If it's Magic

by Stevie Wonder

Unknown Binding

About the author

Stevie Wonder (born Steveland Hardaway Judkins, name later changed to Steveland Hardaway Morris) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. A prominent figure of 20th century popular music, Wonder has recorded more than thirty top ten hits, won twenty-five Grammy Awards (a record for a solo artist), plus one for lifetime achievement, won an Academy Award for Best Song and been inducted into both the Rock and Roll and Songwriters halls of fame.

Blind from infancy, Wonder signed with Motown Records as a pre-adolescent at age twelve, and continues to perform and record for the label to this day. He has nine U.S. number-one hits to his name and album sales totaling more than 100 million units. Wonder has recorded several critically acclaimed albums and hit singles, and writes and produces songs for many of his label mates and outside artists as well. A multi-instrumentalist, Wonder plays the piano, synthesizer, talk box, harmonica, congas, drums, bongos, bass guitar, organ, melodica, and clarinet. In his early career, he was best known for his harmonica work, but today he is better known for his keyboard skills.

Reviews

[Alta · Rating 5 out of 5]

The song that I'm reviewing is If It's Magic by Stevie Wonder. This song is about love and how if it's as wonderful as everyone says it is, why don't we treat it as such? Stevie Wonder is my favorite artist of all time, and he is a musical genius in my opinion. The aspect of craft that he uses the best is the art of specificity and his use of unforgettable language. It would have been much too easy to actually say If Love is Magic. Stevie had to go and make it one big riddle. The genius of it is that he never uses the word love at all in the song! The chorus says “It holds the key to every heart throughout the universe, it fills you up without a bite, and quenches every thirst." That is a VERY POWERFUL way to describe love! There are similes in the song that exemplify specificity and give you examples of how careful we should be with love. For example, the third verse says "If it's special, then with it why aren't we as careful... as making sure we dress in style... posing pictures with a smile... keeping danger from a child? This song is special to me because love should be that special, but how often do we assess whether or not we're giving it the reverence it deserves? If I were a writing teacher and I wanted to incorporate this type of writing into a lesson, I could have my students write rhyming riddles and have them try to guess each other's riddles.