Living for the City

"Living for the City" is a 1973 single by Stevie Wonder from his Innervisions album. It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart.[1] Rolling Stone ranked the song number 105 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[2]

"Living for the City"
Single by Stevie Wonder
from the album Innervisions
B-side"Visions"
ReleasedNovember 1973 (1973-11)
GenreSoul
Length
LabelTamla
Songwriter(s)Stevie Wonder
Producer(s)Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder singles chronology
"Higher Ground"
(1973)		 "Living for the City"
(1973)		 "Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing"
(1974)

The song has won two Grammy Awards: one at the 1974 Grammy Awards for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, and the second for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1975 Grammy Awards for Ray Charles' recording on his album Renaissance.[3]

Production

Wonder played all the instruments on the song and was assisted by Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff for recording engineering and synthesizer programming.[4] Tenley Williams, writing in Stevie Wonder (2002), feels it was "one of the first soul hits to include both a political message and ... sampling ... of the sounds of the streets - voices, buses, traffic, and sirens - mixed with the music recorded in the studio."[5]

Lyrics

Born into a poor family in Mississippi, a young black man experiences discrimination in looking for work and eventually seeks to escape to New York City (alluding to the Second Great Migration) in hopes of finding a new life. Through a series of background noises and spoken dialogue, the man reaches New York by bus, but is then promptly framed for a crime, arrested, convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison.[6][7]

Reception

Billboard described "Living for the City" as a "spectacular production of a country boy whose parents sacrifice themselves for him," and also praised the vocals and horn playing.[8]

The song has won two Grammy Awards: one at the 1974 Grammy Awards for Best Rhythm & Blues Song, and the second for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 1975 Grammy Awards for Ray Charles' recording on his album Renaissance.[3]

It reached number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 1 on the R&B chart.[1] Rolling Stone ranked the song number 105 on their list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[2]

Personnel

Influence

Public Enemy sampled the 'get in that cell nigger' in their song 'Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos.'

Chart performance

References
  1. Joel Whitburn (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 635.
  2. "Stevie Wonder, 'Living for the City'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  3. "Grammys Awards winners". Grammys.com. Recording Academy. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  4. Ed Hogan. "Stevie Wonder - Living For The City". All Music. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  5. Tenley Williams (2002). Stevie Wonder. Philadelphia: Chelsea House publishers. p. 44. ISBN 9781438122632.
  6. Sullivan, Steve (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 2. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810882959.
  7. Bobby Owsinski (20 December 2013). Bobby 's Deconstructed Hits: Classic Rock, Vol. 1 - Uncover the Stories & Techniques Behind 20 Iconic Songs. ISBN 9780739093894.
  8. "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. November 3, 1973. p. 59. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  9. "Stevie Wonder — Chart history". www.billboard.com. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  10. "Stevie Wonder — German charts". www.charts.de. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  11. "flavour of new zealand - search listener". Flavourofnz.co.nz. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
  12. "Stevie Wonder — Official UK charts". www.officialcharts.com. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  13. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.3893b&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.3893b.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.3893b
  14. "Top Pop Singles" Billboard December 28, 1974: Talent in Action-8
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