Superstition

Written by Wonder about popular superstitions and their bad effects, it was recorded in summer 1972 at Electric Lady Studios in New York. Wonder sang and played the clavinet riff on a Hohner Clavinet model C and played drums, Cecil and Margouleff programmed the Moog bass, Trevor Lawrence played tenor saxophone, and Steve Madaio played trumpet and arranged the horns. Margouleff said the drum track took about 15 minutes. Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos has said that Cozy Powell, who drummed for the Jeff Beck Group, told him the drum track on the final version was actually his.

Jeff Beck played on the Talking Book sessions in exchange for a song. He came up with the opening drum beat and Wonder improvised the riff, most of the song in fact, on the spot, and the two made a rough demo that day. Wonder told NME in 1973 that it was the first successful tune he had written for himself. Beck's own version appeared in March 1973 on Beck, Bogert & Appice, but Berry Gordy pushed for Wonder's to be released first, as the Talking Book lead single. It debuted on the Hot 100 at number 82 on 18 November 1972 and went to number one for the week of 27 January 1973, replacing You're So Vain. It spent three weeks at the top of the Hot Soul Singles chart and was Wonder's first Hot 100 number one since Fingertips in 1963.

Rolling Stone placed it at number 74 on its 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs and number 12 on the 2021 list. It entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and won two Grammys at the 16th ceremony.

Live and covers

Setlist.fm lists it as his most-played song, at about 390 performances. Wonder played it on Sesame Street in 1973, and he performed it with Sting at FireAid at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood on 30 January 2025. Stevie Ray Vaughan's 1986 live version became a staple of classic rock radio. BBC Radio 2 listeners voted it the ultimate Stevie Wonder song, and its intro was used in Bud Light's Super Bowl XLVII commercials in 2013.