Archive On 4: Stevie's Inner Visions

ARCHIVE ON 4: STEVIE'S INNER VISIONS (320kbs-m4a/130mb/57mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 3rd December 2023

Fifty years ago, Stevie Wonder released his finest masterpiece in a career full of them. Innervisions is regularly voted as one of the top ten LPs of all time, of any genre. Days after its release, Stevie - still just 23 years old - was on the promo tour in North Carolina. He sat in the passenger seat of a rental car listening to his new record on headphones when he drifted asleep. Suddenly the automobile collided with a truck, plunging Stevie into a coma.

This is the story of the day we almost lost Stevie, just at the moment when America – and the world - needed him most. It's also the account of how that iconic body of work, Innervisions, bridged Stevie's transition from child star to voice of the people, cementing his place as one the greatest of all time.

This Archive On 4 is told through Stevie's own words from the BBC vaults. It also features new interviews with musicians Corinne Bailey Rae, Jacob Collier, and Fred Hersch, as well as members of Stevie's Wonderlove band and crew, including his publicist Ira Tucker Jr, who spent days trying to bring his friend back to consciousness.

Producer: Tom Bonnett
Additional Production: Jude Shapiro
Executive Producer: Jack Howson
Mixing: Mike Woolley

Additional Contributors:
DJ Spinna, Brooklyn music producer who runs Wonder-ful tribute parties in honour of Stevie.
Kevin K. Gaines, Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice at the University of Virginia.
Lynda Laurence, singer with Stevie and then The Supremes.
Professor Adrian Owen OBE, neuroscientist.
Nicholas Schiff, neurologist.

A Peanut & Crumb production for BBC Radio 4