English author and playwright Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was born 13 May 1907. Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca (which won the Best Picture Oscar in 1941), Jamaica Inn and the short stories The Birds and Don’t Look Now. The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the latter by Nicolas Roeg she is considered a first-rate storyteller, a mistress of suspense and Her ability to recreate a sense of place is much admired, and her work remains popular worldwide.The novel Rebecca, which has been adapted for stage and screen several times, is generally regarded as her masterpiece.
In the U.S. she won the National Book Award for favourite novel of 1938, voted by members of the American Booksellers Association. One of her strongest influences here was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Her fascination with the Brontë family is also apparent in The Infernal World of Branwell Brontë, her biography of the troubled elder brother to the Brontë girls. Other significant works include The Scapegoat, The House on the Strand, and The King’s General. The last is set in the middle of thefirst and second English Civil Wars. Though written from the Royalist perspective of her adopted Cornwall, it gives a fairly neutral view of this period of history.Several of her other novels have also been adapted for the screen, including Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, Hungry Hill, and My Cousin Rachel (1951). The Hitchcock film The Birds (1963) is based on a treatment of one of her short stories, as is the film Don’t Look Now (1973). Of the films, du Maurier often complained that the only ones she liked were Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca and Nicolas Roeg’sDon’t Look Now. Hitchcock’s treatment of Jamaica Inn involved a complete re-write of the ending to accommodate the ego of its star,Charles Laughton. Du Maurier also felt that Olivia de Havilland was wrongly cast as the anti-heroine of My Cousin Rachel.
Frenchman’s Creek fared rather better in a lavish Technicolor version released in 1944. Du Maurier later regretted her choice of Alec Guinness as the lead in the film of The Scapegoat, which she partly financed. In 1989, Indian director Pavithran adapted her short story “No Motive” from the collection The Rendezvous and Other Stories (1980) for his critically acclaimed mystery thriller Utharam (Answer). Du Maurier was often categorised as a “romantic novelist” (a term she deplored), though most of her novels, with the notable exception of Frenchman’s Creek, are quite different from the stereotypical format of a Georgette Heyer or a Barbara Cartland novel. Du Maurier’s novels rarely have a happy ending, and her brand of romanticism often had sinister overtones and shadows of the paranormal she so favoured. In this light, she has more in common with the “sensation novels” of Wilkie Collins and others, which she admired.
Du Maurier’s novel Mary Anne (1954) is a fictionalised account of the real-life story of her great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke nee Thompson (1776–1852). From 1803 to 1808, Mary Anne Clarke was mistress of Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827). He was the “Grand Old Duke of York” of the nursery rhyme, a son of King George III and brother of the later King George IV.The central character of her last novel, Rule Britannia, is an ageing and eccentric actress who was based on Gertrude Lawrence and Gladys Cooper (to whom it is dedicated) .It was in her short stories that she was able to give free rein to the harrowing and terrifying side of her imagination; “The Birds”, “Don’t Look Now”, “The Apple Tree” and “The Blue Lenses” are exquisitely crafted tales of terror that shocked and surprised her audience in equal measure.
Daphne du Maurier wrote three plays. Her first was a successful adaptation of her novel Rebecca, she also wrote the auto biographical drama The Years Between about the unexpected return of a senior officer, thought killed in action, who finds that his wife has taken his seat as Member of Parliament and has started a romantic relationship with a local farmer. Better known is her third play, September Tide, about a middle-aged woman whose bohemian artist son-in-law falls for her. She also wrote family novels/biographies about her own ancestry, of which Gerald, the biography of her father, was most lauded. Later she wrote The Glass-Blowers, which traces her French ancestry and gives a vivid depiction of the French Revolution. The du Mauriers is a sequel of sorts describing the somewhat problematic ways in which the family moved from France to England in the 19th century and finally Mary Anne, the novel based on the life of a notable, and infamous, English ancestor – her great-grandmother Mary Anne Clarke, former mistress of Frederick, Duke of York.
