Superstition

"Superstition"
Single by Stevie Wonder
from the album Talking Book
B-side	"You've Got It Bad, Girl"
Released	November 1972
Format	7" 45 RPM
Recorded	1972, New York
Genre	Funk, rock, R&B, Funk rock
Length	4:26
Label	Motown
Writer(s)	Stevie Wonder
Producer	Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder singles chronology
"Keep On Running" (1972) "Superstition" (1972) "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" (1973)
Music sample "Superstition"

"Superstition" is a popular song written, produced, arranged, and performed by Stevie Wonder for Motown Records in 1972, when Wonder was twenty-two years old. It was included on Wonder's Talking Book album,^[1] and released as a single in many countries. It reached number one in the USA,^[2] and number one on the soul singles chart. ^[3]. Overseas, it peaked number eleven in the UK, in February 1973. In November 2004, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #74 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song is recognised as Stevie Wonder's signature song.^{[citation needed]}

History

Wonder had actually written this song for Jeff Beck, but at the insistence of his own manager, Wonder himself recorded it first. Beck was instead offered "Cause We've Ended As Lovers," which he recorded on Blow by Blow in 1975. Jeff Beck played guitar on Talking Book and later recorded his own version of "Superstition" with Beck, Bogert & Appice.

Wonder's music had been undergoing a marked change from his earlier Motown pop to a more personal style. This shift had been evident on his two prior albums, but it was Talking Book, and "Superstition" in particular that brought the new style to the awareness of the public in general.

The song deals with superstitions,^[2] and mentions several popular superstitious fables in its lyrics.

"Superstition" is immediately recognizable for its opening drum beat, which was performed by Wonder, complete with a noticeable bass-drum pedal squeak throughout the track. Its iconic funky clavinet riff was also performed by Wonder. The song also features trumpet and saxophone and the electronic Arp and Moog synthesizer sounds that Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff helped to create for the album.

Wonder performed "Superstition" on the children's television show Sesame Street in 1972, as well as on Soul Train and WNET's Soul.

Cover versions

The song has been covered by artists such as Beck, Bogert & Appice, Melvin Van Peebles, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Raven-Symoné.

	Superstition by Beck, Bogert & Appice Beck, Bogert & Appice's rendition of "Superstition". Stevie Wonder meant the song for Jeff Beck and thus this is probably how he envisioned it would be first recorded.
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Notable covers of the song include:

• Beck, Bogert & Appice covered the song on their self-titled album. Stevie Wonder originally wrote "Superstition" for Beck. However, Wonder's manager insisted that he record it before Beck did. Jeff Beck has also performed the song on various live albums.
• Stevie Ray Vaughan performs a cover of the song. Vaughan and Wonder had mutual admiration for one another;^{[citation needed]} Wonder would later write the song "Stevie Ray Blues" in honor of Vaughan. Vaughan produced a humorous music video for his cover version in which Vaughan performs several acts that, according to superstitious lore, should bring him bad luck – breaking a mirror, knocking a horseshoe from its upright position to an inverted one (which supposedly causes all the luck to run out), stepping on a sidewalk crack, walking under a ladder, performing on Friday the 13th, and having a black cat cross his path. The cat is ignored by members of Double Trouble; whereupon the cat extracts its revenge by causing the bass guitarist to be electrocuted, the keyboardist to fall through a trap door, and the drummer to be knocked out by a falling stage light. Only Vaughan remains standing at the end of the video, whereupon the cat returns to the arms of its "owner" – who turns out to be none other than Stevie Wonder, the song's original singer/writer who makes a cameo appearance in the video.
• Quincy Jones performed a version on the I Heard That! album.
• Widespread Panic performed the song, with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, on Panic's 2000 release Another Joyous Occasion.
• Alicia Keys performed a remixed version in the song "Karma (Karmastition Remix)".
• Bucky Covington covered the song on the fifth season of American Idol.
• The Jonas Brothers performed the song at a surprise post-AMA's concert with Jordin Sparks, and at the 51st Grammy Awards with Stevie Wonder.
• Taufik Batisah, the winner of the first season of Singapore Idol, covered the song for his 2005 debut album, Blessings.
• The a cappella group Straight No Chaser do an all-vocal arrangement on their 1998 video, Live At the Musical Art Center.
• In 2005 UK soul singer Jaki Graham released a cover of the song in the UK.
• The music group Ball in the House covered the song on their 2007 album "Granite Ave".
• The french house group Justice have remixed this song.
• Canadian rockers Wide Mouth Mason perform an extended cover of this song live in many concerts.
• Metal Band from Florida Crossbreed redid the song on there release KE101 as a cover.
• Olly Murs, the runner up on the sixth series of The X Factor, performed it for his first audition, receiving huge praise from all four judges.

Uses in other media

The song has been used in many movies:

Wonder himself famously performed the song live during a 1973 Sesame Street episode.

In John Carpenter's The Thing. T.K. Carter's character, Nauls, listens to it on a boom box in the kitchen, defiantly turning up the volume when he is asked to turn it down.

In the end credits of Wes Craven's Vampire In Brooklyn.

In a commercial for the Buick Rendezvous, a crossover vehicle that was introduced in 2002.

In the movie I, Robot starring Will Smith where Smith's character plays it after waking up.

In Bernardo Bertolucci's movie Stealing Beauty during a party in a Tuscan villa.

It was played in the Kenan & Kel movie Two Heads Are Better Than None when a chimpanzee can play it on the piano.

It was remade for the 2003 Disney movie The Haunted Mansion starring Eddie Murphy by Raven-Symone.

Popular band Widespread Panic has also been known to cover this song during live performances. Their version can be heard on the live release album Another Joyous Occasion.

It also appears in the video game Karaoke Revolution Party.

It was also featured in a series of commercials for Levi's jeans, broadcast in the United States in late 2006.

It is featured in Guitar Hero 5 as a master track.

It was on an episode of Sesame Street in 1973.

See also

• Hot 100 No. 1 Hits of 1973 (USA)
• Tim Hughes, "Superstition," Groove and Flow: Six Analytical Essays on the Music of Stevie Wonder, University of Washington PhD dissertation (2003), pp. 140-177, which can be downloaded here: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/Music/NewsGenInfo/AcademicStaff/Hughes/GrooveAndFlow.pdf

References