In late 1979 Stevie Wonder’s mostly instrumental Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants disappointed critics and buyers, with only Send One Your Love reaching the top five, and Wonder blamed Motown for failing to promote it. He co-wrote Jermaine Jackson’s Let’s Get Serious and Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s You Are My Heaven, and bought Wonderland Studios in Los Angeles to work without a clock. A 1979 meeting with Bob Marley at a Black Music Association gathering in Philadelphia led to the reggae-based Master Blaster (Jammin’).
Hotter Than July, released in 1980, mixed country in I Ain’t Gonna Stand for It and housing discrimination in Cash in Your Face. Happy Birthday was written to campaign for making Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday, and the sleeve carried a King portrait, Wonder’s appeal for observance in 1981, and a collage of riots, marches and police violence. The album reached number 3, became his first RIAA-certified platinum record, and peaked at number 2 in the UK. The King holiday was signed into law in 1983.
- Charlie and Ronnie Wilson of the Gap Band sang backing vocals on I Ain’t Gonna Stand for It.
- All I Do dates to 1966, when Tammi Terrell recorded it, and her version stayed in the Motown vaults.
- Michael Jackson, Betty Wright and members of the O’Jays sang backup on All I Do.
- Wonder signed the sleeve as Stevland Morris and added his thumbprint.
- Motown had not audited sales for platinum awards before 1977, so earlier hits never received the certification.
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