Stevie Wonder's “Songs in the Key of Life” gets limited vinyl edition

Stevie Wonder's “Songs in the Key of Life” is getting a limited-edition color vinyl as part of the album's 50th-anniversary celebrations, according to uDiscover Music. Available to pre-order, the edition pairs the original 2LP with a bonus 7-inch disc, “A Something's Extra”.

Released on 28 September 1976, the album includes “Isn't She Lovely”, “As”, “Sir Duke” and “I Wish”. It was the first album by an American artist to debut at No. 1 on Billboard's album chart, and only the third ever, earned Wonder his third Grammy for Album of the Year and was later added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. It remains the best-selling album of his career.

On 28 September, Wonder also released an EP of four previously unreleased recordings from the original sessions: “It's Easier”, “My Life Story of Love”, “I Can See the Sun In Late December” and “I'm Into Livin”. He curated it himself and mixed it with two of the album's original engineers, among them John Fischbach. In a statement, Wonder said that after fifty years there is “still more to hear”.

The anniversary continues with the Songs In The Key Of Life Performances, shows in which Wonder plays the album and its outtakes in full. The run opens in October in Birmingham, England, moves on to the United States and ends on 19 December in Los Angeles.

Born in 1950 in Saginaw, Stevie Wonder is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, composer and producer working in soul, rhythm and blues and funk.