Happy Birthday Stevie Wonder: Performing With His Mother On Mother’s Day

Stevie Wonder was born on this date in 1950 in Saginaw, Michigan. The multi-talented musician — blind following complications due to his premature birth — helped stoke the popularity of soul, R&B and funk while carving out a hugely successful career.

Stevie’s mother Lula Mae Hardaway divorced his father Calvin Judkins and relocated her son and his siblings to Detroit in the early-1950s. At age 11, “Little Stevie Wonder” became a national sensation a driving force behind the Detroit-based label Motown Records. His 1960s hits include such classics as “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” “Fingertips – Part 1,” “For Once in My Life” and “My Cherie Amour.”

Wonder’s career hit a critical and commercial apex in the mid-1970s. He won consecutive Grammy Awards for Album Of The Year for Innervisions in 1974 and for Fulfillingness’ First Finale in 1975 and took home the award again in 1977 for Songs In The Key Of Life. Those records produced the funky favorites “Higher Ground,” “Sir Duke,” “Boogie On Reggae Woman” and others.

In the ’80s, Wonder scored hits with like “I Just Called to Say I Love You” and “Part Time Lover.” He also appeared with Hardaway on a Mother’s Day television special that aired 30 years ago today.

For Sunday Cinema, Stevie’s birthday and Mother’s Day, below is the segment featuring Wonder and his mother from the Superstars & Their Moms show Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie Hamilton that aired in 1988. Stevie and Lula Mae sat together at a piano while reminiscing about their early days at Motown. Wonder also performed a touching, never-released song about his mother. Watch the clip here: