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54 free Stevie Wonder trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
47 free Stevie Wonder trivia questions with answers. Stevie Wonder signed to Motown at 11, topped the Hot 100 at 13 and then, in the five years after his 21st birthday, made a run of albums that many musicians consider the greatest sustained streak in pop history. This quiz covers the whole story: the Saginaw birth and the incubator that cost him his sight, Little Stevie and 'Fingertips', the flop years and Sylvia Moy's rescue, the synthesizer partnership behind Music of My Mind and Talking Book, the 1973 car crash, three Album of the Year Grammys in a row, and the 1980s hits with McCartney, the Oscar and the Martin Luther King Day campaign. The easy questions ask what he won the Oscar for and which holiday 'Happy Birthday' fought for. The hard ones want his first Motown stipend, his 1971 royalty rate, who blocked 'Sir Duke' from No. 1 in Britain and which Detroit street now bears his name. It suits a Motown-themed pub round, a soul playlist night or a birthday party for anyone who owns Innervisions on vinyl. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on Wonder, his albums and his songs, and each question shows the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 54 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Michigan city was Stevie Wonder born in 1950?
Saginaw
Stevie Wonder was born in Saginaw in May 1950; his family moved to Detroit when he was four, and he sang in the choir at Whitestone Baptist Church there.
Q 02What condition left Stevie Wonder blind in infancy?
Retinopathy of prematurity
Retinopathy of prematurity, in which abnormal vessel growth detaches the retinas, was worsened by the oxygen-rich incubator air given to the six-weeks-early newborn.
Q 03Which Motown label signed the 11-year-old Stevie Wonder in 1961?
Tamla
Tamla, the original Motown imprint that also released the Miracles and the Marvelettes, signed him in 1961 after Berry Gordy heard his audition.
Q 04Which member of the Miracles heard the young Stevie sing his own song and brought him to Motown?
Ronnie White
Ronnie White, whose brother Gerald was a friend of Stevie's, heard the boy perform his own 'Lonely Boy' and arranged the Motown audition.
Q 05What was Stevie Wonder's weekly stipend under his first Motown contract?
$2.50
His allowance was $2.50 a week; because he was a minor, royalties were held in trust until he turned 21, and Motown supplied a private tutor on tour.
Q 06Stevie Wonder's first hit, 'Fingertips', was recorded live at which Chicago venue?
The Regal Theater
The Regal Theater on Chicago's South Side hosted the June 1962 Motortown Revue stop at which it was recorded for Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius.
Q 07How old was Stevie Wonder when 'Fingertips' hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100?
13
He was 13 when 'Fingertips (Pt. 2)' topped the Hot 100 in August 1963, making him the youngest solo artist to reach No. 1 on that chart.
Q 08Which future Motown star played drums on 'Fingertips'?
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye, who drummed on Motown sessions before his own hits, played drums on the June 1962 live recording of 'Fingertips'.
Q 09On the live recording of 'Fingertips', a replacement bassist is heard shouting what during the encore?
What key? What key?
'What key? What key?' is bassist Larry Moses, already on stage for the next act, Mary Wells, when Wonder unexpectedly returned for an encore.
Q 10Which Motown songwriter saved Stevie Wonder from being dropped, then co-wrote 'Uptight (Everything's Alright)'?
Sylvia Moy
Sylvia Moy persuaded Berry Gordy to keep the teenager whose voice was changing, then co-wrote 'Uptight (Everything's Alright)', which reached No. 3 in early 1966.
Q 11Stevie Wonder co-wrote which song that became a No. 1 hit for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles in 1970?
The Tears of a Clown
'The Tears of a Clown' sat unnoticed on the Miracles' 1967 LP Make It Happen until a 1970 single release took it to No. 1 in both the UK and US.
Q 12Under what pseudonym did Wonder release his 1968 instrumental album?
Eivets Rednow
Eivets Rednow, his name spelled backwards, fronted a mostly harmonica album whose 'Alfie' single peaked at No. 66 on the Hot 100 in 1968.
Q 13Which was Stevie Wonder's first-ever self-produced single?
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Q 21Which sense did Wonder partially lose as a result of his 1973 car accident?
Smell
Smell was the sense permanently impaired by the head injuries (a fractured skull and brain contusion) he suffered in the August 1973 crash.
