49. "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder
I've loved this song for as long as I can remember. When I was young (and I mean, really young) there was this Disney Channel program that had pop songs playing over inter-cut clips from various Disney related shows and films, sort of like Disney videos to pop songs. Anyway, there was one for this song, with clips of Maleficent and the Disney Sleepy Hollow and the wizard battle in Sword and the Stone, and I would go wild. I just loved the funk when I was a kid, I guess. Today, I still go wild for this song. The Jeff Beck composed drumbeat is infectious in the perfect way, the funky clavinet riff that's become so iconic that no one else could do it justice but Wonder, and the lyrics, with their playful beauty, that any other person would make seem corny. Wonder just plays it as it is, without going too dark and faux-creepy with it (can you imagine, anyone else in '74 doing a song about superstitious practices would've made the song in the vein of "The Monster Mash," or something just as cheesy). Instead, Wonder created one of the single coolest songs ever written.
And the album it is derived from, Talking Book, is the third in his 5 album long span of massive classic discs in a row!! Love and respect to the Wonder!!!
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