Stevie Wonder - Superstition live on Sesame Street
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
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It's almost criminal for one band to have that much funk.
+fa11234 4:09 "so funk I can die"
+Zed1967 What do you ’spect when a funk bomb was dropped on ’em? Peace.
+BettinaBalser in some states its illegal to be this funky!
almost criminal 😊funk
yeeee
Funky LoL
Imagine what it would mean to hear the best live performance you'll ever hear in your life before you started elementary school.
Oh,do we need talent like this so badly.Not these screamers,yappers and posers.People who actually KNOW what they are actually doing.
The kid in red is also grooving on 1,2,3/Sesame St./S. Wonder. 1,2,3 also influenced the guy who later wrote/performed 'More Bounce to the Ounce'.
It would either be lovely or horrible to be absolutely ruined for live music before you even hit grade school.
I don't have to imagine. I was 2 or 3 when I saw this for the first time back in the early 70's. It has stayed with me forever since. I'm 51 now.
@@jeffreychodikov6343 Same!
It’s 2024 and still can’t comprehend how cool this must have been in 1973
Agree. Still amazing.
I was a child then. Those days were amazing!
yeah . 2024, still beyond cool
Amen!
I saw this on TV with my kids and said " holy cow!!!!"
Seventies kid's TV.
... with better live mixing than most concerts I've been to.
Seriously tho!!!!
Tell you what, when the source is sooo good- not much mixing is needed
Modern life is rubbish
@@loontil - I just listened to Stevie on a POS laptop speaker. You're right. WTF am I thinking with this modern life. Then again, it is 1:23 AM so I can't exactly crank the stereo. My wife would not be happy.
70’s kids were royalty. 🫅👸
the guy on the mixing desk deserves some applause, i could hear every instrument in this as well as stevie, i've heard a lot of live performances where the instruments always seem to drown out the vocalist or vice versa but on this one i could hear everyone fine
I didn't even think of that but you're bang right, everything is crystal clear
yea this could be sold as the studio version
YUUUUP. DEF. Mixer is the man.
you can, maybe you were just looking for piano sound lol, the bass line is played by the clavinet. Maybe it's fading a little when the trumpet is on but you can hear it clearly.
Especially with the live sax/trumpet and drums, all right next to each other.
How did the execs give Stevie the OK to play the (actual) song in its entirety plus and extended improvised jam instead of a one-minute educational parody? It's surprises me that one of *THE BEST* live performances took place on a TV show made for toddlers.
Jim Henson was still alive so I’m sure that helped. Also what were they gonna do, stop him? Blind Stevie was gonna finish this FunkTastic live version. Maybe they were planning on cutting part of it and they realized how amazing this jam was and just said eff it, 1/3 of this program is just gonna be this jam.
Because Sesame Street was amazing back then. Still is, I’ll always have a good place in my heart for Sesame St.
Evan Miles-Wright Times were different, that much is sure. You could hear it on the radio and there was nothing truly objectionable. Also, Sesame Street was known for having TOP musical guests back then. It was an honor to be asked to appear. I’m sure the parents tuned in just as much. It was a perfect blend of adults’ and kids’ and environments, just as a neighborhood should be.
Absolutely, dear Evan-of-Miles-Wright. It only highlights the man's family-friendly, crossover and 'funkalicious' appeal as a musical genius.
Welcome to the 70’s
That kid at the top of the stairs is taking it to a whole new level.
+Dylan Leigh omg that little kid is sooo me! remarkable !
she had TOO Much sugar candy and ADHD!
im sure he felt what he couldn't see
That drove me crazy. She oughta listen to Pink Floyd. Just kidding.
I wish I was him!
I remember watching this on Sesame St when I was a babysitter back in the 1970s. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen!!
It may have been!
Stevie Wonder performing Superstition live on Sesame Street is a golden era of public television we’ll never see again in our lifetime.
And not a shitty abbreviated version, a full on extended remix jam.
It'll never be seen again
Scott Edwards, the bassist, on this performance in a 2013 interview with songfacts: "You had that musician interaction and spontaneity. With Stevie, when you see him and he's moving his head, he's listening to what everybody's doing, and if he hears something here or there, he's ready to do something. It's total interaction of musicians: Stevie/us, us/him. And that's what made the magic. When that is gone, that's when you have bland and no response."
"We really didn't pay that much attention, because we were so busy watching Stevie. In one clip there's a little boy who was going crazy. I don't remember that little boy, because we had to be ready for what direction Stevie might go. You couldn't be distracted. If you look at the clips, we're all keeping an eye on him or listening to what he's doing. And in my case, I had to be listening to his left hand, because that's where his chordal thing would be leading. You wanted to make sure he looked good, and me being the bass player, I had to be accurate. So I really don't remember those puppets and stuff."
Thanks for sharing that, a huge insight to Stevie and why he moves his head like that!!! I love it!!!
This is really interesting. Thanks for sharing. I had to watch again after reading your comment!!
Like when Fred Wesley said that the key to playing WITH James Brown, was WATCH James Brown
Great anecdote. Definitely Scott was the musician who stood out here - besides Stevie. There's no bass guitar on the original (where Stevie plays the Moog bass), so he has to come up with an original line, while being responsive to Stevie's ad libs. I won't blame him for the speed up in tempo. Stevie was just going with the energy of the moment.
Stevie definitely had that band on a tight leash. But when he found that deep pocket at 4:16. *whew* 🔥 He's magic.
6000 years of innovation brings us man's greatest achievement... weapons grade funk
Funk so powerful, it's damn near deadly!
Mans greatest achievement
Stevie wonder!
The FONK is strong in young Stevie and his crew. No spell check
"weapons grade funk" HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA man i gotta steal that!!
This song is about 50 years old and is still one of the baddie jams ever. I am a full on metal head, but nobody, nobody brings it like Stevie.
As a fellow metalhead.....I understand...... Stevie is a talent nobody can deny.....plus this jam is so funky you can still bob your head 🤘
@@newcomerjason7791
You guys should check out the Sad but Superstitious mashup
Same here, the groove this song has is irresistible
I was just thinking…. Superstition is 50 years ago and still sounds so good today, but what a difference music was 50 years before Stevie’s Superstition. People were dancing the Charleston : )
I first heard this song at age 12, the day it was released, and told my sister, "That's gonna be a big hit!". It just has everything you look for in a song: great beat, perfect synchronization of instruments, great vocals. I didn't say those big words back then, but I said, "I'm buying that record as soon as possible!!!".
I honestly can''t believe Sesame Street went this hard, incredible performance and the kid who gets into it absolutely sends me
Yes, that kid!!!! #SOUL
@@chrisutley2859Lenny Kravitz is the kid -- or at least that's the rumor.
I come back to this video every few years to remind myself there is joy in the world. Stevie Wonder is nothing less than genius.
Same here. I saw this as a kid (I'm in the UK) and never forgot it, or the kid going wild on the stairs. Was so glad years ago to find it was on UA-cam and I come back like you :)
Testify sister! 👍
Yeeeeesssssss...... Every time I indulge in this video, I am in awe and in total joy. They are jamming!....on Sesame Street!
@@stephenmosgrove6559 :)
@KimberWhie1, I come back to it to remind myself how much fun I had dancing to it.
Not only did they play it live without backing tapes and lip-syncing, but an extended version to boot! PBS ruled!
Just play this in front of Congress for funding to Make PBS Great Again! "We can have this! Who doesn't want this?"
I love how they end the song, but then they're like, "Nah, we're gonna funk it out for another minute."
WHAT??!??!???! No they did not go on Sesame Street and just TEAR IT UP! (Like they were on Saturday Night Live or the Late Show!) They were like “Hey kids, this song is pure funk, so we are just going to lay it down. Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Oscar, Gordon, Maria and all you little children are just going to have to get with the funk”. Love it!
precioustraveler I remember watching it
I come back to this video often, and this is honestly one of my favorite comments on this video. I laugh out loud every time. They truly did tear it UP!
@@siob0t , since we're ALL "diggin this so much", check out the documentary film ThunderSoul, about a high-school jazz-funk stage band in the 70's, disadvantaged kids in a poor Texas town who were lucky enough to have a music teacher and father-figure/mentor who honed these kids into a band good enough to play and compete around the world. You will like!
Yep. This is a performance any late night talk show would have killed for, and he did it for SESAME STREET.
Don’t forget Mr. Hooper! He loved the funk.
That's gotta be the coolest episode of Sesame Street *EVER!*
Muff Diver I wish I was around then
I remember sitting cross-legged on the carpet in front of the TV with my baby brother (I was 10), shaking my head like Stevie.
Now that I see him, I remember that kid at the top of the stairs too, but mostly Stevie's sunglasses, his head-shaking and the red guitar.
Happy days.
A deep impression in my childhood.
(1974)
edit: I've just looked it up and this was from 1973, but being in the outback of Australia, we probably got it later.
Yeah for sure, they played this well into the 80s! Which means I was a very lucky kid.
It actually was.
The Pointer Sisters was a cool episode as well..
not as cool as Stevie, but pretty cool as well.
And Stevie was all of.... twenty-two years old here.
I feel so accomplished.
So what?
Brian Gallagher ... and his guitarist, was a 16 year old kid named Ray Parker Jr. :)
And just dig how much older-slash-maturer he seems than just 22, dear Brian-of-Gallagher !!!
Wow I have never realized how young Stevie Wonder was when I started enjoying his music. Thank you.
On April 12, 1973, children's television peaked.
My thoughts exactly, downhill from there with corporate Liberal pseudo anti racists taking over
No, no… television peaked, no need for further definition.
@@jpetersgoyanks PBS peaked in the 1990's.
You might be cool, but you'll never be kid rocking out to Stevie Wonder at the top of the stairs cool! 😎
That’s Lenny Kravits, his mother was an actress so she had the connections to get him there.
❤❤❤
Looks a lot like Fleas brother from another mother
I'm laughing because that kid needed no direction for that role
@@boataxe4605 That is not Lenny Kravitz.
3 year old me loved this, 53 year old me still loves this.
The best live version of this song.
Not to mention the great Ollie Brown on drums, Ray Parker Jr on guitar & "Blue" Lou Marini wailing on sax.
indeed. if i'm not mistaken, that's fellow New Yorker Lew Soloff on trumpet as well...
and that bassist!
Is Ray Parker Jr, the lead guitarist here? Awesome!!! Awesome session musicians, and tremendous music by Stevie. Let's go little kid upstairs!
yep! good call man!
Even before he was bustin' ghosts, he busy funking out with Stevie!
I thought that was him too!!
What about the other guitarist to Stevie's left , playing a telecaster . Who is he ?
i find it awesome how the drums start with such a straight flat beat and as the instruments pile on it becomes one of the best grooves of all time.
The original drummer was Jeff Beck, that was the only thing he could play.
The concert I attended the most beautiful ladies escorted him to the stage to begin. The audience was his before he even sang anything. Keep on rocking
@@FrankJmClarke - Seeing as Jeff Beck just recently passed, this comment is sacrilege. Beck was about the most talented guitarist of his time, how is it all he could play was drums? Referring to Jeff's playing, B.B. King once said “I don’t have those notes on my guitar.”
Stevie played the drums on his album version.
James Brown (and Bootsy), and Prince said the funk was on the "One".
ua-cam.com/video/IHE6hZU72A4/v-deo.html
Kids programming will never be this awesome again.
Ain't that the truth!
In the early days, PBS was composed primarily of mavericks who understood kids intuitively based on long careers performing for them as puppetteers. The company had a highly progressive (in the true sense, not the political sense) policy at the time (since rescinded after Henson, Carroll Spinney and the rest of the geniuses died) of not treating kids like infants and "watering down" things for them. Their angle was "These kids grow up in places like Brooklyn and Watts, they see scary, confusing adult stuff literally every day. We can't prevent that, and we can't pretend kids aren't seeing and hearing terrible stuff, but we can be an adult friend that helps them make sense of it without making them afraid of adults or adulthood." It was the one program I watched as a kid that could talk "on my level" without talking down to me like I was a baby who couldn't understand. Adult programming might have been periodically confusing or scary in the old days (I can remember staying up secretly to watch Tales from the Crypt... that was food for thought!), but "kids stuff" was deeply insulting to me, even at age 6. Kids hate being treated like babies.... or, anyway, they used to!
Now PBS is "All Safe Space, All the Time". "Oh no! No loud rock music! What if a kid gets scared and has a seizure? What if the parents get mad? What if they play it too loud and hurt their ears!!! We'd better just make it all infantile milktoast baby cartoons with cute fuzzy animals and never challenge the kids with actual human beings... "
It seems today's PBS has been infiltrated by the "nanny staters" who don't know jack shit about kids besides what they read in a textbook. "It's okay to be a baby forever, kids! You should ONLY consume things that society has decided are safe for you. Cartoons are safe and will never hurt you. Humans are terrible and will only hurt you. Stick your head in the ground like an ostrich and nothing can hurt you. That's the only way to feel okay." My, my how the definition of "progressive" has changed...
Proof that Sesame Street was better before Elmo
Alex Tocqueville amen.
@@cdevidal Baby Monster was an early incarnation of elmo up until 1985 when elmo was introduced
The tempo in this performance raised so slowly and smoothly that I can't even tell at which point it becomes amazing.
+Batman8657 its such an important part of the feel. you lose that when you play to a click track in the studio
they definitely speed up big time in the first 2 minutes. of course these days... it's not technically perfect... who gives a damn! those boys were cooking!
+Coldacre Perfection would not sound this good
Big part of the Stevie feel is the gentle acceleration
Maybe I can help with this. Amazingness starts at 0:10 , I suppose. After that point, it's just increasing up to rediculously mindblowing Badassness.
This funks me up, man. Too smooth to exist.
The fact that this was actually not "Lip-synced" is so funking crazy, making an even funkier recording than the studio recording.
I know right! This recording speaks to me on the deepest level.
They didn't do that back then....singers could REALLY sing in real life. Not the sing-song sing-a-long microphones/vo-coder they have now.
@@gingerscloset Lip syncing and playbacking was a very common practice at the time, used by many shows, such as Top of the Pops. So it definitely was done back then.
Fire. One of the best performances EVER. And on Sesame Street. GOAT
It should be illegal to be that cool and smooth
"Well that would make him..."
*wears sunglasses*
"...a 'smooth criminal'."
YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! XD
Avuncular chuckles at how many would have been jailed by now for being 'that cool and smooth', dear JP Sillick !!! We dig thee !!!
remember people, this man recorded/played most instruments in the studio version of this himself.
keys, strings, drums, etc
guy is a musical genius, period.
I was reading that for the studio recording of this, they had all the instruments set up in a circle, mostly synth/piano options. The exception was the drums. Stevie walked in, laid down his percussion track in 15 minutes, then went to work in his little circle. Wow!
TRULY AMAZING.
Everything but the horns.
As much as I love his studio albums, I sometimes wish he had done a little less magic on all those keyboards, and had made more room for sessional musicians, and it's because of videos like this that I feel that way. :)
This is why my childhood was infinitely cooler than anyone's since... I was a Sesame Street and Electric Company kid (Morgan Freeman as EZ Reader anyone?) and they didn't dumb everything down for us. Top Music and performers for kids. We were really lucky.
I'm with on that!🤜🏾🤛🏾👍🏽✌🏽
Yep, I feel like being exposed to this at such a young age is why I grew up having such a diverse and great taste in music.
And Z double-O M plus Schoolhouse Rock piped directly into our brains every Saturday morning. Loved that I never felt talked down to as a kid by any of these shows.
