Stevie Wonder Thanks Frank Zappa

Rolling Stone Album Reviews 

Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, like some big Hollywood studio blockbuster, comes to us already weighted down with words, stabbed with exclamation points and wrapped — or is it shrouded? — in great expectations. Two years in the making, the album's imminent release was announced several times, and each time it was withdrawn to be haggled over, reworked, expanded and gossiped about until its release at the end of September. It is nothing if not ambitious: two records plus a four-cut "bonus" EP disc — 21 songs in all — complete with lyric booklet and embarrassingly detailed notes thanking everyone from his mother and father to rack jobbers and stewardesses. The excessive gratitude (including an alphabetical list of over 150 names, from Abdul Jabbar to Frank Zappa) stands in contrast to the production credits, which are typically spare.

Downbeat Magazine 

Schneckloth: Have you ever used a really large synthesizer setup in the studio? Zappa: I've got one, but I've never used it in the studio. It's an EU, and it's about a $50,000 system. It's got a computer and all that stuff. I don't have it set up; it's in storage. Stevie Wonder called the office the other day wanting to rent it.