Rise to Fame
At 11, Ronnie White of The Miracles walked him into Berry Gordy's office. Two years later, "Fingertips, Part 2" made him the youngest artist to top the Hot 100 and R&B charts at the same time. Child stardom almost finished him. By his mid-teens, Motown was stuck with a voice they didn't know what to do with. His comeback was "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" in 1966, which he co-wrote at 16. By 1971 he'd negotiated complete creative control, the first Motown artist to do it. What followed was a four-album run between 1972 and 1976 and three Grammy Album of the Year wins. That streak still hasn't been matched.
In the Spotlight
At 75, he's still using his platform like it's 1965. He performed at the Democratic National Convention in August 2024 and released "Can We Fix Our Nation's Broken Heart" that same month, his first new single in four years, then took it on a 10-date U.S. tour in October. Beyoncé pulled him in to play harmonica on "Jolene" for Cowboy Carter. In May 2024, he officially became a Ghanaian citizen, fulfilling a 50-year-old plan. The documentary about his campaign to establish MLK Day as a national holiday is still in production. He's not coasting.
Side Notes
The blindness was a side effect of the oxygen incubator keeping him alive as a premature infant. Motown paid him $2.50 a week as a child while his royalties sat in a trust he couldn't touch until 21. His 1968 album Eivets Rednow is his name spelled backwards, an all-instrumental jazz record that confused most fans. Marvin Gaye played drums on "Fingertips, Part 2." A car accident in 1973 left him in a coma for four days. "Isn't She Lovely" was written for his daughter Aisha. The heartbeat you hear in the intro is hers.