“Music of My Mind” (released earlier in the same year as this album) signified a new maturity in Stevie Wonder’s musical development, but nothing could have prepared us for “Talking Book.”

When released, Wonder was all of 22 years old, and yet this was already his fifteenth album (!), so he already had a lifetime of musical experience to draw from. Now that he was old enough to make his own calls, he no longer relied on Berry Gordy for artistic direction and insisted on following an independent path as did Marvin Gaye before him.

Producers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff tutored Wonder in the use of synthesizers, which when combined with his instantly recognizable harmonica and his recent mastery of the clavinet, gave “Music of My Mind” a definitive sound that literally changed the sound of contemporary music. Have the hits “Superstition” or “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” aged at all in the past fifty years? Have ‘deep’ album tracks like “Maybe Your Baby”, “Big Brother” or “I Believe When I Fall in Love” aged at all? If you are the kind of person (like me) who wants to understand what makes music change, drop a red flag here because everything before “Music of My Mind” lacks its influence, while everything afterward cannot ignore it.

Featured tracks include:

You Are the Sunshine of My Life

Maybe Your Baby

You and I (We Can Conquer the World)

Tuesday Heartbreak

You’ve Got It Bad Girl

Superstition

Big Brother

Blame It on the Sun

Lookin’ for Another Pure Love

I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)

OCTOBER 1972 - Billboard Charted #3