Stevie Wonder ~ Higher Ground 1974 Funky Purrfection Version

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Someone just asked for this one, and I remembered that I had the stems and got busy! I had already done a remix for soundcloud years ago, but I only had access to the vinyl LP. I went looking for the remix and realized I go one better by using the music tracks.

"Higher Ground" was conceived, written and then recorded in a matter of hours. It started out as a shuffle blues with Stevie playing an ARP and a Moog synthesizer, and then finished the bass before he recorded the drums. In the studio, Stevie was surrounded by keyboards so he could move between them.

Once "Innervisions" was in the can and was released, Stevie was in a car taking him to a concert in Durham, South Carolina when the vehicle rear ended a flat bed truck. Wonder was left with a cracked skull and a bruised brain that left him in a coma for five days.

Doctors were not sure if Stevie would awake from the coma, but his road crew thought that he could hear so they played his music when they visited. His manager had tried to communicate with Wonder several times with to no avail. He finally got a response when Stevie started squeezing his hand in time to the song "Higher Ground" was sung into his ear. That is when he knew that Stevie was going to be all right.

The song peaked at #1 R&B for a week and hit #4 on the Hot100.