Her final novels reveal just how far her writing style had developed. The House on the Strand (1969) combines elements of “mental time-travel”, a tragic love affair in 14th century Cornwall, and the dangers of using mind-altering drugs. Her final novel, Rule Britannia, written post-Vietnam, plays with the resentment of English people in general and Cornish people in particular at the increasing dominance of the U.S. Du Maurier sadly passed away aged 81 at her home in Cornwall, on 19 April 1989, which had been the setting for many of her books. Her body was cremated and her ashes scattered at Kilmarth
Danny Kirwan, musician with Fleetwood Mac was born 13 May 1950. Fleetwood Mac were formed in 1966 in London, they were originally named The Bluesbreakers and Founder Peter Green named the group by combining he surnames of two of his bandmates (Fleetwood and McVie). Christine Mcvie joined the band in 1970 while married to John McVie, Green asked if drummer Mick Fleetwood could join having already been in two bands with Fleetwood. The Bluesbreakers now consisted of Green, Fleetwood, John McVie and Mayall. Green contacted Fleetwood to form a new band and wanted McVie on bass guitar even naming the band ‘Fleetwood Mac’ as a way to entice him. The band made its debut in 1967 at the Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival. Feetwood Mac’s first album, Fleetwood Mac, was a no-frills blues album. The band soon released two singles “Black Magic Woman” (later a big hit for Santana) and “Need Your Love So Bad”.The band’s second album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968. Like the first it was an all-blues album, Then next album was Then Play on”.
Sadly Peter Green left and Fleetwood Mac released Kiln House which was more rock. Spencer’s wrote the country-tinged “Sun Sound” meanwhile Christine contributed to Kiln House, singing backup vocals, and drawing the album cover. They also released a single “Dragonfly” b/w “The Purple Dancer” . Christine McVie, made her first appearance with the band in 1969 and played her first gig as an official member on 6 August 1970 in New Orleans. An album of previously unreleased material from the original Fleetwood Mac called The Original Fleetwood Mac was also released, Then While on tour in 1971, guitarist Jeremy Spencer disappeared and After several days of frantic searching, the band discovered that he had joined a religious group, the Children of God. So the band hired Bob Welch as Guitarist. In September 1971, the band released “Future Games” and “Bare Trees” six months later. This featured the songs “Sentimental Lady”, &“Spare Me a Little of Your Love”, sadly whilst on tour Danny Kirwan developed an alcohol dependency and Fleetwood fired him. In September 1972, the band added guitarist Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker and also hired Savoy Brown’s road manager, John Courage.
Mick, John, Christine, Welch, Weston, and Walker recorded the album “Penguin”. After the tour, the band fired Walker The remaining five recorded “Mystery to Me” six months later containing the song “Hypnotized” . However, things were not well within the band. The McVies’ marriage was under a lot of stress, aggravated by their constant working together, and John McVie’s considerable alcohol abuse. During the tour, Weston also had an affair with Fleetwood’s wife, Jenny Boyd Fleetwood, the sister of Pattie Boyd Harrison. Fleetwood soon fired Weston and the tour was cancelled and in one of the most bizarre events in rock history, the band’s manager, Clifford Davis, claimed that he owned the name Fleetwood Mac and put out a “fake Mac”. Nobody in the “fake Mac” was ever officially in the real band, Fans were told that Bob Welch and John McVie had quit the group, and that Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie would be joining the band at a later date. Fleetwood Mac’s road manager, John Courage, hid the real Fleetwood Mac’s equipment, which helped shorten the tour by the fake band. But the lawsuit that followed put the real Fleetwood Mac out of commission for almost a year. The issue was who actually owned the name “Fleetwood Mac”. Unfortunately Fleetwood and McVie, had signed contracts forfeiting the rights to the name. The “real” Fleetwood Mac were in fact Fleetwood, Welch and the McVies. While this did not end the legal battle, the band was able to record as Fleetwood Mac again.
