Stevie wonder happy birthday song clip3/16/2024 "For a whole group of people who grew up in the past 40 years, Happy Birthday has become the standard birthday song," he says. George compares Happy Birthday – a big, cheerful song – to another of Wonder's, Isn't She Lovely. "And as part of his mix of songs and melodies, he was always able to create songs about social injustice, particularly happy, major chord melodies that were easy to sing to," he adds. "Stevie Wonder could write almost any kind of song," music critic and documentary filmmaker Nelson George tells BBC Culture. Joined by Scott King, Wonder used his 1981 tour for that album as a worldwide drive to advocate for the holiday. But Wonder felt compelled by his dream and the next year he wrote Happy Birthday, for Hotter than July, a 1980 album that peaked at number three in the US charts and number two in the UK. Scott King was excited, Wonder explained, but she also doubted his dream could come true at a time the nation was turning more and more conservative with the rise of Reaganism and New Right politicians in the Sun Belt (the Southern US), a reaction against President Lyndon Baines Johnson's liberal agenda of the 1960s. We were marching with petition signs to make Dr King's birthday a national holiday.'" In a 2011 interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, Wonder said: "I said to her… 'I imagined in this dream I was doing this song. But then, in 1979, he shared a dream he had with King's widow, Coretta Scott King. For years, Wonder had quietly advocated for the holiday. But for 13 years, the bill languished, facing opposition from southern Democrats and conservative Republicans. But in fact, the global superstar's artistry and political activism were intertwined throughout his career, even before the MLK Day drive, as he repeatedly called attention to social issues of mid-century America.Īfter Dr King's assassination in April 1968, US Representative John Conyers Jr from Detroit, Michigan, and Wonder's congressman, introduced a bill to make the activist's birthday a federal holiday. Many today might be surprised to realise the instrumental role Stevie Wonder played in getting the legislation passed. This year marks the 40th anniversary of US President Ronald Reagan signing into law the bill that established Martin Luther King Day. For three years Wonder put his life on hold and dedicated tours, rallies and marches to bring his vision to life – a quest that would establish the first holiday in the US that honoured a black American. The 1980 song had represented the start of Wonder's campaign to make the birthday of renowned peace activist, Martin Luther King Jr, into a federal holiday. "I just never understood/ How a man who died for good/ Could not have a day that would/ Be set aside for his recognition," they sang, electrifying the crowd. The 50,000-strong audience chanted: "Martin Luther King Day, we took a holiday," according to Scott-Heron’s 2012 memoir, The Last Holiday, as the stars began to sing Wonder's hit song, Happy Birthday, a tribute to the murdered civil rights leader. On 15 January 1981, music legends Diana Ross and Gladys Knight, along with the "godfather of rap", Gil Scott-Heron, joined renowned musician Stevie Wonder on stage at the National Mall in Washington, DC.
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