do), but at least one of Stevie’s guys, bassist Larry Moses, has already been replaced by Joe Swift of the Marvelettes’ band – who, remember, haven’t rehearsed Fingertips – and who doesn’t have time to swap places again. The result is a bewildered Swift shouting “What key, what key?”, and mumbling some other comments the mic doesn’t quite pick up (supposedly some of them are cuss words, but I’ve never been able to pick anything distinct out of what he’s saying), trying to keep up with what’s happening.
And then he gets his answer – C minor – and slots in to the performance as the band strikes up again with that riff, and Stevie starts blasting away on his harmonica, and the crowd goes absolutely bananas.
On original release, Part 2 was the B-side, Berry Gordy supposedly trying to bury the false ending – but it’s easy to see why DJs started flipping the record over, and it’s got very little to do with any kind of novelty value. It’s positively electric, this. Stevie’s got the audience eating out of the palm of his hand. When he makes his reappearance, someone screams “Yeahh! Get down!”; I think this is one of the crowd, unable to contain her excitement, rather than anyone on stage reacting to Wonder’s ad-libbed encore. I totally know what she means, too. This is a record made for playing the loudest it will go; get up and dance.
The sheer energy buzzing out of the speakers here comes from two sources. The central horn riff, only really hinted at on the jazz flute-heavy original LP version from Stevie’s début album The Jazz Soul Of Little Stevie, was brought to the forefront by the new arrangement used for the live performance (coined by Johnny Allen, according to the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 3), but it hadn’t really been allowed room to breathe during the lengthy intro section of the performance as featured on Part 1, getting bogged down with the slower tempo-change bits from the original which suck the momentum back out of the crowd whenever it threatens to cut loose. Here, though, we’ve moved past that – Stevie lets the band use it to full effect, none of that messing around with the tempo, nothing fancy, just a full-on, repetitive, blood-and-guts attack – an endlessly rising, kick-ass tower of noise. On the new mix of the song, as featured on the second pressing of this single which placed Part 2 on top and sold more than a million copies, there’s tons more echo and fizz than on the first pressing, giving the whole thing a rougher, more in-your-face feel that means you can’t sit still while listening to it; a masterstroke.
The other great thing about Part 2 as compared to Part 1 are Stevie’s vocals. The original LP version and Part 1 were both instrumental, but this one has lyrics (basic ones that sound as though they were made up on the spot – and some of them may well have been – but lyrics nonetheless), and Stevie’s consummate stagecraft is on display as he uses them to get the crowd whipped into a frenzied lather. It’s clear right from the off, when Stevie opens Part 2 by shouting EVERYBODY SAY YEAH! and breaks into a masterful call-and-response section that immediately lifts everything up a level. (It certainly seems to have left quite an impression on Chaka Khan).
(Everybody Say Yeah! was actually the working title for this very site, you’ll not be interested to know.)
The best record of Wonder’s “Little Stevie” phase, by a long chalk, this really is remarkable, just a huge amount of fun. Simple and straightforward, sure, but sometimes that’s the best approach, especially if you’ve got Stevie Wonder in your corner; wind him up and watch him go. You might conceivably get tired of listening to Part 1; you’ll never get tired of listening to this.
MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)
You’re reading Motown Junkies, an attempt to review every Motown A- and B-side ever released. Click on the “previous” and “next” buttons below to go back and forth through the catalogue, or visit the Master Index for a full list of reviews so far.
(Or maybe you’re only interested in Stevie Wonder? Click for more.)
Little Stevie Wonder “Fingertips (Part 1)” |
The Burnadettes “First You’ve Got To Recognize God” |
DISCOVERING MOTOWN |
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michael landes said:
Here we go again.
I absolutely agree with everything you say. Except………………….. in spite of all that it just doesn’t make it for me (!!!???)
That’s because, it’s all that amazing energy but to my mind there is nothing to use it on. The material is………. where? Lyrics? not really. melody? What melody. it is indeed an electric example of whipping an audience up and forgive me but that is indeed a novelty appeal. and that’s all folks. If there’s a song here I sure can’t find it. and for me, no song means no performance means no record.