Following this debacle Fleetwood Mac decided to manage themselves and released Heroes Are Hard to Find in September 1974 and added a second keyboardist Doug Graves. After Welch left the band, Fleetwood began searching for a possible replacement. While Fleetwood was scouting Van Nuys, California,Mick Fleetwood heard a song titled “Frozen Love” by an American band, Buckingham Nicks. Fleetwood liked it, and invited the guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and his musical partner and girlfriend, Stephanie “Stevie” Nicks, to join Fleetwood Mac. In 1975, the new line-up released the eponymous Fleetwood Mac which contained Christine McVie’s “Over My Head”, “Say You Love Me”, and Stevie Nicks’ “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” .
Sadly the breakdown of John and Christine McVie’s marriage, Mick Fleetwood and Jenny’s marriage and Buckingham and Nicks’ long term romantic relationship, plus creative and personal tensions, fuelled by high consumption of drugs and alcohol, created problems within the band. This resulted in the album Rumours, in which they laid bare the emotional turmoil experienced at that time. Critically acclaimed, it was the recipient of the Grammy Award for Album of the Year for 1977. Hit singles included Buckingham’s “Go Your Own Way”, Nicks’s U.S. No.1 “Dreams”, and Christine McVie’s “Don’t Stop” and “You Make Loving Fun”. Buckingham’s “Second Hand News”, Nicks’ “Gold Dust Woman” and “The Chain”. ’Buckingham pursuaded Fleetwood to make the next album more experimental and the result was the quirky 20-track double album, Tusk. It spawned three hit singles; Lindsey Buckingham’s “Tusk” Christine McVie’s “Think About Me” and Stevie Nicks’ 6½ minute opus “Sara” .Tusk remains one of Fleetwood Mac’s most ambitious albums to date. The band also recorded music for the Fleetwood Mac Live album, which was released at the end of 1980.The next album, 1982′s Mirage, followed solo albums by Nicks (Bella Donna) and Buckingham (Law and Order). Mirage was a return to the more conventional sound to recapture the huge success of Rumours. Its hits included Christine McVie’s “Hold Me” and “Love In Store” Stevie Nicks’s “Gypsy”, and Lindsey Buckingham’s “Oh Diane”, “Eyes Of The World” and “Can’t Go Back”.
Following Mirage, the band members went on to pursue solo careers. Stevie Nicks released two more solo albums (1983′s The Wild Heart and 1985′s Rock a Little), Lindsey Buckingham issued Go Insane in 1984, the same year that Christine McVie made an eponymous album (yielding the Top 10 hit “Got A Hold On Me” and the Top 40 hit “Love Will Show Us How”). However, during this period, Mick Fleetwood filed for bankruptcy, Nicks was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction problems, and John McVie had suffered an addiction-related seizure—all attributed to the lifestyle of excess afforded to them by their worldwide success and It was rumoured that Fleetwood Mac had finally broken up. Fleetwood Mac recorded the album, Tango in the Night, in 1987. The album went on to become their best-selling release since Rumours, Itcontained four hits: Christine McVie’s “Little Lies” and “Everywhere” (the former being co-written with McVie’s new husband Eddy Quintela), Sandy Stewart and Stevie Nicks’ “Seven Wonders”, and Lindsey Buckingham’s “Big Love”. “Family Man”, “Isn’t It Midnight”, Lindsey Buckingham left and Following his departure, Fleetwood Mac added two new guitarists to the band,Billy Burnette and Rick Vito. Vito, was a Peter Green admirer, and had played with many artists from Bonnie Raitt to John Mayall, and even worked with John McVie on two Mayall albums.
Capitalising on the success of Tango in the Night, the band continued with a Greatest Hits album in 1988 which featured singles from the 1975–88 era, and included two new songs: “No Questions Asked” , and “As Long as You Follow” . It was dedicated to Buckingham. Fleetwood Mac then recorded the album Behind the Mask, which included McVie’s “Save Me”. The subsequent “Behind the Mask” tour saw the band play sold out shows at London’s Wembley Stadium, and on the final show in Los Angeles, the band were joined onstage by Buckingham. The two women of the band, who, had both decided that the tour would be their last though both stated that they would still record with the band. However, in 1991, both Nicks and Rick Vito left Fleetwood Mac altogether. In 1992, Fleetwood himself arranged a 4-disc box set spanning highlights from the band’s 25 year history, titled 25 Years – The Chain. The box set, included brand new songs, “Paper Doll”, “Heart of Stone”,”Love Shines”, and “Make Me a Mask”, Mick Fleetwood also released a deluxe hardcover companion book to coincide with the release of the box set, titled My 25 Years in Fleetwood Mac, which features many rare photographs and notes (written by Fleetwood himself) detailing the band’s 25 year history.
