Sir Duke

"Sir Duke" is a song composed and performed by Stevie Wonder from his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. Released as a single in 1977, the track topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Black Singles charts,^[4] and reached number two in the UK Singles Chart, his joint biggest hit there at the time. Billboard ranked it as the No. 18 song of 1977.

The song was written in tribute to Duke Ellington (hence the name Sir Duke), the influential jazz musician who had died in 1974. The lyrics also refer to Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald. Wonder re-recorded the song for the 1995 live album Natural Wonder.

Wonder wrote the song as a tribute to Duke Ellington, the jazz composer, bandleader, and pianist who had influenced him as a musician.^[5] Wonder had already experienced the death of two of his idols (Dinah Washington and Wes Montgomery) after attempting to collaborate with them.

After Ellington died in 1974, Wonder wanted to write a song acknowledging musicians he felt were important. He later said, "I knew the title from the beginning but wanted it to be about the musicians who did something for me. So soon they are forgotten. I wanted to show my appreciation."

Wonder pays tribute to "some of music's pioneers" in the song: "There's Basie, Miller, Satchmo, and the king of all, Sir Duke / And with a voice like Ella's ringing out / There's no way the band can lose".

Wonder grabó otros homenajes a personas que admiraba, incluidas las canciones de 1980 " Master Blaster ", dedicada a Bob Marley , y " Happy Birthday ", que abogaba por lo que eventualmente se convertiría en el día festivo del Día de Martin Luther King Jr. en los Estados Unidos.

Cash Box dijo que "es un tributo al jazz y a las raíces, con un ritmo que se sitúa entre el jazz y el funk, y una sección de metales que baila con pies alados". ^{[ 6 ]} Record World dijo tras el lanzamiento del sencillo: "Ya conocido por su difusión en la radio y ya en la lista de sencillos, se perfila como un gran éxito". ^{[ 7 ]} El crítico del New York Times, John Rockwell, dijo que "no es la canción más cautivadora de Wonder, pero es bueno que sea tan popular". ^{[ 8 ]}

• Producida, escrita, arreglada y compuesta por Stevie Wonder.
• Voz, piano eléctrico Fender Rhodes y percusión a cargo de Stevie Wonder.
• Trompetas de Raymond Maldonado y Steve Madaio
• Batería de Raymond Pounds
• Bajo eléctrico de Nathan Watts
• Guitarra solista de Michael Sembello
• Guitarra rítmica a cargo de Ben Bridges
• Saxofón alto por Hank Redd
• Saxofón tenor de Trevor Lawrence

• Lista de versiones de "Sir Duke" en SecondHandSongs.com
• Sir Duke en Spotify