Download Instrumental    Never been a huge Stevie Wonder fan.  Over the years, I’ve only performed two of his songs… “Sunshine of My Life” and this one – “Isn’t She Lovely”.  I loved the intro on “Sunshine” and really liked the chord progression on “Lovely”, so I didn’t mind having to play them for singers who just HAD to do a “Wonder” tune.  I thought the rest of his stuff was just repetitive and boring.  Oh, wait… I remember doing “Superstition” many times for a cruise ship act and thoroughly enjoyed that one.  And “Boogie On, Reggae Woman” was a hoot down in Florida.  Played “I Just Called to Say I Love You” for years and loved the electric piano part.  But I don’t really care for his music.  Right…

“Isn’t She Lovely” has a great shuffle beat with just the right amount of piano to keep it interesting.  Stevie wrote it as a celebration for the birth of his daughter, Aisha, in 1975.  She can be heard crying (that’s what babies do) both at the beginning and end of the song.  That’s a little over the top, I think, but proud fathers tend to lose their minds.  We’ll forgive you for that one, Stevie.

But the lyrics!  Sappy and sophomoric, but who cares?  Actually, I played this one for years and thought it was about a hot romance.  I don’t pay any attention to lyrics – it’s all about the music and remembering chords to me.  All I heard was “Isn’t she lovely/isn’t she wonderful” – definitely a love song.  The next two lines “Isn’t she precious/less than one minute old” should have been clue.  But I never heard that part of the song.  Clueless!  Sometimes I can be annoyingly imperceptive.  Part of my charm…