Inspired by the new interest in the band, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie recorded another album as Fleetwood Mac, with Billy Burnette The band, minus Christine McVie, toured in 1994 performing classic Fleetwood Mac songs from the initial 1967–1974 era. On 10 October 1995, Fleetwood Mac released Time and disbanded. Bramlett and Burnette subsequently formed a country music duo, Bekka & Billy. Just weeks after disbanding Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood announced that he was working with Lindsey Buckingham again. John McVie was soon added to the sessions, and later Christine McVie. Stevie Nicks also enlisted Lindsey Buckingham to produce a song for the Twister film soundtrack. This eventually led to a full Rumours line-up reunion when the band officially reformed in March 1997. The regrouped Mac performed a live concert and from this performance came the 1997 live album The Dance. They also released the 20th anniversary of their Rumours album. In 1998, Fleetwood Mac (Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan) were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and performed at the Grammy Awards program that year.
They were also the recipients of the “Outstanding Contribution to Music” award at the BRIT Awards. In 1998, Christine McVie left the band permanently, Her departure left Buckingham and Nicks to sing all the lead vocals for the band’s 2003 album,Say You Will, although Christine did contribute some backing vocals and keyboards. The album yielded chart hits with “Peacekeeper” and the title track.”Fleetwood Mac toured in 2009, The tour was branded as a ‘greatest hits’ show entitled Unleashed, Stevie Nicks also premiered part of a new song that she had written about Hurricane Katrina. The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac was re-released And an episode of Glee entitled “Rumours” which featured six songs from the band’s 1977 album was also broadcast sparking renewed interest in the band, Rumours also re-entered the charts, the same week Stevie Nicks’ new solo album In Your Dreams. Fleetwood Mac reunited for 2013 minus two of the orginall members: late guitarist and singer Bob Weston and late guitarist Bob Welch and performed two new songs (“Sad Angel” and “Without You”), sadly though Christine Mcvie died 30 November 2022.
Legendary American Musician, singer songwriter, recorded producer and multi instrumentalist Stevie Wonder (Stevland Hardaway Morris was born May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan. He was born six weeks premature, which, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a condition in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach; so he became blind. When Stevie Wonder was four, his mother left his father and moved to Detroit with her children. Wonder began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, drums and bass. He formed a singing partnership with a friend; calling themselves Stevie and John, they played on street corners, and occasionally at parties and dances. Wonder signed with Motown’s Tamla label at the age of eleven In 1961, and sang his own composition, “Lonely Boy”, to Ronnie White of the Miracles; White then took Wonder and his mother to an audition at Motown, where CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to Motown’s Tamla label. Wonder worked with producer and song-writer Clarence Paul, on two albums; Tribute to Uncle Ray, which was mainly covers of Ray Charles’s songs, it included a Wonder and Paul composition, “Sunset”; The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie was recorded next, an instrumental album Wonder co wrote “Wondering” and “Session Number 112”.Womder’s debut single was the Gordy penned “I Call It Pretty Music, followed by “But the Old People Call It the Blues” and “Little Water Boy”in 1962. he joined the Motortown Revue, touring the “chitlin’ circuit”. At the Regal Theater, Chicago his 20-minute performance was recorded and released as the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, which yielded the single, “Fingertips”,
During 1964, Wonder appeared in two films as himself, Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach. Sylvia Moy and Wonder collaborated to create the hit “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”, Wonder also released “With a Child’s Heart”, and “Blowin’ in the Wind”. He also started writing songs for Motown including “Tears of a Clown”, for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles and had several hits between 1968 and 1970 such as “I Was Made to Love Her”; “For Once in My Life” and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”. In September 1970, at the age of 20, Wonder married Syreeta Wright, a songwriter and former Motown secretary. Wright and Wonder worked together on the next album, Where I’m Coming From. In 1970, Wonder worked on the song “It’s a Shame” for the Spinners. In March 1972 Wonder released the album Music of My Mind. His next album talking Book, featured the No. 1 hits “Superstition” and “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” which also won three Grammy Awards and also began touring with the Rolling Stones. Wonder’s next album. Innervisions, was released in 1973, featuring “Higher Ground”,”Living for the City”,”Golden Lady” and “All in Love Is Fair”.