Now I’ve already said that I do indeed believe that the only meaningful comments are the positive ones and I can absolutely understand why so many people love this. Wasn’t this the second pop #1 for the company or some such? But precisely because it is so beloved, so iconic, I thought I’d put out a minority view. I’m sure everybody willl go right on loving it and why shouldn’t they. By the way, some of my favorite singles of all time could just as credibly be considered non-songs. so I really do get it.:-0
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The Nixon Administration said:
Thanks Michael. It’ll be quite funny if I end up somehow cast in the position of defending sacred cows, when I know there are some 1s and 2s due to be meted out to some beloved “classics” along the way, and when there are some 10s to be bestowed on things that sold nine copies…
To me, though, this is pretty much pure dance music, and not only that but dance music as we would understand it from a 90s/00s perspective, and so how much you like it will be very much dependent on whether you think that sort of thing has any validity (and I obviously do, but then I used to DJ quite respectably in dance clubs in my life before I went to law school). No lyrics to speak of, it’s all about improvising over the top of that repeated riff, which functions as an early loop; the mythical full length version is a 12″ mix before there were 12″ singles to put them on. There’s nothing cerebral about it; it’s literally just made to tweak your glands and get you moving. Which it does, for me, every time.
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nikatnyte said:
You’ve expressed very well my few reservations about this record. And that’s it. It’s a great record, but there’s very little song, which is usually part of the whole equation. That speaks to the incredible confluence of talent, energy, timing and luck that contributed to the success of this record. But almost all other Motown smashes had great songs to back them up. Still, that’s not to denigrate this achievement, which is considerable.
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Dave L said:
“C’mon, goodbye goodbye
goodbye goodbye
goodbye goodbye goodbye
I’m gonna now, gonna go yeah
Yeah, let’s swing it one more time
How ’bout it, let’s hear it for him
Stevie Wonder!”
It was and still is just bang-your-head-against-the-wall f***ing good. 🙂 Michael’s not wrong in his opinion either; “Fingertips” has always seemed like it thumbed its nose at disciplined song structure rules, maybe existing only to showcase happy, on-stage chaos and youthful exuberance. If you don’t look for more than that from it, it’ll not fail you.
It would be a triumph Stevie would have to savor for over two years to come. Nelson George, in Where Did Our Love Go addresses that awkward period in Stevie’s career, noting that jealous insiders hoped -as future releases sank- Gordy would decide Stevie was a lucky one-shot, and write him off. George states that “as an adolescent, Stevie could be a real pain in the ass” and “made himself some enemies.”
“But the fault wasn’t entirely Stevie’s,” Nelson continues, finding that the Wonder singles in this period were “some of worst” material Motown ever saddled any major act with.
Here again, he’s more right than he is wrong. While I think “Hey Harmonica Man,” and even more so “High Heel Sneakers” redeem themselves quite adequately, no sane person at Motown could have thought “Workout Stevie Workout” (“a clumsy attempt to recreate the live-feeling in the studio”), “Castles In The Sand” (“a dopey, kiddie-love song”), “Happy Street” and “Kiss Me Baby” would ever stand shoulder to shoulder with the brilliance now routinely coming from Smokey and Holland-Dozier-Holland.
“By November 1965,” George states, “the wolves were snapping at Stevie’s heels,” But the turnaround, of course, was “Uptight” and the muscular string of production-line hits that followed, validating not only Gordy’s faith in his eventually-very stubborn great artist, but all of us kids who bought up the first great hit and were growing up right along with Stevie.
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michael landes said:
I’d just like to take a moment to put stevie’s goofy smash in perspective by naming some other great records using songs that are in themselves indefensible.
I’ll just name one obvious one and you can add your own favorite bit of strangeness if you like. Love Me Do by the Beatles. Now I think this is a great track. But, Yikes! Has there ever been a worse lyric ever? has there ever been a worse tune ever? Yow!! And yet, a little harmony, a little harmonica and bang, I love the record. I wouldn’t even call it a guilty pleasure, I just flat out like it without excuses. go figure.
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Landini said:
Hey. I’m a Landes too. Brother? I think of the song War by Edwin Star. The melody is pretty monotenous and the lyrics on paper sound like a 10th grade position paper. But throw in an awesome production and Edwins fiery vocals and you have a fantastic record. The Tempts version was good but didn’t have the makings of a hit single. Re Love Me Do that song says more to me than the entire Pepper album.
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RW said:
Everybody Say Yeah! would have made a great name for the site, and then I wouldn’t keep clicking on that cheesy-looking tribute band’s site whenever I think I’ve found this place!
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The Nixon Administration said:
I should point out that they’re really nice guys, though. (They didn’t exist when I first started sketching out the site and chose the URL – but they did by the time I uploaded anything and started showing up in Google searches, at which point it was too late to change it all. I was still thinking about it when the Satintones CD came out referring to me by Motown Junkies name, which kind of sealed the deal. Still, this way I get to annoy/amuse James Dean Bradfield, so all is not lost).
