Black Music Month isn’t just a time for us to celebrate the current artists we love...it’s also a moment for us to highlight the pioneers that have made Black music so influential. The list of the most important artists in music history begins with Stevie Wonder. While he has several classic albums, “Songs in the Key of Life” is widely considered his greatest—unless you’re Apple Music.
For Black Music Month, we’re looking at songs with special meaning and connection to Black culture. Honestly, we could’ve done a whole series just on “Songs in the Key of Life,” but right now we’re focusing on “Isn’t She Lovely.”
According to Story of Song, Wonder “wrote the lyrics to celebrate the birth of his daughter Aisha Morris.” The baby you hear in the opening is actually a recording from her birth, and that actually is Wonder giving her a bath later in the song.
By now, we all know about the Motown legend’s musical genius and it’s on full display here. Other than a few Greg Philinganes keyboard parts, Wonder plays nearly every instrument.
Though it’s considered a classic now, “Isn’t She Lovely” didn’t even crack the top 20 of Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart in the U.S. This is surprising since almost every little girl born in late 1976 and all of 1977 thinks this song is about them. Yes...that includes yours truly.
Every time this song comes on the radio, my dad loves to tell the story about how this is the song that played the day I was born. According to him, after my mom gave birth, he was headed out to bring family members to the hospital. When he started the car, it was playing on the radio and he got emotional. From that moment on, “Isn’t She Lovely” represented a special connection between me and my dad.
Though my story feels unique, it’s actually not: Wonder’s music is such an essential part of our lives, tons of people have similar memories about his countless hits.
It’s an overused phrase, but Stevie Wonder has literally provided the soundtrack to our lives and our culture. No one exemplifies Black Music Month more than him.