First, can we all accept that this might be the best live performance of a song on television ever? And on Sesame Street, of all shows. Clearly, we’ve been unfairly robbed of the kid-friendly Saturday Night Live that that show was always meant to be all these years.
And “Superstition”… I’ll admit it; for every Stevie Wonder song that I absolutely adore – “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “You Met Your Match,” his version of “We Can Work It Out” – there are about ten that I almost can’t stand. I put it down to his tendency to push his more saccharine moments (“I Just Called To Say I Love You”? “My Cherie Amour”? “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life”? AIEE) as singles and promoted tracks, especially when I was discovering his music for the first time; that kind of thing leaves its mental scars, but even so: “Superstition” is a song that refuses to leave you alone, unconvinced of its greatness. Listen to that creeping electric piano line, or the horns, nagging at you to acknowledge how great the song is.
With such unforgettable, unbelievable prime slab of funk behind it, it’s easy to forget about Wonder’s vocals – Although: That growl! That joy! – and the words he’s singing. That’s a mistake, though; it’s a smart, funny song, and a lesson for the more gullible of us: “If you believe in the things/That you don’t understand/Then you’ll suffer/Superstition ain’t the way” Maybe it’s my love for songs with such simple, simplistic lessons, but I kind of love that that’s the chorus for this one.
Here’s the (somewhat inferior to the Sesame version, but still great) original recorded version of the song: