Watched the opening of Saturday Night Live last night, including the opening song (a funny one about not singing a song) from Justin Timberlake, and was struck again by a fact that I haven't written about nearly enough. I think there's no doubt about it: Stevie Wonder is the most influential musician in pop, rock or r&b music in the last fifty years. Turn on the radio (or TV, as in the case above) and you'll hear him in almost everything. His singing, harmonic innovations, tremendous attention to detail in building rhythms (the episode from the Classic Albums series about Songs in the Key of Life provides some cool stuff about his process), and his hugely under-rated accomplishments as a lyricist, all of it grounded in the Motown school of music - well, it's no wonder that his influence is up there with anyone you could name (Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, James Brown, like that). And amazingly, he's equally great as a singles artist (example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkQKk2ukiyw) or album artist (the five released between 1972 and 1976, all masterpieces - here's the discography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Wonder_discography, and here's "Saturn" from Songs in the Key of Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KpUO6t9qQ).