| "Boogie On Reggae Woman" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Stevie Wonder | ||||
| from the album Fulfillingness' First Finale | ||||
| B-side | "Seems So Long" | |||
| Released | November 1974 | |||
| Genre | Funk | |||
| Length | 4:55 (Album version) 4:05 (1974 single[1]) 5:14 (1999 version) | |||
| Label | Tamla | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Stevie Wonder | |||
| Stevie Wonder singles chronology | ||||
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| Official audio | ||||
| "Boogie On Reggae Woman" on YouTube | ||||
"Boogie On Reggae Woman" is a 1974 funk song by American Motown artist Stevie Wonder, released as the second single from his seventeenth studio album, Fulfillingness' First Finale, issued that same year. Despite the song's title, its style is firmly funk/R&B and neither boogie nor reggae. It continued Wonder's successful Top Ten streak on the pop charts, reaching number three and also spent two weeks at number one on the soul charts.[2] Billboard ranked it as the No. 26 song for 1975. At the 17th Grammy Awards, Stevie Wonder won the Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male for this song.[3]
The single spent eight weeks on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No 12.[4]
It features Wonder's distinctive harmonica, although not his usual chromatic type, but instead a diatonic A-flat "blues harp".[5] The song is also notable for Wonder's pulsating Moog synthesizer bassline. The lyrics are designed as a dialogue between "nice" and "naughty" intent, including the introduction to his harmonica break, which incorporates Wonder's casual but repeated question: "Can I play?"
Following conclusion of the vocal, the harmonica is reprised for the remaining 70 seconds, and concluding 30 bars of the tune, to the fade.
- ^ "Stevie Wonder - Boogie On Reggae Woman (Vinyl)". Discogs.com. December 13, 1974. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942–2004. Record Research. p. 636. ISBN 978-0898201604.
- ^ "Wonder tops Grammy awards". The Montreal Gazette. March 3, 1975. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
- ^ "BOOGIE ON REGGAE WOMAN – STEVIE WONDER | Official Charts".
- ^ "Harp Surgery » Boogie on Reggae Woman..[with tab]". Archived from the original on March 25, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2012.