Innervisions won three more Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and is ranked No. 23 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 1973, Wonder was in a serious automobile accident while on tour in North Carolina, leaving him in a coma for four days and resulted in a partial loss of his sense of smell and a temporary loss of sense of taste. Despite the setback, Wonder re-appeared in concert at Madison Square Garden in March 1974, followed by the album First Finale containing the hits You Haven’t Done Nothin’” and “Boogie On Reggae Woman”. first Finale won three Grammy’s including The Album of the Year. He also took part in a Los Angeles jam session ” A Toot and a Snore”. In 1975, Wonder performed at the historic “Wonder Dream Concert” in Kingston, Jamaica, a benefit for the Jamaican Institute for the Blind. By 1975, in his 25th year, Wonder had won two consecutive Grammy Awards: in 1974 for Innervisions and in 1975 for Fulfillingness’ First Finale. In 1975, he played harmonica on two tracks on Billy Preston’s album It’s My Pleasure. Wonder’s next release was The classic 1976 double album-and-EP “Songs in the Key of Life”, containing the songs “I Wish”, “Sir Duke”,”Isn’t She Lovely?”, “Love’s in Need of Love Today” and “Village Ghetto Land” Songs in the Key of Life won Album of the Year and two other Grammys, The album ranks 56th on Rolling Stone′s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
In 1979 he released the instrumental soundtrack album Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through “The Secret Life of Plants” which was composed using an early music sampler, a Computer Music Melodian. Wonder also wrote and produced the dance hit “Let’s Get Serious”, for Jermaine Jackson. In 1980 Wonder released “Hotter than July” which became Wonder’s first platinum-selling single album, it contained the singles “Happy Birthday”,”Master Blaster (Jammin’)”, “I Ain’t Gonna Stand for It”, and “Lately”. In 1982, Wonder released a retrospective of his 1970s work with Stevie Wonder’s Original Musiquarium, which included four new songs: the ten-minute funk classic “Do I Do” (which featured Dizzy Gillespie), “That Girl”, “Front Line”, and “Ribbon in the Sky”, he also collaborated with Paul McCartney on “Ebony and Ivory”. In 1983, Wonder performed the song “Stay Gold”, the theme to Francis Ford Copolla’s film The Outsiders and also performed “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, for the Woman in Red soundtrack, which won an Academy award for best song in 1985. The album also featured a guest appearance by Dionne Warwick, singing the duet “It’s You”.
The 1986 Albume InSquare Circle featured “Part-Time Lover”. “Go Home” and “Overjoyed”, he was also featured in Chaka Khan’s cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You”, alongside Melle Mel, playing his signature harmonica, he also played harmonica on Eurythmics’ single, “There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)” and Elton John’s “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues”.Wonder featured on the all-star charity single for African Famine Relief, “We Are the World”, and he was part of another charity single the following year (1986), the AIDS-inspired “That’s What Friends Are For”. He played harmonica on the album Dreamland Express by John Denver in the song “If Ever”. He also wrote the track “I Do Love You” for the Beach Boys’ 1985 self-titled album; and played harmonica on “Can’t Help Lovin’ That Man” on The Broadway Album by Barbra Streisand.
