Stevie Wonder (Judkins, his mother's surname, or Morris, his father's surname), blind from birth, represents the artistic and commercial apotheosis of Motown.

His precocious talent exploded at the age of twelve, and his earliest recordings are perhaps still his best, certainly the most intense in grit and pathos (Contract Of Love, 1962; Fingertips, 1963, his first number one, written by Henry Cosby, in which he simultaneously plays harmonica and drums besides singing). In the following years he consolidated his fame with the colossal sales of Uptight (1966) and I Was Made To Love Her (1967), written by Cosby and Sylvia Moy, and For Once In My Life (1968), exuberant and frenetic street-dance numbers that gradually veered toward a more composed form of song, as demonstrated by the moving A Place In The Sun (1966) by Ron Miller and Bryan Wells.

In 1969, having to abandon his childish image because of his age, he turned instead, with My Cherie Amour (again by Cosby and Moy) and Yester-me Yester-you Yesterday (another masterpiece by Miller and Wells), to a calmer and more conventional style of singing, that of a melodic chansonnier against an orchestral backdrop. He returned to emphatic blackness only with Signed Sealed Delivered (1970), not coincidentally the only song written by himself (and his wife).

In 1971, having obtained full artistic freedom from Motown, he made use of his broad instrumental arsenal (now extended to electronic keyboards as well) to indulge in exotic crossovers.

His activity subsequently shifted more and more toward the concept album, especially Music Of My Mind (1972), a collaboration with electronic musicians Robert Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil of the Tonto's Expanding Head Band, Talking Book (1972), with the hyper-funky Superstition and the romantic You Are The Sunshine Of My Heart, and Innervisions (1973), with the driving and polemical Living In The City (1973), moving in particular toward the pop-funk-swing jam, with increasingly meticulous attention to arrangement. Wonder thus produced works as ambitious as they were naive, characterized by a soft, fluid, refined sound, with baroque arrangements (symphonic, funky, electronic) and metaphysical lyrics, stuffed with instrumentals, to which the public invariably gave warm receptions. An exception is the confused Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974), which contains older material and two hits: You Haven't Done Nothing (another political song) and Boogie On Reggae Woman. In the tour de force of Songs In The Key Of Life (1976), however, parade dance hits such as I Wish, period-style tunes such as Sir Duke, orations such as Village Ghetto Land, instrumental novelties such as Isn't She Lovely, and an entire series of cloying ballads. Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (1979) was the ambitious soundtrack to a documentary.

Stevie Wonder also wrote Tell Me Something Good (1974) for Rufus fronted by Chaka Khan (Yvette Stevens).

In the 1980s he would return to shaping easy melodies for the charts (Ebony and Ivory, 1982, a duet with Paul McCartney; I Just Called To Say I Love You, 1983; Part-time Lover, 1985), and would draw inspiration from Caribbean and African music for increasingly sporadic albums (Hotter Than July, 1980, with reggae and hip-hop pieces; In Square Circle, 1985; Characters, 1987).

The very fact that his career coincided with his physical growth, and that therefore his vocal qualities, as well as his instrumental and compositional skills, changed over the years, forced him into continual stylistic changes, from which, however, a prodigious musicality always emerged. The many number ones during the golden decade testify both to his ability to adapt to public tastes and to a marked tendency to dissipate his talent.

An aristocrat of soul, and an unquestionable natural talent, Wonder was responsible, for better and for worse, for soul's decisive departure from the blues.

The soundtrack for Jungle Fever (1991) was the first relevant work in at least a decade. Conversation Peace (1995), that he started composing in 1987, incorporated contemporary production techniques and new fads (reggae, Afro-pop, hip-hop) without substantially altering the format of his soul-pop music.

Wonder released fourteen albums in the 1960s, ten albums in the 1970s, four in the 1980s (including one soundtrack) and three in the 1990s (including one live). A Time 2 Love (2005) was a massive disappointment.