Amir Questlove–Thompson
speaker
268 appearances
5 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard May 2025
Amir Questlove–Thompson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
of this particular jingle that um i grew up with and that's the thing that's always close to my heart so there was a point in time in which stevie wonder might take time out to to craft maybe somewhere between uh 30 to 50 individualized customized radio station jingles for, you know, the territories that were playing his music the most.
And this is sort of a companion piece to the Marvin Gaye Christmas in the City bit, of which this is Stevie Wonder playing synthesizer This time he's playing a polyphonic synthesizer, which gives them the ability to hit all the notes together. So this is kind of the opposite. This is when synthesizers get in the right hands of its creator.
Very brief. Sometimes, you know, you can make a point in 26 seconds. I mean, look at the Ramones. They made a life-changing record, and not one song is over two minutes, so... I think more artists need to follow suit and challenge themselves to make impactful art in less than the normal time.
Stevie Wonder not only came from the first generation of Motown, but he also came from the first generation of... a professional black record company that had to cross every T and dot every I. So not only did you have to release your single, you had to make a mono version of it, a stereo version of it. And then some of these songs, you took time out to sing the Spanish versions of them.
You took time out to sing the Italian version. I have a collection of Stevie Wonder singles in other languages, just maximizing on your appeal. And Stevie Wonder had the means and the technology to just knock this all out. So I can imagine that this level of creativity was his bread and butter.
You know, there's so many to choose from. I will say, though, there's a rendition of Silent Night that's done by The Temptations. It's their 73 version with Dennis Edwards singing lead vocals. And it's almost unspoken. It's every black household in the 70s. That's the only version of Silent Night that exists.
A good friend of mine says that if the first three words of any ad lib from a soul singer are the words in my mind, then you know the abyss levels of deep that that version of the song is going to be. And that's exactly... That's exactly what Dennis Edwards does.
The fact that his first three words have nothing to do with Silent Night, which is in my mind, which is kind of like a go-to, like I'm going to get real deep for you here before I start sermonizing. That's a warning that you're about to get something special. The Temptations version, their slow version of Silent Night is damn near a religion in black households.
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