Stevie Wonder at the age of 13 years started a three-week run at No.1 on August 10, 1963, on the US singles chart with ‘Fingertips part II’, making him the youngest singer to lead the charts.
Called a 12-year-old genius, Wonder remains to have this moniker to this day.
Wonder was blind from childbirth and raised in inner-city Detroit. By the age of eight, he was a proficient musician. His initial instrument was a harmonica given to him by his uncle. He would later learn drums and master the piano.
Wonder joined Motown in 1961, (aged 11) and was renamed Little Stevie Wonder by Berry Gordy, Jr., the president of Motown Records.
In 1963 the child prodigy accomplished his first US #1 single, “Fingertips” (the second #1 for the Motown label). The track was taken from a live recording of a Motor Town Revue performance, with a youthful Marvin Gaye on drums.