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Landini said:
If I had a site I would call it What Key What Key. LOL
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144man said:
If you bookmark this site, that will stop you ending up in the wrong place.
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Landini said:
I’ve always been curious about how the “12 yr old Genius Live” album got to number one. That was very good for an album by a fairly unknown black artist in the early 60s. When you ask people what Motown’s first #1 album was, they may say something by Stevie Wonder but they are most likely referring to “Talking Book” or one of his other 70s classics. Was the “12 Year Old Genius Live” album released in England?
Another interesting thought is that James Brown’s “Live” album did very well on the pop charts that year as well. I think it got up to #2. At that point, the mainstream audience knew very little about James Brown.
Before I sign off, it is interesting to note that in the near future, both Wonder & Brown made appearances in Beach/Ski Party style movies. Remember the classic line in “Ski Party” that the white girl says to Brown? “You’re James Brown & the Famous Flames! I have all your records!” yeah sure! How about this one that I just made up — “You’re Little Stevie Wonder! I have all your records including Tribute to Uncle Ray!”
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Graham Betts said:
The Oriole label released both Tribute To Uncle Ray and The 12 Year Old Genius Live in August 1963, neither of which sold or charted. In fact, Stevie wouldn’t get a British hit until Uptight in 1966 and wouldn’t appear on the album charts until 1968 with Stevie Wonder’s Greatest Hits.
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Governor Milton P. Shapp said:
I’m sorry., but nothing about this record works for me in any way relative to a musical experience. It’s like someone running a vacuum cleaner or something. What exactly is it?
Probably the worst Motown hit of all time. Just awful.
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Landini said:
Hey Gov, Can understand your thoughts on this, though I kind of enjoy it in a strange sort of way. It may be less of a song that an “experience”. Hmmm…. maybe Motown’s “Revolution #9”? Of course, “Fingertips” spawned other horrors such as “Hey Harmonica Man” & (shudder!) “Workout Stevie Workout”!
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Governor Milton P. Shapp said:
Yeah, I don’t know, there are some moments in musical history that are beyond my understanding, and the fact that this was a hit is one of them, right up there with the singing career of Mick Jagger….
Thankfully Steve stopped being “little” and kept on being a Wonder.
You have a great idea there! I think someone should do a mash up of this tune and #9 #9 #9.
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Landini said:
Hey Gov, Wow! I thought I was the only person in the known universe who was NOT a fan of Mr. Jagger. Boy! Do I feel better! By the way, back to Lilttle Stevie, I have to confess a fondness for his song “Castles in the Sand” Oh well, can’t win em all right? LOL! A few years ago I was with a friend in my car & “Castles” came on from a tape I was playing & my friend couldn’t believe it was Stevie.
Back to “Fingertips Pt 2” – Our friend, Chaka Kahn sampled it for “I Feel For You” . I normally am not a fan of sampling, but thought that was kind of clever.
Also, incredibly the “parent” album for “Fingertips” the “12 yr old genious Live” set actually went to #1 on the pop album chart. Motown/Stevie’s first #1 album!
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bogart4017 said:
This whole bit about the set change and “what key what key” jazz. I’ve been reading about it for several years yet each time i read about it its a segue from Stevie to Mary Wells and some of her band members. While Nix is most credible what if 20 years from now when the story is told its a segue from Stevie to the Contours?
Just being silly! I know The Contours came nowhere near Mary Wells or The Marvelettes on the Motortwon revue bill.
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144man said:
“Currently top of the U.S. charts is this wild effort by the little blind 12-year old. It’s recorded live at the Apollo theatre in New York, and the atmosphere is tremendous. On side one he introduces the wild affair and then presumably plays harmonica on the swinging Ray Charles flavoured thing. Side two is the big hit side, and there’s little Stevie screaming away on this side with loads of gimmicks, and R & B mannerisms thrown in all over the place on this disc. The band plays well, behind him, and the atmosphere is tremendous. Could be a hit here with the plugs – certainly it’s well timed for the R & B craze but maybe it’s a little too far out. 4/5”
[Contemporary U.K. music paper review, probably Record Mirror]
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LPMA said:
I wonder why the songs were included twice on Complete Motown Singles vol.3? I’ve read that the “what key” line was mixed-in higher on the second pressing, but is there anything else different to them, or specifically to Part 1?
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Steve Hill said:
For my money Fingertips Pt. 2 is the PERFECT mix of music and noise, in other words, Rock ‘n Roll!! One of the greatest popular music singles ever released!!
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