In 1987, Wonder sang the duet”Just Good Friends” on Michael Jackson’s Bad album. Michael Jackson also sang a duet with him entitled “Get It” on Wonder’s 1987 album Characters. After 1987’s Characters album, Wonder recorded a soundtrack album for Spike Lee’s film Jungle Fever in 1991 which included the songs “Gotta Have You” and “These Three Words” and “Feeding Off The Love of the Land”, A piano and vocal version of “Feeding Off The Love of the Land” was also released on the Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal compilation. The albums Conversation Peace and the live album Natural Wonder were released in the 1990s. He also played harmonica on one track for the 1994 tribute album KISS My Ass: Classic KISS Regrooved; sang at the 1996 Summer Olympics closing ceremony; collaborated in 1997 with Babyface on “How Come, How Long”, and played harmonica on Sting’s 1999 “Brand New Day”. He appeared at the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Paralympics in Salt Lake City,the 2005 Live 8 concert in Philadelphia, the pre-game show for Super Bowl XL in 2006, the Obama Inaugural Celebration in 2009, and the opening ceremony of the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece.
He sang at the Michael Jackson memorial service in 2009, at Etta James’ funeral, in 2012, and a month later at Whitney Houston’s memorial service. Wonder’s released the album A Time to Love, in 2005 containing the single, “So What the Fuss”, From the Bottom of My Heart” and a duet with India.Arie on the title track “A Time to Love”. Wonder collaborated with Tony Bennett, on”For Once in My Life” which earned them a Grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals in 2006. Wonder’s played harmonica on the 2009 Grammy-nominated “Never Give You Up”, featuring CJ Hilton and Raphael Saadiq. In 2007 Wonder did a 13-date tour of North America and started the European leg of his Wonder Summer’s Night Tour in 2008, which included eight UK gigs; four at the O2 Arena in London, two in Birmingham and two at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester. He also performed at The Netherlands (Rotterdam), Sweden (Stockholm), Germany (Cologne, Mannheim and Munich), Norway (Hamar), France (Paris), Italy (Milan) and Denmark (Aalborg). Wonder also toured Australia (Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane) and New Zealand (Christchurch, Auckland and New Plymouth).
In 2010 he performed at Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, London’s “Hard Rock Calling” in Hyde Park, Glastonbury Festival, Rotterdam’s North Sea Jazz Festival, he also performed in Bergen, Norway, Dublin, Ireland and the O2 Arena in London. In 2000, Wonder contributed two new songs for Spike Lee’s Bamboozled album (“Misrepresented People” and “Some Years Ago”) and made a guest appearance on Busta Rhymes’ new album, “The Big Bang” on the track “Been through the Storm”. He also sang on Snoop Dogg’s album Tha Blue Carpet Treatment, on the song “Conversations”, which is a remake of “Have a Talk with God” from Songs in the Key of Life. In 2006, Wonder duetted with Andrea Bocelli on “Canzoni Stonate” and appeared on Celine Dion’s album Loved Me Back to Life performing a cover of his 1985 song “Overjoyed”. On February 23, 2009, Wonder became the second recipient of the Library of Congress’s Gershwin Prize for pop music, honored by president Barack Obama at the White House. In 2010, Wonder was appointed a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by French Culture Minister Francois Mitterrand. Stevie Wonder also garnered A lifetime achievement award at France’s biggest music awards.
During his amazing career Wonder has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and won twenty-two Grammy Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award. He has also won an Academy Award for Best Song, and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame. He has also been awarded the Polar Music Prize. American music magazine Rolling Stone named him the ninth greatest singer of all time. In June 2009 he became the fourth artist to receive the Montreal Jazz Festival Spirit Award. He has had ten U.S. number-one hits on the pop charts as well as 20 R&B number one hits, and has sold over 100 million records. Wonder has recorded several critically acclaimed albums and hit singles, and writes and produces songs for many of his label mates and outside artists as well. Wonder plays the piano, synthesizer, harmonica, congas, drums, bass guitar, bongos, organ, melodica, and clavinet. Wonder was the first Motown artist and second African-American musician to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song, which he won for his 1984 hit single “I Just Called to Say I Love You” from the movie The Woman in Red. His classic 1970s albums have been very influential on the music world and he pioneered stylistic approaches that have inspired many musicians since.
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