Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life illustrate the range of that later work. The Recording Academy’s biography connects these albums to songs such as Superstition and You Are the Sunshine of My Life.

The Rock Hall recognised his career in 1989. His public role also extends beyond music: the Recording Academy records his appointment as a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 2009.

Fingertips, Part 2 became a hit in 1963 after a live Motortown Revue recording. This early recording captures the stage performer behind the Little Stevie Wonder name; it belongs to a different phase from the increasingly self-directed albums he made as an adult.

After gaining greater creative control at 21, Wonder expanded his work as writer, performer and producer. Music of My Mind in 1972 explored synthesizers and connected themes, while Talking Book included Superstition and You Are the Sunshine of My Life. The albums offer a clearer route through this change than a greatest-hits sequence alone.

His songwriting also reached other performers, including the Miracles and the Spinners. On Hotter Than July in 1980, Happy Birthday supported the campaign for a national holiday honouring Martin Luther King Jr. In this catalogue, musicianship, authorship and public advocacy often meet within the same recording.