(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Sat 18 April 2026 0:00, UK
It’s hard to really think of someone like Paul McCartney as the kind who gets cold feet whenever he performs.
Most people are usually in awe just to be in his presence every single time he plays a concert, so the idea of jamming with him would have had any sane musician on their toes, making sure that they don’t manage to screw up somewhere along the line. But even when Macca was at the top of his game songwriting-wise, there were always going to be a few people who made him rethink the kind of job he was doing behind the scenes.
Because no matter how much credibility he had in The Beatles, there were bound to be a few moments where he felt that things weren’t working out. He already had to be convinced to make another record when making his debut, but even if he didn’t think all that highly of Wings, any other band that had a career as they did would have been enough for anyone else’s career and then some.
But when looking through the number of guests that he had on his records, McCartney usually knew how to play it cool every single time. The idea of singing next to someone like Carl Perkins had to have been a reality check for someone who had been playing along to his records for decades at that point, but compared to every other artist to have topped the charts, there’s a special place in musical heaven for Stevie Wonder.
Compared to what the Fab Four did with their music, Wonder managed to take everything great about funk, soul, R&B and rock and roll and combine them under one roof in his prime. It took him a while to reach his classic period, but when going through every one of his records from Music of My Mind to Songs in the Key of Life, there are hardly any songs that could be any more perfect than they already are.
But when Wonder entered the 1980s and started guesting on McCartney’s album, the former Beatle remembered needing to make sure that Wonder didn’t hear him slipping up on the song ‘Ebony and Ivory’, saying, “It was fascinating because he is such a musical monster; he just is music. You had to be super precise, because any mistake he would hear. He asked if we were going to use a drum machine, and I said no, so he got on the drum kit, and he was a great drummer with a very distinct style, and that’s him playing on the record.”
And despite the song being considered one of the most reviled songs in history, it’s not like the spark between them was unfounded. If anything, the song ‘What’s That You’re Doing’ is one of the funkiest things to ever turn up on a McCartney record, and Wonder’s solo on the song is the big payoff after going through all six minutes of pure R&B bliss.
Then again, Wonder didn’t need to stick to one genre to wow someone. Every single chord that he played seemed to fit perfectly no matter what instrument he was playing, and given the fact that he could create the kind of shout choruses that you used to hear in big band arrangements like on ‘Sir Duke’, there’s a good chance that he could have been able to hold his own if he had started working with people like Miles Davis later down the line.
Even if you take all of the massive singles out of the conversation, though, the whole reason why Wonder was put on this Earth was to make the world smile. His music was the kind of magic that everyone hoped to hear during their lifetime, and it’s hard to think of any song he ever worked on that seemed to have that same kind of musical magic behind it.
