Released October 24, 1972 Recorded New York City, 1972 | Format 7" 45 rpm Genre Funk | |
B-side "You've Got It Bad Girl" Length 4:26 (Album version)
4:07 (7" version) | ||
"Superstition" is a popular song composed, produced, arranged, and performed by Stevie Wonder for Motown Records in 1972. It was the lead single for Wonder's album Talking Book, and released in many countries. It reached number one in the U.S., and number one on the soul singles chart. The song was Wonder's first number-one single since "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" and topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973. Overseas, it peaked at number eleven in the UK during February 1973. In November 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song at No. 74 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song's lyrics are chiefly concerned with superstitions, mentioning several popular superstitious fables throughout the song, and deal with the negative effects superstitious beliefs can bring.
Contents
Writing and recording
Jeff Beck was an admirer of Wonder's music, and Wonder was informed of this prior to the Talking Book album sessions. Though at this point he was virtually playing all of the instruments on his songs by himself, Wonder still preferred to let other guitarists play on his records, and he liked the idea of a collaboration with Beck, a star guitarist. An agreement was quickly made for Beck to become involved in the sessions that became the Talking Book album, in return for Wonder writing him a song. In between sessions, Beck came up with the opening drum beat, which eventually led to Wonder's creation of "Superstition". In addition to the opening drum beat, Beck, together with Wonder, created the first demo for the song. Originally, the plan was for Beck to release his version of this song first, with his newly formed power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice. However, due to a combination of the delayed release of that trio's debut album and Motown CEO Berry Gordy's prediction that "Superstition" would be a huge hit (which would subsequently greatly increase the sales of Talking Book), Wonder ended up releasing the song as the lead single off Talking Book ahead of Beck's version.
On Wonder's recording, the song's opening drum beat was performed by Wonder on the kit that Scott Mathews provided at the Record Plant in Hollywood. The funky clavinet riff played on a Hohner Clavinet model C, and the Moog synthesizer bass, were also performed by Wonder. The song also features trumpet and tenor saxophone, played respectively by Steve Madaio and Trevor Laurence.
Other recorded versions
Wonder performed a live-in-the-studio version of "Superstition" on Sesame Street in 1973. This version later appeared on the collection Songs from the Street: 35 Years in Music.
Jeff Beck recorded his own version of the song with the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice. This was released on their eponymous debut album.
Stevie Ray Vaughan recorded a live version in 1986, which was released as a single from his album Live Alive. The accompanying music video features Vaughan and a stage crew setting up for a concert he planned to do on Friday the 13th. Many superstitious acts are featured, most notably a black cat that ultimately gets its revenge on Double Trouble, and Wonder (holding said cat) appears at the end. This version is still played on classic rock radio to this day, and is included on two of Vaughan's greatest hits compilations. Wonder and Vaughan performed the song together in 1989 on the MTV special Stevie Wonder: Characters. Raven-Symoné covered "Superstition" for The Haunted Mansion soundtrack.
In popular culture
Wonder's recording is heard prominently near the beginning of John Carpenter's classic 1982 horror film The Thing. It is also prominently played in a scene in the 2004 film I, Robot, starring Will Smith and directed by Alex Proyas. Wonder appeared in Bud Light commercials that debuted during the Super Bowl in 2013. As part of the "It's only weird if it doesn't work" campaign, which showed superstitious fans acting compulsively in an effort to guide their teams to victory, Wonder appeared as a witch doctor in New Orleans (where the 2013 Super Bowl took place). These fans would perform numerous superstitious acts in order to receive good luck charms from him. The song "Superstition," specifically the beginning instrumental portion before Wonder's vocals kick in, plays throughout these commercials.
The song title was parodied as Superimprovisation as the album had the original title Hair Scare from PaRappa the Rapper 2.