August 10, 1963 –
Stevie Wonder’s single Fingertips (Part 2) becomes the first live recording to hit #1 in the US on this date.
Little Stevie Wonder, just 12 years old, was part of a Motown package tour called The Motortown Revue, and was thrilling crowds with his high-energy performances. On March 10, 1963, the Revue came to the Regal Theatre in Chicago, where Wonder’s performance was recorded. On this night, he played a highly improvised version of his song Fingertips, which went on for about 10 minutes as the crowd went absolutely nuts and the stage manager, concerned because the show was running late, tried to get him off so the next act could perform. Wonder fed off the crowd and kept going, even doing a little bit of Mary Had a Little Lamb on his harmonica. When Wonder ends the song (about 2:05 in), the band starts to clear the stage, and the band for the next act, The Marvelettes, hustles on. At this point, Wonder starts playing again, at which point you can hear the Marvelettes bass player Joe Swift ask “What key?” and the performance picks up again with a little encore played by at least some members of the new band.
The Haus of Dcaligari 