Stevie Wonder Opens The Songs In The Key Of Life Vault 50 Years Later

Four previously unreleased recordings from the 1976 sessions have been personally selected by Stevie Wonder, including songs featuring musicians who were at the beginning of major careers.

by Paul Cashmere

Stevie Wonder has opened the vault on Songs In The Key Of Life with four previously unreleased recordings from the original 1976 sessions, giving the landmark album a new chapter exactly 50 years after its release. The four-song EP, Songs In The Key Of Life EP, features “It’s Easier”, “My Life Story Of Love”, “I Can See The Sun In Late December” and “I’m Into Livin'”, recordings Wonder personally selected for release.

The new material offers a glimpse into the enormous creative process surrounding one of Stevie Wonder’s most ambitious albums. All four songs were recorded during the Songs In The Key Of Life sessions and were written and produced by Wonder, with Susaye Greene sharing lyric credits on “My Life Story Of Love”.

The recordings have been newly mixed by John Fischbach and Gary O Adante, the original recording and mixing engineers from the album sessions. Adante was credited as Gary Olazabal on the original 1976 LP.

For Wonder, the recordings are more than archival discoveries. They represent songs and ideas that existed alongside the material that eventually became Songs In The Key Of Life.

“We’ve lived with Songs In The Key Of Life for fifty years, but there’s still more to hear,” Wonder says. “We didn’t add these songs to the album, but they were part of what I was feeling and discovering as we made it. They bring me back to that time in my life, and now they get to become part of yours.”

One of the more unusual details surrounding the sessions concerns the time 4:54 a.m. As the final studio session for Songs In The Key Of Life ended, bassist Nathan Watts reportedly called out “Fo’FiftyFo’!” The phrase subsequently became an inside joke within Wonder’s circle, marking the end of a recording session.

Fifty years later, 4:54 a.m. has taken on another meaning as a piece of the album’s recording history is opened to the public.

The musicians heard across the four tracks also provide a snapshot of Wonder’s working environment at the time. Keyboard player Gregory Phillinganes was at the beginning of his professional career with Wonderlove, while Michael Sembello and Ben Bridges were among the guitarists involved. Sembello would later co-write “Saturn” with Wonder.

Saxophonist Jim Horn and drummer Raymond Pounds also feature, while Nathan Watts was beginning what became a long-running musical partnership with Wonder. Watts’ recording relationship with Wonder followed their time working together on the road.

“I’m Into Livin'” has an especially notable collection of backing vocalists. Shirley Brewer, who appeared on the original album’s “Ordinary Pain”, is joined by Thelma Houston and Deniece Williams. Houston would soon have a major international hit with “Don’t Leave Me This Way”, while Williams was on the threshold of her own solo career.

The four recordings therefore document more than unfinished or unused album material. They capture a particular moment in Wonder’s musical world, with established collaborators working alongside musicians whose own careers were still developing.

Songs In The Key Of Life was released on September 28, 1976, and became the third Wonder album to win the Grammy Award for Album Of The Year. The record was subsequently certified Diamond and selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.

Its songs range from “Love’s In Need Of Love Today”, “Sir Duke” and “Isn’t She Lovely” to “As”, combining personal songwriting with broader themes of love, inequality, spirituality, community and human possibility. The album’s scale reflected Wonder’s creative freedom at the time, with the finished project becoming one of the defining recordings of his career.

The newly released songs do not alter the original album’s track sequence. Instead, they provide four additional pieces from the same creative period, allowing listeners to hear material that remained outside the final 1976 configuration.

The timing also connects directly with Wonder’s return to the stage. His Songs In The Key Of Life Performances, 50th Anniversary Tour begins in Birmingham on October 13, with Wonder performing the album in its entirety before the tour continues through Europe and the United States.

The US leg begins November 19 at Madison Square Garden in New York City and concludes December 19 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.

For an album that has spent five decades being revisited, reinterpreted and performed, the four recordings provide something different: music made in 1976, selected by Wonder himself in 2026, and heard by the public for the first time.

13 October, Birmingham, Utilita Arena Birmingham
19 November, New York City, Madison Square Garden
19 December, Los Angeles, Intuit Dome

EP TRACKLISTING

It’s Easier (5:09)
My Life Story Of Love (3:59)
I Can See The Sun In Late December (4:37)
I’m Into Livin’ (5:45)