@@netlawyerdc We are the baddest generation ever! Listening to Stevie and the BEST of NYCs session musicians just TEARING it up! I LOVE how they do the multiple faux ending and then are like "naw, we are just going to do a sesame street jam for another couple of minutes, for the kids..." LOL
We had the best childhood
This is like my fifty-leventh time watching this!
I've got you beaten.... I'm on my thousand- millionth time watching this.
Without going into it, the cast of musicians playing on this is nothing short of off the charts amazing. From Ollie brown, to Ray Parker junior, to blue lou, & those are just the ones I know off the top of my head.
We could learn a lot from this even today, A blind black man leading a group of diverse individuals in one of the best jams ever.
Probably the best live version of a popular song ever recorded.
I remember seeing this on Sesame Street as a kid back in the 70's, and I was BLOWN AWAY... it ignited a life-long love of funk, soul and its master, Stevie Wonder. Sesame Street didn't just teach the A-B-Cs and the 1-2-3s... It also taught us the meaning of FUNK.
The Pointer Sisters singing us our numbers.
Stevie Wonder and the band just visiting the Street to drop this epic gold.
Sesame Street was beyond awesome.
My now ten year old sings his ABCs with Patti LaBelles phrasing. 😂😂😂
@@skepchica Fantastic!!
By far one of the best live performances from any musician ever.
I agree
Stevie and Freddie ruled the world
Don’t forget Michael Jackson
@Marco Evans it's true even if the movie didn't exist. He was amazing
Frank Sinatra: One More For My Baby
This is one of the most important and badass moments of T.V history.
This is my favorite version of Superstition! Love the kids rocking out!
It does take some beating Gail. Tommy
I don't care if it was on a kids show. It's one of the most kick-ass live performances you'll ever see. They were ferociously good.
The guitarist is Ray parker Jr... Singer of the Ghostbusters Theme 1984 !!!!
And the other guitarist is Jeff "Skunk" Baxter from Steely Dan & Doobie Brothers
Thank Gawd singing that awful song isn't Ray Parker's calling card. I'd much rather remember him as a songwriter, being in Stevie's band, and being the frontman for Raydio.
+Marcus R. Is that really Ray, without the mustache? Looks so different.
Dave Wollenberg Yes he is !!!
The first guitarist we can see in the video, he is playing the first rythmic solo theme of the song with the hat on his head.
yes he was younger.
I don't know about his current activity...
+Don Parsons I believe that is actually Michael Sembello (later famous for the song "Maniac" from Flashdance) who played guitar in Stevie Wonder's band along with Ray Parker, Jr. in the 1970s.
Reporter back in the day- "So Stevie you've reached new heights artistically and commercially with Talking Book, where do you think you'll kick off this next tour? Madison Square Garden? Maybe a baseball stadium somewhere?!" Stevie- "Nah man, I was thinkin like maybe Sesame Street? That'd be cool." Reporter- "uhhhh..."
This is the HEAVIEST jam ever on Sesame Street. Oscar is still hiding in his garbage can from this. The kid thrashing at 4:10 says it all. Blows my mind every time i watch this clip.
Lol! Awesome comment regarding Oscar!!
I heard the reason Oscar’s so grouchy is that Stevie and his band never returned for another show.
That kid dancing up the stairs was Lenny Kravitz.
I was 6 when I experienced this and it set my course strait in my exploration of all music 🎶🎶😎👍
That's why growing up on Sesame Street in the 70's was mind blowing
Love the kid on the fire escape - he totally gets it! This video is just excellent!
That is Lenny Kravitz.
2023 just heard this for first time....I'm a teenager again...at 70....all glory and praises to creator...and Stevie of course...and band...claude have mercy!!!
Ppl dont realize Stevie was in a out of body euphoric state at the 04:33 mark , being able to hear each individual instrument hit on the correct note pitch and tempo , then the breakdown perfectly executed....all he he could say was "WHOAAA"....🎼🎵🎶🎸🎷🥁🎺🎻🎹🎙
I soooo remember this as a wee one in the early seventies.
me too. it is great that we can see this again!
