Stevie Wonder
1950-?

Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1950.   Owing to his being born six weeks premature, the blood vessels at the back of his eyes had not yet reached the front and their aborted growth caused the retinas to detach. The medical term for this condition is retinopathy of prematurity or ROP.

When Stevie Wonder was four, his mother left his father and moved herself and her children to Detroit. He began playing instruments at an early age, including piano, harmonica, drums and bass. During childhood he was active in his church choir.

1961, Motown Records CEO Berry Gordy signed Wonder to with the name Little Stevie Wonder.  Before signing, producer Clarence Paul gave Wonder his trademark name after stating "we can't keep calling him the eighth wonder of the world".  

By age 13, Wonder had a major hit, “Fingertips (Pt. 2)” , a 1963 single taken from a Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius. The song, featuring Wonder on vocals, bongos, and harmonica, was a #1 hit on the U.S. pop and R&B charts and launched him into the public consciousness.

Released in the fall of 1972, Talking Book featured the No. 1 hits “Superstition” and “You Are the Sunshine of My Life.”  Between them, the two songs won three Grammy Awards.

Innervisions, released in 1973, earned Wonder three more Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.^. The album is ranked #23 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

On February 23, 2009, Wonder became the second recipient of the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for pop music, honored by President Barack Obama at the White House. Wonder has recorded more than thirty U.S. top ten hits and won twenty-two Grammy Awards (the most ever won by a solo artist) as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award.  He has also won an Academy Award for Best Song, and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame.