Sir Duke

Released as a single on 22 March 1977 with He's Misstra Know-It-All on the B-side, it honors Duke Ellington, who died in 1974. The lyrics also name Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. Wonder had already lost two idols, Dinah Washington and Wes Montgomery, after trying to collaborate with them. He said he knew the title from the beginning but wanted the song to be about the musicians who did something for him, who are soon forgotten, and that he wanted to show his appreciation. He sang and played electric piano and percussion, with Raymond Maldonado and Steve Madaio on trumpets, Raymond Pounds on drums, Nathan Watts on bass, Michael Sembello on lead guitar, Ben Bridges on rhythm guitar, Hank Redd on alto saxophone and Trevor Lawrence on tenor saxophone.

It reached number one on the Hot 100 for three weeks from 21 May 1977 and number one on the R&B chart, and was number two in Britain, kept from the top by Free by Deniece Williams, who sang backing vocals on the album. Billboard ranked it the number 18 song of 1977. Cash Box heard a beat somewhere between jazz and funk. Pitchfork's Alan Light wrote that it was soon to take up permanent residence in the repertoire of every marching band in the country. Wonder re-recorded it for the 1995 live album Natural Wonder, and setlist.fm logs it about 324 times. BBC Radio 2 listeners ranked it second to Superstition.