BIRTHDAYS: Happy birthday to Stevie Wonder, born as Stevland Judkins in Saginaw, Michigan on this day in 1950. |Route & Don’s Tunes

 Any and every excuse! Mr Stevland Judkins! SUPERSTITION!

an anthem for modern life 

When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer.

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Happy 75th birthday to Stevie Wonder! 

Since he first began making music, Wonder's life has taken on almost mythic proportions. He was born Steveland Morris May 13, 1950, in Saginaw, Mich., though his biological father was named Calvin Judkins.

Six weeks premature, Wonder, by most accounts, was blinded when he was administered an excess of oxygen during the 52 days he spent in an incubator. Though his mom, Lula Hardaway, sang in the church choir, Wonder calls his talent "truly God's gift" since none of his other siblings -- Milton, Calvin, Larry, Timothy and Renee -- were musically inclined. That gift manifested itself in Wonder learning the harmonica, piano and drums by the age of 9. 

"Sometimes I think I would love to see … just to see the beauty of flowers and trees and birds and the earth and grass. … Being as I've never seen, I don't know what it's like to see. So in a sense I'm complete. Maybe I'd be incomplete if I did see. Maybe I'd see some things that I didn't want to see … the beauty of the earth compared to the destruction of man. You see, it's one thing when you are blind from birth, and you don't know what it's like to see, anyway, so it is just like seeing. The sensation of seeing is not one that I have and not one that I worry about."

 As quoted in Stevie Wonder (1978) by Constanze Elsner, and Jet Vol. 53

Photo: Rex Features

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