{"id":2114950,"date":"2025-10-25T14:13:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T14:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2114950"},"modified":"2025-10-25T14:13:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T14:13:17","slug":"12-year-old-stevie-wonder-recorded-the-song-that-started-it-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/12-year-old-stevie-wonder-recorded-the-song-that-started-it-all\/","title":{"rendered":"12-Year-Old Stevie Wonder Recorded the Song That Started It All"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On this day in 1962, a young singer who would go on to become an iconic performer made a key recording. <strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/articles\/stevie-wonder-75-iconic-response-034250388.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Steve Wonder;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">Steve Wonder<\/a>,<\/strong> at the age of 12, recorded his first single for Motown Records. &#8220;Thank You (For Loving Me All The Way)&#8221; would not be Wonder&#8217;s biggest hit, but it was a marker of a key development in Wonder&#8217;s career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thisdayinmusic.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:According to This Day in Music;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">According to This Day in Music<\/a>, Wonder recorded the song on October 23, 1962, with the Funk Brothers backing him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.motownmuseum.org\/artist\/stevie-wonder\/#:~:text=Steveland%20Judkins%20Morris%20was%20only,the%20inclusion%20of%20social%20topics.\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:MotownMuseum notes;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">MotownMuseum notes<\/a> that Wonder auditioned at Motown and signed his first contract during the summer of 1961, when he was 11. His real name is <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biography.com\/musicians\/stevie-wonder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Steveland Hardaway Judkins,;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"><strong>Steveland Hardaway Judkins<\/strong>,<\/a> and even at the very beginning of his music career, he was already a triple threat. He not only sang, but he also played several musical instruments and was a songwriter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">During the early days of his career, he performed as &#8220;Little Stevie Wonder,&#8221; <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Stevie-Wonder\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:a name given to him;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">a name given to him<\/a> by Motown Records president <strong>Berry Gordy, Jr. <\/strong>A few years later, at the age of 15, he dropped the &#8220;Little.&#8221; His first big hit came in 1963 with &#8220;Fingertips, Part 2.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">At the age of 21, Wonder took on full creative control of his music. He started producing some of the hits he is most remembered for today, including &#8220;You Are the Sunshine of My Life&#8221; and &#8220;Superstition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Wonder was the opening act for the Rolling Stones during their North American tour in 1972, an unusual move for a Motown artist at that time. The tour introduced him to an entirely new audience and elevated his career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The iconic musician first embraced music at the age of 4 via a Detroit, Michigan, church choir. By the age of 10, he had taught himself how to play piano, harmonica, and drums.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Some of Wonder&#8217;s biggest hits came decades into his career. &#8220;Ebony and Ivory&#8221; was released in 1982, and &#8220;I Just Called to Say I Love You&#8221; came out in 1984. 1985 brought &#8220;Part-Time Lover.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In 2016, Wonder recorded &#8220;Faith&#8221; with <strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/articles\/ariana-grande-looks-absolutely-stunning-022037743.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ariana Grande;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\">Ariana Grande<\/a><\/strong>, and the song &#8220;Future Sunny Days,&#8221; which was used in the 2018 Scandal finale, was Wonder&#8217;s as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><i>This story was originally reported by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/news\/on-this-day-in-1962-12-year-old-stevie-wonder-recorded-the-song-that-started-it-all\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Parade;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Parade<\/a> on Oct 23, 2025, where it first appeared in the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/parade.com\/news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/google.com\/preferences\/source?q=parade.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On this day in 1962, a young singer who would go on to become an iconic performer made a key recording. Steve Wonder, at the age of 12, recorded his first single for Motown Records. &#8220;Thank You (For Loving Me All The Way)&#8221; would not be Wonder&#8217;s biggest hit, but it was a marker of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2114951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[372163,318584,400831,400832,324405,400833],"class_list":["post-2114950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-motown-records","tag-music-career","tag-steve-wonder","tag-steveland-hardaway-judkins","tag-stevie-wonder","tag-wonder"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/12-Year-Old-Stevie-Wonder-Recorded-the-Song-That-Started-It-All.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2114950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2114952,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114950\/revisions\/2114952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2114951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2114950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2114950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2114950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}