Q 22Which 1976 Grammy winner thanked Wonder, 'who didn't make an album this year'?
Paul Simon
Paul Simon made the joke while accepting for Still Crazy After All These Years at the February 1976 ceremony, a year with no new Wonder album.
Q 23Songs in the Key of Life was the first album by an American artist to do what on the Billboard chart?
Debut at No. 1
'Signed, Sealed, Delivered' (1970) was the first single Wonder produced himself; it reached No. 3 on the Hot 100 and topped the R&B chart.
Q 14Which former Motown secretary and songwriter did Stevie Wonder marry in 1970?
Syreeta Wright
Syreeta Wright, whom he married in September 1970 and divorced in 1972, co-wrote much of Where I'm Coming From (1971) and stayed a collaborator.
Q 15Hearing which electronic group's album Zero Time got Wonder hooked on synthesizers around 1971?
Tonto's Expanding Head Band
Tonto's Expanding Head Band's 1971 album Zero Time showcased TONTO, the giant custom synthesizer whose two builders Wonder then hired as associate producers for his classic albums.
Q 16Which 1972 album is generally considered the first of Wonder's 'classic period'?
Music of My Mind
Music of My Mind (March 1972), on which Wonder played nearly every instrument himself, peaked at only No. 21 but opened the five-album run known as his classic period.
Q 17Which rock band did Stevie Wonder open for on their 1972 American tour?
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones took Wonder out as the opening act on their 1972 American tour, exposing his new synthesizer-driven music to white rock audiences.
Q 18The famous riff on 'Superstition' was played on which instrument?
Hohner Clavinet
The riff was played on a Hohner Clavinet, the electric keyboard whose funky bite defines the track; Wonder improvised it in 1972 over a drum pattern a visiting guitarist had started.
Q 19Which guitarist was originally meant to release 'Superstition' before Wonder?
Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck was promised the song for helping at the Talking Book sessions, but Motown rushed out Wonder's version, which hit No. 1 in January 1973; Beck's appeared on Beck, Bogert & Appice that spring.
Q 20How many days after Innervisions came out was Wonder nearly killed in a car crash?
Three
The rental car hit the back of a flatbed farm truck; he spent four days in a coma and permanently lost part of his sense of smell.
Debut at No. 1: only Elton John's Captain Fantastic and Rock of the Westies had entered the Billboard album chart on top before Songs in the Key of Life did in October 1976.
Q 24Which song on Songs in the Key of Life was written about Wonder's newborn daughter Aisha?
Isn't She Lovely
'Isn't She Lovely' celebrates Aisha Morris, born in 1975 to Wonder and Yolanda Simmons; he refused to cut the six-minute track down for a single.
Q 25Which singer kept 'Sir Duke' off No. 1 in the UK despite singing backing vocals on Wonder's album?
Deniece Williams
Deniece Williams, a former member of Wonder's backing group Wonderlove, held the UK No. 1 with 'Free' in May 1977 while 'Sir Duke' stalled at No. 2.
Q 26Which Wonder song did the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover on their 1989 album Mother's Milk?
Higher Ground
'Higher Ground', a No. 4 hit from Innervisions in 1973, was covered by the Red Hot Chili Peppers on Mother's Milk in 1989.
Q 27Which 1979 Wonder album was made with the Melodian, an early digital sampler?
Secret Life of Plants
Secret Life of Plants, the mainly instrumental score for a 1979 documentary, was built with the Computer Music Melodian, one of the first digital sampling synthesizers.
Q 28Wonder's single 'Happy Birthday' was a vehicle for his campaign to create which national holiday?
Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was the goal; 'Happy Birthday' (1980) became the anthem of the campaign, and the holiday was signed into law in 1983 and first observed in 1986.
Q 29Which 1982 No. 1 duet paired Wonder with Paul McCartney?
Ebony and Ivory
'Ebony and Ivory', written by McCartney and released on his Tug of War, spent seven weeks at No. 1 in 1982; Wonder's own 'That Girl' topped the R&B chart that year.
Q 30Wonder wrote the lyrics to 'Stay Gold', the theme for which 1983 Francis Ford Coppola film?
The Outsiders
The Outsiders, adapted from S. E. Hinton's novel, takes 'Stay Gold' from the Robert Frost line 'Nothing gold can stay' recited in the story; Carmine Coppola wrote the music.