On this day 42 years ago — on August 3, 1973— Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions was released on Tamla/Motown. It was already his 16th studio full-length, and is one of Wonder’s major works. “Living for the City,” “Higher Ground,” and “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” each charted; the album itself got to number 4. The album won the Grammy for the best album of the year, while “Living” won the Grammy for the best R&B song.
Just four days after the record was released, Wonder was involved in a very serious collision between the car he was in and a logger ahead of him; a log sailed through the windshield and into Wonder’s forehead. He recovered, but recovery took a long time, including his sense of smell which was lost in the accident but regained years later.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2015.
