Happy Birthday Steve Winwood: Career-Spanning Live Spotify Playlist

A press release issued last year announcing Steve Winwood’s Greatest Hits Live album described the musician celebrating his 70th birthday today as a “singer-songwriter, legendary vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist, mandolin player, producer, Grammy winner and BMI Icon.” That description leaves out Winwood’s membership in The Spencer Davis Group and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees Traffic, the supergroups Blind Faith and Go as well as a widely successful solo career.

Over the course of his more than 50-year career, Winwood has performed live in a number of settings around the world, playing some of the best-known songs in rock ‘n’ roll history. This edition of Saturday Stream celebrates Winwood’s 70th with Spotify Playlist of live recordings spanning his entire career.

Winwood was partly responsible for writing the early-1960s hits for The Spencer Davis Group “Gimme Some Lovin'” and “I’m A Man,” among other favorites. With Traffic he co-wrote such classics as “Dear Mr. Fantasy” and “The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys,” while his solo efforts produced such hits as “Back In The High Life Again” and “Higher Love.”

The playlist includes several selections from the live album recorded at Madison Square Garden with Winwood’s Blind Faith band mate Eric Clapton, such as the longtime collaborators teaming up for the supergroup’s “Can’t Find My Way Home”, “Had To Cry Today,” and “Presence Of The Lord,” along with cuts from each other’s catalogs. Two songs from the 1976 live Go album featuring Stomu Yamashta, Klaus Schulze, Michael Shrieve and Al Di Meola and a pair of songs from the all-star 2004 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction concert made the playlist as well. The set closes with a number of tracks from the above-mentioned greatest hits album that was recorded in 2017.

Stream the 70-track playlist in honor of Steve’s 70th birthday below: