I Wish (Stevie Wonder song)
Encyclopedia
"I Wish" is a hit song by Stevie Wonder
. It was released in 1976 as a single
and included on the album Songs in the Key of Life
. Written and produced by Wonder, the song focuses on his childhood. The single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100
and soul singles chart.
, which is repeated throughout the whole song (although the specific octave
of the bass line does change). The key of the piece, like several other of Wonder's hits, is E♭ Minor, although the bridge of the piece is slightly different. The keyboard part consists of two chords during the chorus and verse: E-flat minor 7th (third inversion) and A-flat 7 (first inversion). Stevie Wonder also created a multi-layered monophonic synthesizer
part which runs through the song's entirety. Throughout the chorus and verse, this varied Minor pentatonic scale
(which can be played using just the black keys on a keyboard) is repeated and adds depth to the song. This piece has a syncopated
horn section
, as well.
For the television series Classic Albums
, Wonder recreated a small section from the song to demonstrate how he composed and arranged it. He played the keyboards and drums himself, and used most of the musicians that appeared on the original recording. Wonder revisited the making of the album, Songs in the Key of Life
, with all the original core members except one, in a documentary in 1997, bringing together the musicians who worked on the album for the first time in 20 years, demonstrating how each of the songs were written and recorded. Again, Wonder took both the keyboards and the drum seat in a re-enactment of the recording of the song.
n alternative rock
band Du Du A
, with Serbian language
lyrics, entitled "San" ("A Dream").
In 1995, saxophonist Najee
covered the song from his Stevie Wonder tribute album "Songs from the Key of Life."
In 1999, Will Smith
recorded "Wild Wild West", a hip-hop
song that sampled the instrumental track from "I Wish". Wonder also appeared in the music video
of the song, which was featured on the soundtrack to the 1999 film, Wild Wild West
.
In 1999, on the night of the Hey Hey It's Saturday finale, the song was covered by an all-star cast including Marcia Hines, Wendy Matthews, Jo Beth Taylor, Merrill Bainbridge, Tania Doko, Vanessa Amorosi, Lisa Edwards and more.
This song was also covered by the a cappella
group Vox One, on their album Pure Imagination.
Another cover of the song was done by Randy Coven, Al Pitrelli
and John O'Reilly for their 1992 album C.P.R., with a young Zakk Wylde
on vocals. Céline Dion
also performs this song in her Las Vegas show "A New Day...
".
The song is covered by Patti LaBelle
, Fantasia
and Yolanda Adams
for the Warner Bros.
animated movie Happy Feet
released on October 31, 2006, although a small piece of the original song can be heard during a brief dance sequence. This recording appeared on the soundtrack album "Happy Feet: Music from the Motion Picture
".
It has also been covered by Donny Osmond
on a DVD of a concert he performed in London, as well as by Widespread Panic
on its 2004 live release Night of Joy
. The song was also covered by Melanie C in 2003 at her Shepherd's Bush performance and included as a B-side on her single "Yeh Yeh Yeh
".
In 2006, the song was performed by Westlife
on their Face to Face Tour
.
Fingerstyle jazz guitarist Tuck Andress recorded a solo guitar arrangement. Guitarist Greg Howe
has also recorded his own version.
The Janet Jackson
song Nasty
features Janet singing the phrase "you nasty boy" in a direct mimic of the way Stevie delivers the same line in "I Wish".
Pop group S Club 7
used part of the song as an instrumental outro to their hit Bring It All Back
during their first tour.
Australian soul
artist Guy Sebastian
recorded a cover of the song on his Beautiful Life album.
Dutch guitarist Harry Sacksioni
created an all-guitar version of the song playing bass, rhythm and melody parts simultaneously.
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
. It was released in 1976 as a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
and included on the album Songs in the Key of Life
Songs in the Key of Life
Songs in the Key of Life is the 13th album by American recording artist Stevie Wonder, released September 28, 1976, on Motown Records. It was the culmination of his "classic period" albums. An ambitious double LP with a 4-song bonus EP, Songs in the Key of Life became among the best-selling and...
. Written and produced by Wonder, the song focuses on his childhood. The single hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and soul singles chart.
Song structure
The song evolves around an 8 note basslineBassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
, which is repeated throughout the whole song (although the specific octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
of the bass line does change). The key of the piece, like several other of Wonder's hits, is E♭ Minor, although the bridge of the piece is slightly different. The keyboard part consists of two chords during the chorus and verse: E-flat minor 7th (third inversion) and A-flat 7 (first inversion). Stevie Wonder also created a multi-layered monophonic synthesizer
Monophony
In music, monophony is the simplest of textures, consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave . If the entire melody is sung by two voices or a choir with an interval between the notes or in...
part which runs through the song's entirety. Throughout the chorus and verse, this varied Minor pentatonic scale
Pentatonic scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave in contrast to a heptatonic scale such as the major scale and minor scale...
(which can be played using just the black keys on a keyboard) is repeated and adds depth to the song. This piece has a syncopated
Syncopation
In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
horn section
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
, as well.
For the television series Classic Albums
Classic Albums
Classic Albums is a documentary series about pop and rock albums that are considered the best or most distinctive of a well-known band or musician or that exemplify a stage in the history of music.-Format:...
, Wonder recreated a small section from the song to demonstrate how he composed and arranged it. He played the keyboards and drums himself, and used most of the musicians that appeared on the original recording. Wonder revisited the making of the album, Songs in the Key of Life
Songs in the Key of Life
Songs in the Key of Life is the 13th album by American recording artist Stevie Wonder, released September 28, 1976, on Motown Records. It was the culmination of his "classic period" albums. An ambitious double LP with a 4-song bonus EP, Songs in the Key of Life became among the best-selling and...
, with all the original core members except one, in a documentary in 1997, bringing together the musicians who worked on the album for the first time in 20 years, demonstrating how each of the songs were written and recorded. Again, Wonder took both the keyboards and the drum seat in a re-enactment of the recording of the song.
Cover versions
In 1996, the song was covered by SerbiaSerbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Du Du A
Du Du A
Du Du A is a Serbian alternative rock band from Belgrade.- History :Du Du A was formed in 1981 by the former Grupa I member Dejan Kostić and the former VIA Talas member Vuk Vujačić. The two started writing material which featured a combination of funk, reggae and dance music...
, with Serbian language
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
lyrics, entitled "San" ("A Dream").
In 1995, saxophonist Najee
Najee
Jerome Najee Rasheed , known professionally as Najee, is an urban jazz saxophonist and flautist.He attended New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with George Russell and Jaki Byard....
covered the song from his Stevie Wonder tribute album "Songs from the Key of Life."
In 1999, Will Smith
Will Smith
Willard Christopher "Will" Smith, Jr. , also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor, producer, and rapper. He has enjoyed success in television, film and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him the most powerful actor in Hollywood...
recorded "Wild Wild West", a hip-hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
song that sampled the instrumental track from "I Wish". Wonder also appeared in the music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
of the song, which was featured on the soundtrack to the 1999 film, Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...
.
In 1999, on the night of the Hey Hey It's Saturday finale, the song was covered by an all-star cast including Marcia Hines, Wendy Matthews, Jo Beth Taylor, Merrill Bainbridge, Tania Doko, Vanessa Amorosi, Lisa Edwards and more.
This song was also covered by the a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group Vox One, on their album Pure Imagination.
Another cover of the song was done by Randy Coven, Al Pitrelli
Al Pitrelli
Al Pitrelli is a guitarist, best known for his work with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Joe Lynn Turner, Asia and Savatage.-Early career :...
and John O'Reilly for their 1992 album C.P.R., with a young Zakk Wylde
Zakk Wylde
Zachary Phillip Wylde , best known by the stage name Zakk Wylde, is an American musician, songwriter, and occasional actor who is best known as the former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and founder of the heavy metal band Black Label Society. He was the lead guitarist and vocalist in Pride & Glory,...
on vocals. Céline Dion
Celine Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion, , , is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record...
also performs this song in her Las Vegas show "A New Day...
A New Day...
A New Day... was a Las Vegas residency show performed by Céline Dion at the 4000-seat Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It was created and directed by Franco Dragone and premiered on March 25, 2003...
".
The song is covered by Patti LaBelle
Patti LaBelle
Patricia Louise Holte-Edwards , better known under the stage name, Patti LaBelle, is a Grammy Award winning American singer, author and actress who has spent over 50 years in the music industry...
, Fantasia
Fantasia Barrino
Fantasia Monique Barrino commonly known as Fantasia, is an American R&B singer, Broadway and television actress who rose to fame as the winner of the third season of the reality television series American Idol in 2004. Following her victory, she released her debut single, "I Believe", which...
and Yolanda Adams
Yolanda Adams
Yolanda Adams is an American Grammy- and Dove-award-winning Yolanda Adams is an American [[Grammy Awards|Grammy]]- and [[Dove Awards|Dove]]-award-winning...
for the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
animated movie Happy Feet
Happy Feet
Happy Feet is a 2006 American-Australian computer-animated family film with music, directed and co-written by George Miller. It was produced at Sydney-based visual effects and animation studio Animal Logic for Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures and Kingdom Feature Productions and was released...
released on October 31, 2006, although a small piece of the original song can be heard during a brief dance sequence. This recording appeared on the soundtrack album "Happy Feet: Music from the Motion Picture
Happy Feet: Music from the Motion Picture
Happy Feet is the lyrical soundtrack album from the 2006 animated film, Happy Feet. As of March 2007, the OST has sold over 272,627 copies in the US.-Track listings:# "Song of the Heart"#:Written and performed by Prince...
".
It has also been covered by Donny Osmond
Donny Osmond
Donald Clark "Donny" Osmond is an American singer, musician, actor, dancer, radio personality, and former teen idol. Osmond has also been a talk and game show host, record producer and author. In the mid 1960s, he and four of his elder brothers gained fame as the Osmond Brothers on the long...
on a DVD of a concert he performed in London, as well as by Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring...
on its 2004 live release Night of Joy
Night of Joy
Night of Joy is the fourth live album released by the Athens, GA based band Widespread Panic. The album was recorded during a show in 2003 at the House of Blues in South Carolina...
. The song was also covered by Melanie C in 2003 at her Shepherd's Bush performance and included as a B-side on her single "Yeh Yeh Yeh
Yeh Yeh Yeh
"Yeh Yeh Yeh" is a song by Melanie C, and was the third and final single from Chisolm's second solo album, Reason , as a double A-side with "Melt". The original plan was to release "Yeh Yeh Yeh" as the third single, but shortly before this could happen, Chisolm injured her knee in TV show The...
".
In 2006, the song was performed by Westlife
Westlife
Westlife are an Irish boy band established on 3 July 1998. They are to disband in 2012. The group's line-up was Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan, and Brian McFadden . The group are the only act in British and Irish history to have their first seven singles peak at number one...
on their Face to Face Tour
Face To Face Tour
This is the 5th world tour of the Irish pop band Westlife.This tour set a goal that they will play for a more smaller venues and audience to justify the title "Face To Face" The filmed video album for this tour came from their performance at the Wembley Arena. This also had a second leg of the tour...
.
Fingerstyle jazz guitarist Tuck Andress recorded a solo guitar arrangement. Guitarist Greg Howe
Greg Howe
Gregory "Greg" Howe is an American guitarist and composer. As an active musician for nearly thirty years, he has released nine studio albums in addition to collaborating with a wide variety of artists.-Recording career:...
has also recorded his own version.
The Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
song Nasty
Nasty (song)
"Nasty" is the second single from Janet Jackson's third studio album, Control . Released in 1986, the single peaked at number three on Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and remains one of Jackson's signature songs. Paula Abdul choreographed the music video and appeared...
features Janet singing the phrase "you nasty boy" in a direct mimic of the way Stevie delivers the same line in "I Wish".
Pop group S Club 7
S Club 7
S Club, formerly known as S Club 7, were a pop group created by former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller, consisting of members Tina Barrett, Paul Cattermole, Jon Lee, Bradley McIntosh, de facto lead singer Jo O'Meara, Hannah Spearritt and Rachel Stevens. The group rose to fame by starring in their...
used part of the song as an instrumental outro to their hit Bring It All Back
Bring it All Back
"Bring It All Back" is the debut single by British pop group S Club 7. It was co-written by S Club 7, Eliot Kennedy, Mike Percy and Tim Lever for the group's debut album S Club, which was released in 1999. Kennedy, Percy and Lever also produced the song, which received a mixed reception from music...
during their first tour.
Australian soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
artist Guy Sebastian
Guy Sebastian
Guy Theodore Sebastian is an Australian pop, R&B, and soul singer-songwriter who was the first winner of Australian Idol in 2003. He is currently a judge on the Australian version of The X Factor. Sebastian has released six top ten platinum/multi platinum albums, including a number-one and...
recorded a cover of the song on his Beautiful Life album.
Dutch guitarist Harry Sacksioni
Harry Sacksioni
Harry Sacksioni is a composer and guitar virtuoso of Dutch origin. The peak of his fame was during the 1970s, some famous works of this period include Meta Sequoia, Vensters, Elixer and Thee bij tante Josephine, along with re-arrangements of existing pieces, such as Anji , I Wish and Scarborough...
created an all-guitar version of the song playing bass, rhythm and melody parts simultaneously.