I just want to celebrate another day of livin'
I just want to celebrate another day of life!
I remember this like it was yesterday. 1973 I was four years old & had no idea how really special this was. I just thought all musicians played like that. 70's kids like me were really spoiled when it came to great music. I feel sorry for today's kids. No one can sing, play an instrument or write a decent song.
While I agree that the 70's were a great time for music, there is still plenty of great music being made now. It's just not on pop stations
Could not agree more!
Karen Wells I think you haven't checked out people like Esperanza Spaulding, Christian Scott, Michael Kiwinuka and many more. Open up your mind☺️
See: Kamasi Washington, Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat, MGMT, The Avalanches, Tame Impala, Hozier, Adele, Kanye West, Chance the Rapper, D'Angelo, Frank Ocean, Phantogram, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Solange, The Weeknd, Flying Lotus, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on.
How many of them are readily accessible to four year olds though? I'm not trying to be sarcastic. It's not as much about "opening your mind" as it is "where can little kids hear good music".
I understand you can get anything on demand, but which average kid is going to just listen to music of their own volition? Wrapping it up in something like Sesame Street was a brilliant way to expose kids to music, along with spelling and all the rest.
This is one of the greatest things that has ever happened.
When I was a wee child, my aunt told my mother to check out a new show on public television. My aunt was a fourth grade teacher, so my mom knew she was a smart cookie. I watched Sesame Street from the start. My sons also watched. What a fantastic children’s show!
I love it when the horns blast in and just take it to another level of funkitude.
Is that the ole Blues Brothers horn section? Donald “Duck” Dunn?
Edit: Maybe Lou Blue Marino
At 3:29 when he said, "GO COOKIE MONSTER!" I expected a Cookie Monster solo... 😅
Best performance of this song ever. No question. Stevie, Ray Parker Jr. and the rest of the band took it to a whole nother' level at the 3:36 mark. Incredible.
Holy Shit!!! I never thought I was ever going to see this again!
I was three years old, and I remember this!
Stevie's smile is infectious. Tell me you didn't crack a grin along with him. And dear lord, that kid at the top of the stairs was feeling the funk in his soul. He's just going at it, not giving a damn about anyone else. I wish to manage that someday.
That moment you realize he's "conducting" with his head-movements.
Lol
I was five in 1973, and watched Sesame Street since the beginning. I saw this episode when it was brand new.. I thought, this is as good as it gets. For one moment, there was no Vietnam war, no poverty, no racism, just the joy of music. We owe you a lot, Stevie.
One of the greatest comments on the video!!!
Best video on youtube. Really mean that. No hyperbole.
I agree, I have shown this video to sooooo many people stating exactly as you have.
Sustained counselor... I've shown this to my kids and anyone who will watch. You can't get this type of performance on an actual music show today.
Rod Emelle
Yes you can. You just have to look to the independent soul artists
ASCENDANT
Ah, but are they doing it on a mainstream kids show? Stevie and the band are rocking out in a manner that you rarely see at a live show, let alone on Sesame street!
Check out the long haired kid who is grooving out for the entire duration of the video... Television has become sanitized (yet you will see certain female R 'n' B stars and their dancers thrusting around half naked on a kids awards show) to the point where something like this - which is a little bit out of the ordinary - would be ruled out before seeing the light of day, via a focus group committee. And I think the world's a little bit of a poorer place for it.
I know this is an old man grumble (but I'm only 34, bear with me), but I'm sticking to my point about something joyful being ruled out, whilst Beyonce's half-naked frame awakens feelings in my five year old nephew that he didn't really need to know existed...it isn't right on any level.
I don't know if it's definitively the best, but there's nothing better :)
This changed my life as a boy. 70s TV rocked!!! What a sound!!! xxx
His best performance ever. This is life changing. What an experience! Trumpet and saxophone... unbelievable! The whole band is! NOTHING beats this!
exactly, this one floors me every time I rewatch it
You know, I don't recall this whatsoever when I used to watch this little PBS show after preschool/1st/2nd grade was over, some kids went home, but us leftovers got to eat a snack and got to leave later. Holy S$%t! The early 70s...
Some people might think "How is this educational?" Here's how: People of different races working and playing together, and the whole thing is being led by a man with a disability.
Best coment of all sarah
Sarah Rushton plus the song is a call to educate and inform yourself.
If it gets 1 kid to try an instrument...write lyrics, etc.....Made me wanna play.
Music, in and of itself, is educational
That all could be true but SS has also to inspire kids such maybe they'd wanna do something like this when they grow up.
How in the hell did this legendary live performance get 1000 dislikes?!!!...WTF?!!! Man! As a little kid I rocked to this jam when I first saw it on Sesame Street. Stevie and his crew ROCKED!😎🤘🏽🙌🏽🤙🏽🎷🎶
@@doubleutee8867 or the brain dead fucks who had a problem with cultural diversity in the 1st place.
@@l.cruces2223 Or the brain dead trash who couldn't build their own country up and abandoned their loved ones for American money.
UA-cam fixed it by removing the dislike button
Racists have zero taste.
They were very superstitious! 👻
I hope this performance is in the National Archives...
It better be
We were in middle school, beginner teenagers, and still caught Sesame Street almost every day, just for moments like this. (Another fave was James Taylor doing Up On The Roof)
I remember watching this as a kid when it first aired on Sesame Street. I was jamming and dancing along to the music. Looking back, this was and still is an amazing performance. Thanks Stevie!
COPPA has blocked a lot of comment sections for Sesame Street videos so it makes me happy to see this one's been untouched. Seeing millions on UA-cam praise this awesome-as-hell performance really made my day.
Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street in 1973... That's my jam! #savepublicbroadcasting #throwbackthursday
As a child, I was mesmerized by the musical performances. My favorite song was the pinball machine one
Princelia Martinez
Me too, our generation was spoilt.... I just assumed everyone did perfect music all the time and that every TV show was brilliant,and that they would always understand me. Is the pinball song the Sesame St counting stuff? My favourite was the "jazzy spies", I loved "10" because it reminded me of the day when it was my birthday, it was dark and a thunderstorm, and Sesame St was on and Grace Slick was singing the notes, and my mum went out to buy me presents, and she was soaking wet but she did it to give me something for my birthday.
Performance à Sesame Street, je ne me lasse pas de l'écouter depuis des années, absolument merveilleux, tout y est ! j'aurais adorer être là
Simply the most amazing piece of music ever recorded.
Its almost as if Stevie Wonder can actually see the sounds around him simply Awesome
Gee this sounds better than on the record.
Yep, they are really spanking it on this version. Really wish I had a pristine recording of this.
Yes. There is so much more happening in this that would be great to add to a funk playlist.
Karl Helm And that’s saying a lot! The actual recording is great but you get to really hear them horns blasting and that funky bass coming in, straight up live performance!
I agree with my colleagues, best live version of any song EVAR.
@@Arjay82 Makes sense, if they had to rutinariely record the voice acting of folks that were contorted behind tables and blankets.
Does it get any more cool than this? Stevie getting into it so much he didn't want to stop, and the sounds they were putting out towards the end, wow. Sesame Street in the 70s was the BEST!
Hands down!! The best version of this song ever!! I felt that back then. 50+ years later....HELL YES!!!
Probably one of the greatest things I've ever seen!
Can't think of any song that reflects the 70s so well
The musicians' musician, effortless brilliance, soul and funk played like jazz
Watched this dozens of times and still get goosebumps.
Songs like this are timeless u can still listen to them 100 years from now on. pure Musical eargasm
ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THE FUNKIEST VERSIONS OF THIS SONG!!! THOSE BREAKDOWNS ARE INSANE AND THEN THEY KICK BACK INTO IT!! IF THIS DON'T GET YOU UP MOVNG YOU DEAD INSIDE!!! MYYYY GODDDD!!!
Straight up funk! The band is killin' it... Also, I think that is a young Ray Parker Jr. wearing the hat playing guitar behind Stevie.
