Fingertips

"Fingertips - Part 2"
Single by Little Stevie Wonder, featuring Little Stevie on harmonica and bongos
from the album Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius
B-side	"Fingertips - Part 1"
Released	May 21, 1963
Format	7" single
Recorded	Regal Theater, Chicago; June 1962
Genre	Soul
Length	2:49
Label	Tamla T 54080
Writer(s)	Clarence Paul Henry Cosby
Producer	Berry Gordy, Jr.
Stevie Wonder chronology
"Contract On Love" (1962) "Fingertips - Part 2" (1963) "Workout, Stevie, Workout" (1963)

"Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States since 1952 (Johnny Standley, "It's In The Book").

Overview

Written and composed by Wonder's mentors, Clarence Paul and Henry Cosby, "Fingertips" was originally a jazz instrumental recorded for Wonder's first studio album, The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie Wonder. The live version of the song was recorded in June 1962 during a Motortown Revue performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois. Containing only a few stanzas of lyrics, "Fingertips" is essentially an instrumental piece, meant to showcase Wonder's talents on the bongos and the harmonica.

The false stop

After leading the audience in a call and response routine ("Everybody say 'yeah!'"), Wonder leaves the stage and the band goes into its exit music. This turns out to be a false ending however, as Wonder appears back onstage for an encore, returning to his harmonica, bongos, and the vocal microphone. The other musicians were not aware Wonder would stage an encore even though he had just sung lyrics that said he would; as a result, bassist Larry Moses can be heard on the recording, yelling out, "What key? What key?" (The song's key is C minor.)

Release

The live version of "Fingertips" was released in May 1963 as a two-part single, with Part 2 (with the encore) as the A-side. By August, the single had reached the top of both the Billboard Pop Singles and R&B Singles charts.^[1] "Fingertips" was Motown's second number-one pop hit (following The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman"), and launched the 13-year-old Wonder into the pop music stratosphere. The single's success helped Wonder's live album, Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius, reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Albums chart, making him the youngest artist to accomplish that feat.

Both the studio and live versions of the song featured drumming by future Motown star Marvin Gaye, who had been playing drums for Wonder and other Motown artists since he had signed with the label in 1960.

Cover versions and samples

• This song is sampled in "I Feel For You" by Chaka Khan.^{[citation needed]}
• Art-rock band Sparks included a synthesiser-based cover of "Fingertips" on their fourteenth album Music That You Can Dance To
• Samples of this song can be heard in Le Juan Love's single "Everybody Say Yeah"^{[citation needed]}
• The song is featured in the opening scene of the Quantum Leap episode "One Strobe Over the Line"^{[citation needed]}
• The song was performed by Sounds Incorporated when they opened for The Beatles at their famous 1965 concert at Shea Stadium in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

Credits

• Vocals, bongos, and harmonica by Little Stevie Wonder
• Drums by Marvin Gaye
• Bass by James Jamerson, Larry Moses

References