Born as Steveland Judkins on May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michingan, Wonder now prefers to be knows as Steveland Morris after his mother's married name. Placed in an incubator immediately after his birth, Wonder was given too much oxygen, causing him to suffer permanent blindness. Despite his handicap, Wonder began to learn the piano at the age of seven, and had also mastered drums and harmonica by the age of nine. After his family moved to Detroit in 1954, Wonder joined a church choir, the gospel influence on his music balanced by the R&B of Ray Charles an Sam Cooke being played on his transistor radio. .
Wonder was discovered in 1961 by Ronnie White of the Miracles, who also arranged an audition for him in Motown Record. Berry Gory immediately signed Wonder to the label, that led to the birth of "Little Stevie Wonder." Though, the "Little" was dropped in 1964. Wonder was placed in the care of writer/producer Clarence Paul, who supervised his early recordings. .
Wonder and his label hit the jackpot in 1963 with "Fingertips-Pt. 2." This made Motown quickly marketed him on a series of albums as "the 12-year-old genius" in an attempt to link him with the popularity of "the genius," Ray Charles. In two years he became one of Motown's finest artists, recording a serious of brilliant singles for a solid nine years. Most of were he wrote himself. By the end of the 1960s, he was not only hitting the charts with his own records including: "Uptight," "Castles in the Sand," and "My Cherie Amour" but also by writing for many other Motown artists, including "It's a Shame" for the Spinners, co-writing "The Tears of a Clown" with Smokey Robinson and writing and producing the (Detroit) Spinners" "It's A Shame".
Instead of re-signing immediately after his contact expiration with Motown in 1971, Wonder instead recorded two full albums by himself. In his some of his lyrics, he took on racial problems and spiritual questions.