Yes it is
Nuh-uh! Thanks for pointing that out, very cool!
And it looks like a young Anthony Jackson on bass. May well be wrong, though...
I think that is Nate Watts on bass. He still plays with Stevie to this day.
DeLuca2277 Yes, that is Ray!
Hearing this much funk during your early childhood will inoculate you against becoming a country-western fan.
This has to be one of the greatest funk performances of all time! Flawless!!!
I think this is my favorite live performance video ever. The sound guy, the video guy, just absolutely dialed in. This needs to be a college course, just perfect 👌.
I think the video needed more bass. The guy in the back corner on the chair got no respect.
That is Ollie Brown on drums!! There is not much live footage of him. Dude is amazing! Stevie wonder had a hard ass band backing him.
If I’m correct, Ollie was percussionist for The Rolling Stones on their 1975 USA tour
Herbie Hancock was on his band also
This is why my husband is a keyboard player today. He's 63 so obviously inspired at a young age. Stevie Wonder is amazing!
Outside of Parliament/Funkadelic and JB, nobody could match Stevie during
his Golden Years circa 1971 - 74. This incredible version of "Superstition" is
another league altogther.
Here is the definitive proof. What a class act!
This level of funk would make Statler and Waldorf tap their feet to the rhythm.
Haha 😄😄
Back when children's tv was good for the soul.
What a guy, what a band. So much groove 💖
Just a bunch of super-talented musicians. I don't understand the problem. Thanks for the supreme performance!
My favorite UA-cam clip ever...
I've watched this many, many times. And when I started watching Sesame Street in the mid-to-late '70s, this episode was still in frequent rotation. Again, I've watched this many times. MANY times. But just now...the pure awesomeness that is this performance just made me burst into tears. God bless Stevie Wonder!! I am so lucky to have been born when I was born.
This is peak Sesame Street. Stevie's glorious, joy laden funk is timeless, ageless, and peerless.
Whenever I am having a bad day I can come to UA-cam watch this and honestly it puts a smile on my face and the world isn't a bad place.
I can too.
Same.
Stevie Wonder should get some sort of "Here, Hold My Beer" award. I mean, the dude was blind and made all that music over his lifetime. People like him, Ray Charles and Jeff Healey define "not taking no for an answer". Eternal respect for not only doing it, but knocking it out of the atmosphere
Well said!♥️
It’s Sesame Street. Hold my milk. 😉
Stevie was one of the first, friend!
One off the first eargasms on record in children's television
And Generation Y gets....Kidz Bop?
Something very bad happened to this country between PBS of the 1970s (when NYC was Gotham City and a global leader in robberies) and PBS of today (when it's not even in the top 5 most dangerous cities in America). We lost our balls. A huge part of the impetus for Sesame Street was the desire to not "baby talk" inner city kids in the 1970s, since they saw all kinds of drug use and violent crime and poverty every day.
Now, I guess they think the best thing for a sheltered suburban kid is to... be more sheltered? Lest they break like an eggshell if you show them something they don't understand? It's almost like a conspiracy. I refuse to believe anybody could think the current PBS lineup does anything positive for kids except tell them it's okay to be a baby as an adult.
And precisely who benefits from a nation of overgrown children who cry and call for a grown up to help them at the drop of a hat?
Yes.
Oh HELLZ yeah!
This is quite simply the absolute best live performance of this song on YT with that ever so essential trumpet, and of course that little boy who already knows what funk is!
Another commenter mentioned that is Lenny Kravitz. I can believe it, though I don't know for sure.
did a project on stieve wonder on sesame street in 4th grade using this video , quite an inspiration
I hope you have seen young Stevie. Fingertips - Ed Sullivan Show 1963 ua-cam.com/video/aQRBzZCtD4o/v-deo.htmlsi=9Vkdi1AVKeYrqM6n ; if not enjoy!
This is why Sesame Street ruled when I was growing up.
4:08 when your friends are just chilling at the party but you’re already 5 beers in