(Credits: Far Out / Recording Academy)
Sun 14 December 2025 13:30, UK
The 19th Annual Grammys in 1977 was a notable year for more reasons than one, including it being the most expansive yet, broadcasting beyond CBS and into other regions beyond its native America.
It was also the last time the show would be hosted by Andy Williams, who took the opportunity to lighten the air with a few quips and jokes about those in attendance and those watching at home. “I’m very proud of this Academy,” Williams said. “There aren’t many institutions that would go to so much time and care just to throw an annual get-together for Stevie Wonder.”
Wonder wasn’t actually in attendance that year, but that didn’t make his presence any less palpable. After all, the years prior had seen Wonder rise to new heights when it came to carving out his own distinctive artistic path, a turning point that began with his thirteenth record, Where I’m Coming From, when he’d gone against the previous pathway with pandering to Motown and decided to take matters into his own hands.
Reflecting on it later, Wonder said the whole thing was “premature”, but that he’d simply wanted to “express himself”, which meant that his desire to branch out was restricted by time pressures, making it falter when it came to withstanding the test of time. As he told Rolling Stone, “We did Where I’m Coming From — that was kinda premature to some extent, but I wanted to express myself. A lot of it now I’d probably remix. But ‘Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer’ came from that album, and ‘If You Really Love Me’. But it’s nothing like the things I write now.”
Over the following years, however, Wonder managed to flex the muscles he longed to flex. The following releases were home to a string of some of his most career-defining hits, including ‘Superstition’ and ‘You Are The Sunshine of My Life’ from 1972’s Talking Book, as well as some that established him as one of the most important voices of a generation, including notable tracks across Innervisions and Fulfillingness’ First Finale, both of which won Grammys for ‘Album of the Year’.
What won ‘Album of the Year’ at the Grammys in 1977?
By the time 1977 rolled around, Wonder was already well-versed in Grammy wins, making his ambitious double album Songs in the Key of Life an easy choice that year – especially after a perod of time when Wonder had become disillusioned with the industry before being given a contract that gave him full creative control, something he’d been fighting for across all major turning points in his career until that point.
Alongside Songs in the Key of Life winning the coveted award, Wonder also delivered a performance of ‘Sir Duke’ via satellite, though poor connection made it less memorable than some of the other performances they had on stage that year. Still, it did little to tarnish the major recognition, especially considering Wonder’s successful Grammy history and how much Songs in the Key of Life had been one of his biggest and most anticipated works yet.
It was also a major labour of love and a record that Wonder, quite literally, poured his all into. In the studio, his focus on pulling it off meant that he often neglected his more basic needs, citing his main principle, “If my flow is goin’, I keep on until I peak”, as a main reason why he barely stopped to breathe throughout the entire thing.
Clearly, his hunch and dedication had been on the mark, as Songs in the Key of Life was to Wonder what most would consider a magnum opus – in every sense of the word. As he once put it himself, “I wanted to make it as significant as it was to me. For me, Songs in the Key of Life is the album. It’s like if you saw the Beatles do Sgt. Pepper — that’s more than just an album. It would be a work, like any album you put your heart and soul in, where people understand the overall concept. It’s more than just a bunch of songs put together.”
Related Topics