Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series.
In January 1974, Stevie Wonder and his band performed on the German television program “Musikladen.” His set that day was heavy on songs from the 1973 masterpiece Innervisions, and closed with a rendition of the 1972 hit “Superstition” that I saw many times on VH1 growing up. The “Musikladen” appearance also included two previously unreleased new songs. The instrumental “Contusion” would eventually come out on 1976’s Songs in the Key of Life. And Wonder also sang a poignant ballad, “I Can See the Sun in Late December,” that would never appear on any of his albums: “The sun is shining right before your eyes / I bet you you can’t even see yourself / ’Cause when you’re lost, sometimes yourself is hard to find.”
Wonder performed “I Can See the Sun in Late December” at least half a dozen times between 1974 and 1979, but the first artist to release the song was Roberta Flack. 1975’s Feel Like Makin’ Love, took 14 months to record after producer Joel Dorn left the project, and Flack self-produced her fifth solo album under the pseudonym Rubina Flake. Flack’s career took a commercial downturn after the difficult gestation of Feel Like Makin’ Love, but the album is uncompromising and inspired. And its centerpiece is a 12-minute version of “I Can see the Sun in Late December” arranged by Flack and keyboardist Harry Whitaker that adds a tempo change and extended outro to Wonder’s song.
In March 2025, two weeks after Flack’s death, Wonder performed “I Can See the Sun in Late December” for the first time in over 40 years at her memorial service at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. “This is a song that Roberta sang that I wrote,” Wonder said. “But it really is, today, a statement to the world. The world needs to open up their eyes and see. Let’s celebrate the God that we serve, the spiritual God.”
Three more essential Stevie Wonder deep cuts:
“Sunset”
Stevie Wonder’s early albums were heavy on instrumentals and covers of his influences, including Ray Charles. But the first song with lyrics to bear a Stevie Wonder writing credit, “Sunset,” appeared on 1962’s Tribute to Uncle Ray, a simple, bluesy track with a passionate vocal that quietly kicked off the career of one of pop’s greatest songwriters.
“Blame It on the Sun”
Wonder and Syreeta Wright wrote many songs together during and after their brief marriage from 1970 to 1972. Some of Wonder’s saddest, most heartbroken songs come from the period around their divorce, even ones he co-wrote with Wright like “Blame It on the Sun” from Talking Book.
“Have a Talk With God”
Stevie Wonder moved back toward conventional instrumentation on Songs in the Key of Life after years of experimenting heavily with synthesizers. But the double LP’s second track, co-written with his brother Calvin Hardaway, is one of his most fascinatingly futuristic productions.