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Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius (1963)

Where the lyrics of Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius take you, and where it was really made.

Wonder reached the top of the Billboard Top LPs chart at 13, the youngest solo artist ever to do so, with the album that came out of this stage name.

Key places

Recording place of the live album (1963)

Recording site Regal Theater — The Regal Theater is listed as the place where this live album was recorded. The pin marks the listed coordinates, not a confirmed building position. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius is the first live album by Little Stevie Wonder
• Released on the Tamla record label, catalog number 240, in May 1963
• Released in the same month as the single "Fingertips" (catalog number 54080)
• The last album to use the "Little" prefix in his stage name
• From his next album on, he was credited simply as Stevie Wonder

Background

• "Fingertips" topped both the Billboard Hot 100 and the R&B Singles chart in 1963
• The album topped the Billboard 200 in the same year, 1963
• Wonder is the youngest solo artist to chart a number-one album on the Billboard Top LPs chart
• He achieved that feat at 13 years old

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Stevland Hardaway Morris, known as Stevie Wonder, was born May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan, and became blind shortly after birth.
• He signed with Motown's Tamla label at age 11 in 1961, receiving the name Little Stevie Wonder.
• His single "Fingertips" topped the Billboard Hot 100 when he was 13, the youngest solo artist ever to do so.

Career

• Music of My Mind and Talking Book (1972) marked the start of his classic period, moving away from the Motown sound toward synthesizer- and keyboard-driven music.
• Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life (1973–1976) won three consecutive Grammy Awards for Album of the Year, and he is the only artist to have done so.
• In the 1980s he campaigned to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday and scored several number-one hits, including "Ebony and Ivory" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You".
• He has sold more than 100 million records and won 25 Grammy Awards, the most by a male solo artist.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Released on the Tamla label in May 1963
• Tamla catalog number 240
• Released the same month as the single "Fingertips" (catalog number 54080)
• Album and single both came out in 1963, the year the album reached the top of the charts

Records

• Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius topped the Billboard 200 in 1963
• "Fingertips" topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963
• "Fingertips" also topped the R&B Singles chart in 1963
• Wonder is the youngest solo artist to chart a number-one album on the Billboard Top LPs chart
• That feat came at 13 years old
• The album marked the start of a short run of chart success that began with the single and the live record in the same year

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• This album is the first live release of Little Stevie Wonder
• The "Little" prefix was dropped from his name starting with the next album
• Wonder was 13 years old when his album reached number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart
• The album and the single "Fingertips" shared the same release month, May 1963

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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